Great
American 2002
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Boys
ROC - after the disqualification of five runners, the top
3 were (from L)
Mountain View UT sr Mike Steele, Davidson Hilliard
OH sr Alan Burkitt, and Mountain View UT jr Steve
Strickland.
Chris
Solinsky
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1953
Nicole Blood, Amber Harper
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Meghan
Owen
photos by Mike Leary
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Bobby
Curtis
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Ryder
Leary
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Saturday:
High School
Nicole
Blood and Saratoga girls; Meghan
Owen;
Chris Solinsky; Mountain View boys
DQ mars Boys Race of Champions
Boys
ROC: Apparent winners Bobby Curtis and
The Woodlands are DQ'd as first five runners cut
the course in the last 800 meters. Mountain View UT 125 moves up
to win over Davidson Hilliard OH 134 as The Woodlands
loses top 2 runners in DQ fiasco. Even without their two runners
scoring, The Woodlands was officially third with 158 points. Mountain
View's Mike Steele, 6th across the finish line
1:11 after the first five runners, was declared the winner in 16:51,
followed by Alan Burkitt OH 16:53, Steve
Strickland, Mountain View 16:55, and Ian Gottesfeld
PA 16:56. The Disqualification.
Girls
ROC: Nicole Blood 19:02.6 wins side
by side duel with Amber Harper 19:03.1 over last
half of race and leads Saratoga NY to
second straight team title with 100 points, followed by Jenks
OK 150, Murietta Valley CA 207, Wyomissing
PA 214, and Turpin Cincinnati OH 215. Next individuals
were Katy Trotter NJ 19:39, Heidi Magill
UT 19:51, Brianna McLeod OK 19:56, Amanda
Trotter NJ 19:57, and Carolyn Rauen OH
20:00.
Seeded
Boys: Chris Solinsky WI powers to win
in 16:05, his slowest time in 2 years, but the fastest today on
the soggy, hilly course that had most runners finishing 1-2 minutes
slower than usual. Brent Vaughn CO was a strong
second in 16:10, followed by Steven Hassen FL 16:22,
John Crews VA 16:24. Middletown OH
won the team title with 109 points, followed by Denver West
CO 140 and Winter Park FL 147.
Seeded
Girls: Another course error cost Lindsay Van
Alstine the lead in the last mile and Meghan Owen
CT swept to the win in 19:41. Van Alstine 19:59, Katelyn
Kaltenbach 20:06, Jannell Young PA 20:16.
Megan Kaltenbach CO fades to 12th in heat. Davis
UT is team winner with 79 points; St. Joseph's
OH 91.
Small
School Boys: Ryder Leary 16:43 leads
Bishop Kenny FL 55 to victory.
Small
School Girls: Jennie Stoll 20:25 leads
Pewaukee WI 50 to victory over Bishop Kenny
FL 122.
Friday:
College Championships
Northern
Arizona men, Brigham Young women, Shalane Flanagan
Championship
Men Results: Northern Arizona
pours in 5 of top 11, including 1-2 Henrik Ahnstrom 26:23
8k and Nurani Sheikh 26:28, for a crushing 26 point
score. (Georgetown 104, Butler 108, Colorado State 110, NC State
130).
Championship Women Results:
North Carolina jr Shalane Flanagan 17:48 5k won
with ease but then it was all Brigham Young. The
defending NCAA champions placed 4 of the next 6 runners, led by
soph Kassi Anderson 17:57 in second, for 50 points.
(Arkansas 144, Columbia 155, and NC State 157).
The Course was on
everyone's lips after the races. The natural difficulty of uphill,
downhill, and sidehill slopes was compounded by wet grass and mud
to make it slow going every step of the way. Showers sprinkled the
early races and left the course soggy.
