Championship Racing

November 6, 2016 |

LRC Racing has been pretty busy these last two weeks representing at the USATF Masters 15K championships in Tulsa, and then at what is arguably the deepest half marathon in the area in the Good Life Halfsy.  First off, on Saturday October 29th, five 50+ masters competed to a second place finish (by a mere 1:49) at the USATF 15K championships.  Brian Kelley (15th, 58:18) and Craig Christians (19th, 58:46) led the way by finishing in under 59 minutes, while Brett Daugherty rounded out the team scorers by finishing in 1:01:34. Kevin Burke (1:03:38) and Kerry McDermott (1:09:28) also made the trip to help represent LRC Racing in Oklahoma. Brian, Craig, Brett and Kevin now sit 4th through 7th on the team’s Masters 15k list.

Meanwhile, the following week on November 6th, LRC Racing had a strong day at the Good Life Halfsy.  On the men’s side, the team was led by Johnny Rutford who ran an astounding 1:08:02.8, which eclipsed the old team record held by Tom Nichols of 1:08:14. Johnny finished third overall as a terrific representative for LRC Racing at the front of the pack.  Nolan Border also made his half marathon debut in 1:10:58.4, which placed him 7th on the all-time charts (and 7th overall in the race), while Tom Nichols rounded out the top ten with a time of 1:12:29.1.  Brian Wandzilak (2nd AG, 1:16:31.0), Ryan Hruska (1:16:49.0), Logan Watley (1:17:38.3), Derek Sekora (1:19:47.5) and Austin McKillip (1:30:04.6) also all represented the men’s team on Sunday.

Brian Kelley (1st AG, 1:21:07.6) and Jason Schmaderer (2nd AG, 1:21:07.9) were the only male masters racing, and Jason’s time improves his 7th place time on the Top 10 charts.

For the women, Michelle Paxton (5th OA, 1:24:50.0) and Erica Doering (8th OA, 1:26:08.0) led the way by both finishing in the top 10.  Becca Bevans (1:29:25.0) and Sierra Zemanick (1:31:25.8) finished the 13.1 mile course strong for LRC Racing.

Michelle Schmidt (2nd Masters, 1:28:55.6) and Amy McCracken (1st AG, 1:32:58.5) both represented the masters women, despite having ran the Twin Cities Marathon only a few weeks ago. Michelle and Amy are now 2nd and 3rd, respectively on the Women’s Masters Top 10 Charts.

This concludes a lot of the fall racing for the team, however, many will still compete at the state’s 5k championships next weekend at Walnut Grove, at Living History Farms Race in two weeks or at USATF Club XC in early December.

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