2011 La Sportiva / USATF-Oregon Mountain Running Series - scoring complete!

  

The 4th annual La Sportiva / USATF-Oregon Mountain Running Series concluded earlier this month with the Sunrise to Summit race outside Bend, OR.  Mario Mendoza and Katie Caba won the men's and women's races respectively on a new course.

24 USATF members participated in the 2011 edition of the series which contained only 3 races:
June - Graniteman Mountain Run
August - Mt. Ashland Hillclimb
September - Sunrise to Summit

Congratulations to this years winners:
Men: Erik Skaggs
Women: Laura Raber
Men's 40+: Robert Jullian
Women's 40+: Katie Caba

Here is the 2011 overall series scoring!

First Last Gender Age Group Points

Laura Raber Female Open 209.42

Erik Skaggs Male Open 200.00

Hal Koerner Male Open 185.39

Stephanie Howe Female Open 170.99

Robert Jullian Male 40+ 165.14

Lena Stemple Female Open 121.21

Mario Mendoza Male Open 100.00

Tim Van Orden Male 40+ 98.68

Tyler Davis Male Open 94.65

Richard Bolt Male 40+ 89.95

Katie Caba Female 40+ 86.74

Jenn Shelton Female Open 85.66

Joe Griffin Male 50+ 79.56

Shawn Donley Male 40+ 77.74

Quintin McCoy Male Open 77.58

Jeff Olsen Male Open 72.84

Sharon Mosley Female 40+ 71.36

Scott Abrams Male 50+ 71.16

Shahid Ali Male Open 69.89

Logan Scroggy Male Open 68.97

Chuck Whiteley Male 50+ 67.25

Joe Mosley Female 50+ 67.13

Mario Tigli Male 50+ 64.23

Elena Meyer Female 40+ 60.33

Here are the past series winners and participation numbers for each year:

2010 - 5 races (Larison Rock, Mt. Ashland, Great NW Mtn Run, Sunrise to Summit)

28 USATF members participate

Men's winner: Erik Skaggs (Ashland, OR)

Women's winner: Jenn Shelton (Ashland, OR)

Men's 40+ winner: Mario Tigli (Sandy, OR)

Women's 40+ winner: Sharon Mosley (Eugene, OR)

2009 - 5 races (Larison Rock, Graniteman, Mt. Ashland, Great NW Mtn Run, Sunrise to Summit)

17 USATF members participate

Men's winner: Ian Torrence (Ashland, OR)

Women's winner: Jenn Shelton (Ashland, OR)

Men's 40+ winner: Robert Gallogly (Medford, OR)

Women's 40+ winner: Susanna Beck (Eugene, OR)

2008 - 4 races (Graniteman, Mt. Ashland, Sunrise to Summit, NW Mtn Champs)

13 USATF members participate

Men's winner: Richard Bolt (Portland, OR)

Women's winner: Lisa Lye (Bend, OR)

Men's 40+ winner: Robert Jullian (Medford, OR)

  

Oregon's Max King & Stephanie Howe win USA 50k Trail Championships

Pre-race favorites Max King, 31, and Stephanie Howe, 28, both of Bend, OR, raced to victory at the 2011 USA 50km Trail Championships on Saturday, September 24, held for the second consecutive year at Mount Bachelor Nordic Center located just west of Bend, OR.

At the 8:00 a.m. start time, temperatures were in the upper 40s, but midway through the race, the mercury settled around 80 degrees, well above normal day time highs for the region.  King and eventual second-place finisher Ryan Bak, 29, Bend, ran shoulder to shoulder for much of the course, after dropping early leader Dusty Olson, 38, Duluth, MN, well before the first aid station at 12km. Olson dropped out at that point due to a hamstring issue.

King bettered last year’s second-place performance to win in 3:27:54 and earn yet another USATF championship title this year. In June, he won both the USA Half Marathon Trail Championships and the USA Mountain Running Championships. Add to his resume his incredible gold-medal performance at the World Mountain Running Championships earlier this month, and King is surely the man to beat on the trails and in the mountains.

Bak finished second in 3:33:46, followed by Jacob Puzey, 29, Hermiston, OR, in 3:47:12. Leading the masters’ men was Jeff Browning, 40, Bend, OR, in 4:02:02. Lowlander Mark Lundblad, 42, Swannanoa, NC, said the 7,000 foot elevation was a factor that slowed him down, but he still managed a second place masters’ finish in 4:04:15. Forty seven year-old William Emerson, Portland, OR, finished in 4:18:22.

In the women’s division, Howe ran head-to-head with Natalie Bak, 26, Bend, OR, until the last quarter mile outdistancing her rival at the finish line to win her first national championship in 4:19:26. Bak crossed the line in 4:20:01. Well off the pace was third-place finisher Pam Smith, 37, Salem, OR, who posted a time of 4:41:15.