The course is run on fairways, rough, and wooded trails through
the Balantyne golf course. The start is adjacent to a large hill
on one side that will provide a stadium like atmosphere for spectators
and on the other side is a beautiful pond. Runners make their way
up that fairway and onto another before a short uphill climb of
about 20-25 meters. They turn onto a long wooden bridge that stretches
over a ravine. Coming off the bridge there is a short 15-20 meter
uphill leading runners onto another fairway. From that point runners
will glide across a stretch of downhill that runs 600-meters in
length across a fairway, into the woods and back out at the one-mile
mark. From that point runners run next to a creek at the bottom
of a large sloping hill before running across another long wooded
bridge. Runners make their way across the bottom of two fairways,
crossing one more wooden bridge and then heading up a short 20 meter
incline to get to a upper fairway. Runners will have a slight incline
for just shy of 100-meters before they descend again down and around
a wooded section just across from where they ran at the one-mile
point. Runners will loop the wooded section and return to the upper
fairway making their way towards a pond where the two mile point
is located. Entering the woods again the runners will have a slight
uphill that takes them into the woods and out to run along side
the pond. Runners will then make their way down a long grassy stretch
that brings them back into the main section of the golf course.
With less than 800-meters to the finish the runners will run parralell
to the finish line for 200 meters. The runners will run up a small
hill heading into the woods for the last time. When the runners
exit the woods they will run uphill for 200 meters making a horseshoe
loop back to the finish area running around the banks of a pond
and into a long finish stretch. A large scoreboard will help fans
and runners alike to keep track of the finish order as runners cross
the line. Flash Results, the best timing group in America, has joined
Great American this year to provide second to none results and scoring. |
from
Meet Director Rick Hill
The organizing committee of The Great American Cross Country Festival
is pleased to announce that the 2002 event will be held at the Ballantyne
Resort, which located outside of Charlotte, North Carolina and twenty
minutes from the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The Festival will open on Friday, September 27 and continue through Saturday
evening, September 28, 2002. Great American includes 35 cross-country
races, promoted as Nike’s Great Races of America, a Friday night
pasta dinner, a wildly successful Saturday night Harrier’s Ball
and celebrity athletes.
Ballantyne, a former hunting preserve nestled in the gentle foothills
of the southern Piedmont, features an 18-hole golf course designed for
championship tournaments and large spectator crowds. The resort also includes
four hotels, a convention center, a variety of restaurants, a state of
the art spa, an indoor swimming pool, and a full size fitness center.
The 5K and 8K cross-country courses, will weave through wooded sections
adjacent to the golf course, over lush grass lawns on the golf course
fairways, around lakes and ponds and over ridges with vast panoramic views
of the Piedmont.
The Ballantyne Cross Country course will be a challenging, all-grass
running surface, not typically seen in the south. One important aspect
of Ballantyne is that the course has a controlled access. Entry into the
starting and finish areas will be by way of a secured tunnel under a ridge.
The start will be in a natural tree lined amphitheater adjacent to a very
large and steep hill, which is terraced to hold several thousand spectators.
The finish is along a lake framed by hills for excellent spectator viewing.
Spectators will be controlled by stone walls, creeks and footbridges.
However, almost the entire race will be visible from several strategic
viewing points.
The 2002 event projects 5000 runners from 40 states, Canada, Great Britain
and Mexico to compete in one of 35 races. The event has grown from 1800
runners in 1999 to approximately 4600 runners in 2001. However, the event
will focus more on elite level competition in the coming years and meet
organizers will restrict growth through a number of standards and qualification
requirements.
The Friday evening races will include elementary and middle school races,
collegiate races and an Open race for post collegiate runners with an
Adult Club Championship. The Saturday High School races will include the
highly competitive Race of Champions, an Invitational Division, Small
School Challenge and Parochial School Race. To maximize competition, the
Open High School race held the past three years has been eliminated and
now all teams in the Invitational will compete against each other in combined
scoring of several sections.
Great American’s 2002 date is one week later than in previous years
and falls within in the period in which teams can earn points for at large
bids to the NCAA Championship.
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