Yes, it’s been a while, but here are more detailed results of the USATF Club Championships from last month, where the women took third place, while the men took sixth. Having the event in New York was certainly helpful for our club, since we were able to use a large group of athletes in the relays that might not have been able to travel out of town. With more national-class athletes in attendance, scoring points was much more difficult this year, – plus if more than one athlete was entered in an event they all had to meet qualifying standards. The top eight scored points: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. The full results can be obtained here.

Sprints:

Adrian Crichlow ran in six races: 100, 200, 400, and three relays! He moved up to fourth on the club list with a 21.94 in the 200. Darnell Gatling set a national masters record in the 400 hurdles (45-49 age group) with a 55.72. Kobie Fuller came close to scoring in the 400 with a 10th place in 49.43.

Yes, Central Park has women sprinters! Jodyann Raymond set a club record in the 100, sprinting to a 12.24 for 11th place. Analisa Austin set a club record in the 200 with a time of 25.25.

Middle Distance:

Women –

The first big race of Friday night was the women’s 1500. Our top three runners were in the seeded heat and the race proved to be as excited as predicted. In a very close race, Club record holder Natalie Gingerich passed the early leader and ran to a great 2nd place in 4:27.10. Close behind was Kate Irvin, 5th in 4:29.08, and right behind Kate was Caryn Waterson, 6th in 4:30.19. In that one race alone, CPTC women picked up 15 points. Less than two hours later, these same women doubled back in the 800, and Caryn picked up a 5th place, running against national-class competitors. Kate was put into the non-seeded heat, and needed to win and run fast, in order to outplace some women in the first section. Kate won her heat in 2:14.01, which placed her 7th overall. Six more points in that race.

Men –

Sam McKenzie scored the only points in the 1500, with an 8th place finish. Will Seidel (4:00.55) and Jason Ostenson (4:03.02) improved on their club bests. In a very exciting race Jeff Williams (see photo on home page) came oh so close to winning the 800, running an amazing race, finishing second in 1:51.50. Even with the new qualifying standards, we had a total of eight guys run the 800, with six running sub 2:00.

Distance:

The women’s 5000 was the biggest point event for the team (a total of 17), with Aileen Conlon winning in a club record of 16:44.10. Aileen ran a great race, and would not be denied, (refusing to lose to Amanda Laytham for a second time this year), gradually pulling away. Aileen was the only individual winner for the club in these championships. And in what were truly outstanding performances, both Katrina Bruckschwaiger (4th in 17:24.67), and Lauren Esposito (7th in 17:30.15) ran huge races and both had big PRs. Kate Irvin (her new nickname should be Ms. Super Runner), ran in her third running event in three hours and gutted out a 9th place finish in 17:44.38.

Both Felice Kelly and Sean Fortune ran the 3000 meter steeplechase with no real practice in this event all year. Felice took 6th place and Sean ran a PR of 10:21.38 to take 5th place.

Relays:

Central Park men and women scored points in all relays except one. With the help of our new women sprinters, the women’s team (Analisa Austin, Jodyann Raymond, Ajda Dotday, and Jewell Moore) were 4th in the 4 X 100 and 4th in the sprint medley (with Liz Morse replacing Ajda). In the 4 X 400 Micah Adriani and new member Rachel Sturtz weren’t even expecting to run on Saturday, but found themselves pressed into service at the last minute to run this relay, where the team (with Liz and Caryn) ran a 4:02.46 for 6th place. The women had a relatively easy time winning the 4 x 800 (9:08.96) (Kate, Natalie, Liz, and Caryn) and distance medley (Natalie, Caryn, Kate, and Aileen). Liz and Caryn ended up running in three relays, while Kate and Natalie took it easy and only ran in two.

On the men’s side, our 4 X 800 team of Sam MacKenzie, Will Seidel, Jason Ostenson, and Jeff Williams were victorious, winning in 7:44.87. Our distance medley team took second with a 10:28.75. Our sprint medley team was 4th, and our 4 X 100 team took 6th in 43.02.

Field Events:

Lauren Primerano scored a total of 14 points in four field events: javelin, shot put, discus and hammer. Cady Frey took 3rd in the javelin with a PR of 125’ 3”. On the men’s side, only Rayon Taylor, NCAA division I champion in the triple jump, scored points for CPTC. Ray came in 3rd with a PR jump of 52’ 10.75”, a new meet record. (If anyone finds that confusing, ask me how that’s possible and I’ll explain it)