The 40 and over women were led by Molly Zurn, 40, Reno, NV, in fourth place overall in 5:17:22. Julie Thomas, 44, Canby, OR, finished second for the masters’ women in 5:41:13, followed by Eugene’s Sharon Mosley, 48, in 6:22:15.

The course, unlike many ultra-distance events, consisted of a single, large loop. The race was held high in the Central Cascade Mountains, an area blanketed in snow much of the year. In fact, much of the course was still covered in snow as late as August. Elevations on the course varied from 5,500 feet to 7,500 feet and included single track, gravel service roads, heavily forested areas, and open alpine meadows. The last 50 meters of the course was a loose, cinder-covered path heading straight uphill, a real challenge after running nearly 50 kilometers.

There were seven different states represented among the 32 USATF members who had registered for the championships division, up from 23 registrants the year before. A prize money purse of $2,500 donated by Visit Bend, was distributed to the top three men and women overall and the top masters male and female finisher.

Richard Bolt, USATF Oregon Mountain, Ultra, Trail running coordinator, summed up the event like this, “Seeing the participation increase for a championship event is always a positive sign. Local race director Dave Thomason did an outstanding job with the event from start to finish. He mapped out a challenging course and provided a great post-race celebration complete with vendor booths, a catered buffet, and craft beer on tap.”

Official results are posted here:
http://www.time2race.com/Results/Flagline%2050K%202011.htm

+++ Official post event press release.  Written by Nancy Hobbs with input from Richard Bolt.  +++

USA Wins Double Gold at World Mountain Running Championships

Tirana, Albania – September 11 –  The USA set the bar at the 27^th World Mountain Running Championships held today, September 11, in Tirana, Albania, showcased by the gold-medal performances of Huntingdon, Vermont’s Kasie Enman and Bend, Oregon’s Max King.

“In my nine years as team leader, I’ve never been more proud of our athletes than I am today,” said Richard Bolt, “Kasie and Max’s performances blew me away. They made winning a World Championship look easy.”

                “This is the first time I have represented the U.S. in a World Mountain Running Championship,” said Enman, “I’m very excited. I did not expect to win.”

With her victory Enman becomes the first senior woman from the U.S. to earn an individual gold medal. She led the senior women to a fourth place finish. Her time was 40:39 over the 8.59 kilometer course. She was followed by Megan Lund in 12^th place with a time of 43:56, Michele Suszek in 21^st place with a time of 44:48, and Brandy Erholtz in 26^th place with a time of 45:56.

                “It’s an historic day for our women,” said women’s team manager Ellen Miller, “Kasie’s victory honors the past 17 years of U.S. women’s mountain running.”

                For King, this was his second consecutive appearance at the World Mountain Running Championships, and he bettered last year’s 16^th place performance with a decisive victory today. “I’m tired, but I feel very good,” said King, “This is my first individual medal (last year’s senior men’s team took the silver), and I’m proud to have it in an up/down year especially inAlbania.”

                 King’s gold medal becomes only the second gold for a U.S. male. Jay Johnson, owner of Fleet Feet Sports in Boulder,Colorado, previously won gold for Team USA in 1989 and since that time, Johnson has been an ardent supporter of Team USA.

                About his gold medal performance King said, “It was a good course for me having both the hard technical uphill and the fast and somewhat technical downhill. I had no idea I was in the lead until I crossed the finish line. The Ugandan runner was 30 seconds ahead of me at the top of the third climb and I passed him with about 800 meters to go. I didn’t think that he was the one I was trying to catch, I thought it was a lapped runner.”

                King led the men’s team to a fourth place finish with his time of 52:06 over the 12.7 kilometer course. He was followed by teammates Joseph Gray in eleventh place with a time of 55:33, Ryan Woods in 49^th place in 1:01:51, Matt Byrne in 51^st place in 1:01:58, Tommy Manning in 79^th place in 1:08:10, and Jared Scott in 96^th place in 1:20:21.

                “It was strong team finish, but we were obviously disappointed that we didn’t finish in the medals,” said King.

                Prior to the senior races, the junior men and women competed. In the junior men’s 8.59 kilometer race, University ofRichmond sophomore Ryan Lee posted an impressive 11^th place finish. He was followed by fellow Spyder Billy Fayette in 28^thplace and Oliver Bear Don’t Walk IV in 54^th place. The junior men finished tenth.

                The junior women raced 4.49 kilometers. Krisztina Dearborn, a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University, finished in 24^th place followed by Johns Hopkins sophomore Lara Shegoski in 29^th place, and University of Richmond freshman Clare Moretz in 30^th place.

                “I’m tremendously proud of the efforts of our junior athletes today,” said Paul Kirsch, manager of the junior team, “They raced against the best in the world and held their own. I’m grateful to their college coaches who realize the tremendous opportunity this gives a collegiate athlete to race on a world stage.”

To learn more about the U.S. Mountain Running Team, visit us at www.usmrt.com or www.usatf.org. Follow the team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usatfmut, or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/usmrt. The official race website for the 2011 WMRC is /www.wmrc2011.al.