Last month, CPTC sent three teams — Open Men’s and Women’s teams as well as a Master Women’s team — to the National Club Cross Country Championships in Spokane, Washington. After some delayed flights and airport fun, the team finally made it to Spokane.
The team arrived late (really late after flight delays) Thursday night in order to preview the course on Friday before racing Saturday. While running the course, a light snow started to come down. Little did we know that those would be the best conditions we could get all weekend.
Waking up Saturday, we knew it would be a brutal one. By race time, the temperature had dropped to below 20 and winds were around 20 mph, with even gnarlier gusts. The course consisted of 2 or 3 loops (2 for the women, 3 for the men) around an open grass field, so there was no avoiding a run in with the wind.
The first race of the day was the Master Women’s 6k. Even in the brutal conditions, the Master Women’s team placed 7th as a team. Leading the way was Jill Vollweiler in 8th place followed by Sue Pearsall in 28th place and rounding out the scoring (Master races score 3 deep) was Devon Martin in 49th place, making a transition form coach to althete for the early part of the morning.
The next race of the day for Central Park was the Open Women’s 6k. In a stong field, the Central Park Women ran strong to an 8th place finish in the team competition. Leading the team was Aileen Conlon in 12th place (22:22). Following her, with a breakthrough race, was her younger sister Emily Dusen in 58th place. Rounding out the team were Natalie Gingerich in 69th place, Lauren Gustafson in 70th place, Lauren Esposito in 80th place, Kate Irving in 85th place and Zoe Swenson in 109th place.
On the men’s side, Central Park fielded their first team at the cross-country championships. The team finished 21st overall. Scott Kallgren lead the team with a 65th place finish (33:01). Next on the team were Brian Gertzen in 132nd and Carl Dambkowski in 142nd. Rounding out team were John Roberts in 190th place, Peter Derby in 192nd place, and Sean Fortune in 245th place.
Overall, it was a stong showing for all Central Park Track Club’s teams, especially considering the brutal conditions on race day. Congrats to all those who ran and survived!