Alison Tubbs
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Ryan Deak
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This week's AOW winners are the winners
of the Race of Champions at the huge Great American Festival
at Winthrop Farm Meadows, Rock Hill SC on September 22.
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by John Dye
BALTIMORE MD 9/28/01 -- DyeStat announces Alison Tubbs,
Enumclaw WA senior, and Ryan Deak, Maclay Tallahassee FL
sophomore, as winners of the Nike Athlete
of the Week award for the third week of the 2001 cross country
season.
Tubbs - Some thought the quality of female distance runners
would drop this year with so many great runners off to college (Anita
Siraki, Sara Bei, Alicia Craig, Ale Barrientos, Brooke Novak, Penny
Splichal, Erin Donohue, and Maria Cicero to name a few). The slender
girl from Enumclaw (an exurban community near Mt. Rainier) proved
them wrong with the most dominating individual performance in years
in winning the Race of Champions at the Great American Festival.
Alison Tubbs destroyed a high quality national elite field with
a fast early pace and kept pouring it on until she finished in 16:54.9,
more than a second faster than the winner of the college women's
race the night before and under tougher conditions (hot and humid
mid-day vs. cooler twilight). It was 54 seconds before the next
runner appeared in the balloon-covered finish stretch at Winthrop
Farm Meadows, Rock Hill SC.
Tubbs finished strong last year, winning the Washington State Meet
3200 in 10:11.94 (US#4) and running a 10:26.57 2-mile for 4th at
the adidas Outdoor Championships in Raleigh. This year she has been
on fire, with a US#1 cross country time of 16:46 (3mile) a prelude
to the Great American. She is clearly an early favorite for the
national Foot Locker Cross Country Championship.
Deak - When Ryan Deak approached the finish line in at the
Great American Festival with his arms spread wide, it was as if
he were accepting promotion to the elite class of US prep runners.
Heretofore, the diminutive Deak was a phenom, a small runner who
ran down bigger runners with Road Runner persistence in state or
regional meets. Now, he had come from behind to win the Race of
Champions against top runners from throughout the country. Great
American is one of three meets (Manhattan Invitational and Mt. SAC)
that can lay claim to second most important individual race behind
the Foot Locker Championships.
Deak's biggest laurel previously was in the 2-mile last March at
the Nike Indoor Classic, where he ran 9:29.10 for the fastest US
freshman indoor time ever. His improvement from last year can be
measured by his winning time of 15:11.7 Saturday, which was 35 seconds
faster than his 5k best of 15:47 last year at both the Great American
(5th in the Invitational division) and the Foot Locker South Regional
(19th). He will return to Charlotte for the Foot Locker regional
this year as one of the favorites to win a trip to Disney World
for the national finals.
The Nike Athlete of the Week award is presented each Friday to
the boy and girl who had the most outstanding achievement of the
previous week. Winners receive a long-sleeved Nike dry-fit running
shirt and Chris Lear's award winning book, Running with the Buffaloes,
which can be purchased online at ShopDyeStat.
To nominate athletes, see the AOW Nomination
Form.
Honorable Mention Week ending September 27
Boys
- Bobby Curtis KY - stayed with his team
in the Seeded Invitational race at Great American instead of upgrading
individually to the Race of Champions and won in 15:09, fastest
time of the day, to remain undefeated this year.
- Kyle Perry UT - 15:17.8 runner up to Deak
in the Race of Champions. Perry had escaped the national elite
radar previously despite his 4:16.62 win the Utah 5A championships
last spring over Mountain View's twin aces Chandler Goodwin and
Dustin Bybee.
- Kingwood TX - this is a team award because
Kingwood toppled US#1 LaSalle Cincinnati OH in the Race of Champions
with no one finishing higher than 24th.
- Joe Thorne GA -
15:14.7, third fastest time at Great American while pushing Bobby
Curtis hard in the Seeded Invitational race.
- Chris Solinsky WI
- 15:18.4 for 3rd in the Race of Champions and 5th in the Great
American overall list.
- Brett Gotcher CA
- 15:19.1 for 4th in the Race of Champions and the 6th runner
under 15:20 for the day.
- Abadir Barre CA
- 14:44 winner of Dana Hills Invitational, stopping the win streak
of Michael Haddan.
- Ghiliat Gebray CA
- 15:14 3m for new course record in Cowchip Classic.
- Casey Burchill CA
- 15:17 5k winner of the Mt. Whitney Invitational.
- Lee Yaracs FL -
14:50 3m, winner of the Florida State Invitational.
- Ryan Blood PA -
16:14 3m to win Bull Run Invitational over very hilly Hereford
MD course.
- Kurt Michels MT
- 14:47 winner of Mountain West Classic at U. of Montana.
- Brian Dalpiaz NY
- 16:11 5k winner of Suffolk Coaches Invitational.
Girls
- Valerie Lauver TX 17:48.5 - second to
Tubbs in the GreatAm Race of Champions
- Amber Harper UT
17:58.7 - 3rd at GreatAm, beating out better known Utah runners
(Zeigle sisters and Heidi Magill)
- Jackie Zeigle UT - 18:01.5 - 4th at GreatAm.
- Laura Zeigle UT
- 18:07 - 5th at GreatAm.
- Heidi Magill UT
- 18:08 - 6th at GreatAm.
- Brianna McLeod OK
18:11.4 - 7th at GreatAm.
- Nicole Blood NY
- 18:13.5 - 8th at GreatAm, highest finisher for team champion
Saratoga NY.
- Emily Vince CA -
16:55 winner of the big Dana Hills Invitational
- Shannon Rowbury CA
- 18:06 winner of the Cowchip Classic
- Heather Hansen CA
- 18:14, winner of the Mt. Whitney Invitational
- Amber Trotter CA
- 17:01 in Hawaii (Iolani Inv) for second fastest 3-mile time
in nation this season.
- Michelle Rafferty IN
- 14:15 4k to win Culver Military Academy Inv over Tiffany Redlarczyk.
- Zoe Nelson MT
- 17:52 3m in Mountain West Classic; 3 course records in 3
weeks for Kalispell freshman.,
- Angela Homan OH - keeps rolling with 18:16
5k for 45-second win over Sunni Olding in Van Wert Inv.
- Tenke Zoltani MD, 18:53 3m, just one second
off course record at tough Hereford MD to win big Bull Run Inv
- Shannon Stanley MI,
18:18 winner over Rockford's Nikki Bohnsack in Spartan Invitational.
- Angie Saterstad PA - 18:20 5k to win Carlisle
Invitational.
- Ray Rogers WA -
17:35 5k for 71-second romp in Bellevue Invitational.
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