|
Cordes, Culpepper
win at USA Club Championships
Sacramento
Bee Meet Story
INDIANAPOLIS - Jared Cordes and Shayne Culpepper won the individual men’s
and women’s titles respectively Saturday at the 2002 USA Track &
Field
National Club Cross Country Championships, which serves as the USA Open
Men’
s 10 km, Open Women’s 6 km and Masters 10 km Championships.
Around 800 competitors representing 80 USATF teams ran in soft, muddy,
slippery conditions with 40 mph winds at Sierra College near Sacramento,
Calif. At the end of the day, Hansons Running Shop successfully defended
its
men’s team title, and the Nike Farm Team captured the women’s
team crown.
The team competition features USATF Association-based Clubs, which are
comprised of runners who live in the same area and train together. A strong
supporter of post-collegiate American distance runners, these clubs reside
within the 57 Associations of USATF and provide guidance, support, and
camaraderie to their athletes.
In the men's 10 km Open race, Jared Cordes of the Wisconsin Runner Racing
Team defended his individual men's title in 31 minutes, 26 seconds by
remaining patient until the final lap of the 2 km multiple loop course
and
concluding with a strong closing kick over the final 150 meters on the
Sierra College track. Cordes whipped past Dave Cullum (Nike Farm Team)
who
tried to steal the race on a puddle-soaked final uphill with 300 meters
to
go. Cullum finished second in 31:29. Third-placer Brian Sell led his winning
Hansons Running Shop/Team USA Michigan to victory in 31:31. Jay Schoenfelder
(Wisconsin Runner) was fourth, also in 31:31.
With his victory, Cordes became the first Open man (or woman) to win
back-to-back individual USA Club Cross Country titles.
In the Open women's 6 km race, 2000 Olympian Shayne Culpepper (adidas)
broke
away from Jenelle Deatherage and Melissa Buttry on the backside trails
of
the course with about one kilometer remaining to claim the women's title
in
21:47. Deatherage (Wisconsin Runner Racing Team) placed second in 21:53.
Buttry (unattached) finished third in 22:06. Fourth-placer Sarna Becker
was
the first finisher for the Nike Farm Team who won the women's open team
title.
At last year's Championships at Battleship Park in Mobile, Ala., Hansons
Running Shop won the closest team competition in the history of the event.
Hansons and the Nike Farm Team each finished the men's team competition
with
40 points, with Hansons capturing the team crown due to its fifth-place
finisher completing the course ahead of the Farm Team's fifth-place
competitor. This year, Hansons - who put five men in the top eleven -
handily beat the runner-up Farm Team 35 points to 57 points, despite having
one of its top runners, Richie Brinker, lose a shoe virtually at the start
of the race. Brinker got the shoe back on and finished ninth.
Last year, the Indianapolis-based Indiana Invaders women's team beat
the
Farm Team by 11 points for the women's crown. AT Rocklin, the Stanford-based
Farm Team clearly came out on top, scoring 28 points to the Invaders'
87 and
Boston Athletic Association's 88.
USA Masters Championships (age 40 and over) also were contested at the
event. Sandy Meister-Meredith (San Diego Track Club), a former kick boxer,
won the women's 10 km event in 40:16. David Olds (Southern California
Track
Club) topped the men's masters 10 km title in 33:46.
|
is published by 