On Saturday, December 11, 50 athletes and eight teams from Colorado competed in the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida. It was a beautiful day as runners from all corners of the country took a trip to the sunshine state in the hopes of returning with a national title.
The Women’s Open 6 km was off at 12:00 p.m. ET with a lead pack forming early. The pack stuck together through the first 2 km, but Natosha Rogers of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project began to pull away by the 3 km mark.
Carrie Verdon of T.E.A.M. Boulder attempted to close the gap through the final half of the race, passing Boston Athletic Association’s Andrea Rodenfels to move into the second slot just past the halfway point, but couldn’t make up the distance Rogers had given herself.
Rogers powered through the final kilometer in 3:16.9 to take the individual win and lead her team to victory, breaking the tape in 19:42.0. Teammate Olivia Pratt was the next Hansons-Brooks runner to cross the line, finishing seventh with a time of 20:19.0.
Katherine Munks, Amy Davis, and Anne-Marie Blaney rounded out the team with eighth, tenth, and 15th places, respectively. This brought the team total to 27, effectively holding off the Atlanta Track Club’s 63.
The Men’s Open 10 km toed the line at 12:45 p.m. ET and, like the women, formed a huge lead pack immediately. The real race began around the 7 km point with Zachery Panning of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project and Nike’s Frankline Tonui.
The pair was almost in sync through the 7 km, 8 km, and 9 km marks before Tonui decided to go for it. Running the final kilometer in 2:56.9, he pulled away to cross the finish line in 30:14.6, ahead of Panning’s 30:17.3.
The Hansons-Brooks Distance Project ultimately swept the open club titles with a Men’s Open 10 km team victory. Zachery Panning led the way with his second-place finish, but Daniel Soto was never far behind. Running with the lead pack through the entire race, Soto picked off four competitors to finish third overall with a time of 30:45.7.
The Colorado highlights included:
Open Men
- Top 15 team finishes by T.E.A.M Boulder (3rd place); Alamosa Track Project (11th place); and Fort Collins Running Club (14th place)
- Frankline Tonui winning the individual title running 30:15 (10 km)
- Top 50 finishes by: Aidan Reed (Roots Running, 11th), Chase Weaverling (T.E.A.M. Boulder, 17th), Austen Dalquist (Tracksmith / Roots Running, 19th), Tyler McCandless (rabbit / Fort Collins RC, 24th), David Goodman (T.E.A.M. Boulder, 26th), Garret Lee (T.E.A.M. Boulder, 36th), Joshua Joseph (Alamosa Track Project, 37th), Jacob Riley (T.E.A.M. Boulder, 42nd), Theodorakis Medrano (T.E.A.M. Boulder, 43rd), and Carson Hume Fort Collins RC, 50th)
Open Women
- Front Range Elite finishing 12th in the team scoring
- T.E.A.M. Boulder teammates Carrie Verdon and Melissa Dock finishing second and ninth, respectively. Verdon ran 19:47 (6 km) just 5 seconds behind winner Natosha Rogers.
- Three other Coloradans finishing in the top 50 – Alexis Zeis (Roots Running, 18th), Ann Kirkpatrick (Front Range Elite, 47th), and Sophie Anders (Front Range Elite, 49th).
Masters
- Boulder Road Runners M60+ team winning the team title. The team’s scoring athletes were Tim Degrado, Roger Sayre, and Mark Tatum.
- Athletics Boulder M60+ team finishing second (behind the Boulder Road Runners)
- Boulder Road Runners M70+ winning the team title. The team’s scoring athletes were Doug Bell, Mike Wein, and Richard Katz.
- Daniel King (Athletics Boulder) winning the M60-64 masters title with Tim Degrado and Roger Sayre finishing 2nd and 3rd, respectively. King also had the best age-graded performance in the M60+ race.
- Doug Bell (Boulder Road Runners) winning the M70-74 masters title.