Saturday, August 18, 2018

Jim Halley and Katie Sherron were crazy-fast at Miller Landing Madness

After trailing for four miles, Jim Halley came on in the fifth and final mile to grab the lead from Myles Gibson, then raced home to win Gulf Winds Track Club's annual Miller Landing Madness 8K in 33:07. Katie Sherron won the women's title, placing twelfth overall in 36:04.

Jim Halley
The eight-kilometer race wasn’t the only event at the Madness that Saturday morning, Aug. 18. A five-kilometer race started at the same time, and a three-kilometer an hour later. All three were run at Tallahassee’s Phipps Park, just off of Miller Landing Road. The 8K and the 5K got started at 8:00 AM. Stephen Robbins led the 8K in the early going, but was eventually overtaken by Donalsonville, Georgia master runner Myles Gibson. Meanwhile, Halley of Tallahassee was stalking Gibson.


“Myles goes out fast” said Halley. So I just tried to gradually catch up to him, and I did with a mile to go. I didn’t know Myles was in the lead, though. I thought there might be a fast sixteen-year-old ahead of us.”

Myles Gibson

The confusion arose because the 8K had shared a course with the 5K for the first mile. But Gibson had been in front of the 8K field, and now Halley was. He still was when he crossed the finish line in a winning 33:07. At 33:19, Gibson was the top master runner and overall runner-up. Two Lincoln High cross-country runners--junior Joey Jung and sophomore Nicholas Samuel--challenged Gibson for second, but Jung took third in 33:19 and Samuel was fourth in 33:20. Another Lincoln athlete, junior Kevin Majano, took fifth in 33:47, just ahead of one-time race leader Stephen Robbins, sixth in 33:50.

Katie Sherron

Katie Sherron had taken the women’s title at the Miller Landing Madness 8K before, winning in 2013. Although Alyssa Terry was closing fast during the last mile, Sherron still led the women’s field from start to finish, collecting her second Madness title with a 36:04 effort. Terry was second in the women's standings and fourteenth overall in 36:11. Brittney Barnes was the third woman and twentieth overall in 37:43. Ali Kelly was the top woman master and seventh female finisher, 45th overall in 41:53.

Alyssa Terry

Top Ten Men, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 8K
  1. 33:07, Jim Halley (M, 38)
  2. 33:19, Myles Gibson (M, 52)
  3. 33:19, Joey Jung (M, 16)
  4. 33:20, Nicholas Samuel (M, 15)
  5. 33:47, Kevin Majano (M, 16)
  6. 33:50, Stephen Robbins (M, 21)
  7. 34:53, Charles Hruda (M, 17)
  8. 35:04, Zach Deveau (M, 30)
  9. 35:04, Yili Liu (M, 16)
  10. 35:30, Philip Sura (M, 48)

Top Ten Women, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 8K
  1. 36:04, Katie Sherron (F, 36)
  2. 36:11, Alyssa Terry (F, 25)
  3. 37:43, Brittney Barnes (F, 30)
  4. 39:12, Laura McDermott (F, 38)
  5. 40:45, Nikky Manausa (F, 36)
  6. 41:19, Arianna Neely (F, 18)
  7. 41:53, Ali Kelly (F, 46)
  8. 43:10, Kelly Whalon (F, 46)
  9. 44:54, Jennie Merchant (F, 26)
  10. 45:11, Melissa Zapata (F, 39)

Meanwhile, the frontrunners in the 5K had already wrapped up their own race. Jesse Boyd had been the first by the four-kilometer mark of the shorter race.


“Back to back,” he chanted, breathlessly, as he went by. “Back to back.”

Jesse Boyd

Boyd, a Blountstown High alumnus, was indeed the defending champion in the race and was going for a second win. He got it, running 18:00--just five seconds off his winning time from the year before. Brandon Flagler was second in the 3.1-mile race at 18:50. In a finish-line battle of two high school cross-country runners, Wakulla junior Daniel Wiedeman edged North Florida Christian junior David Keen for third, 19:18 to 19:19.

Sheryl Rosen

Sheryl Rosen had been the first woman in the Miller Landing Madness 8K in 2008, 2010, and 2011, but in 2018 she stepped down to the 5K. Rosen took the women’s title in the shorter race, placing tenth overall in 19:57. Wakulla High senior cross-country runner Alyssa Langston was runner-up in the women's standings and twentieth overall in 22:33. Kendall Ward was the third woman and 25th overall in 22:53.


Top Ten Men, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 5K
  1. 18:00, Jesse Boyd (M, 18)
  2. 18:50, Brandon Flagler (M, 18)
  3. 19:18, Daniel Wiedeman (M, 17)
  4. 19:19, David Keen (M, 16)
  5. 19:21, Gannon Hundley (M, 20)
  6. 19:22, Mason McCord (M, 16)
  7. 19:34, Giovanni Duran (M, 18)
  8. 19:37, Andrew McMillan (M, 19)
  9. 19:39, Simon Hodgson (M, 19)
  10. 20:47, Alfredo Paredes (M, 17)

Top Ten Women, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 5K
  1. 19:57, Sheryl Rosen (F, 34)
  2. 22:33, Alyssa Langston (F, 17)
  3. 22:53, Kendall Ward (F, 18)
  4. 23:11, Genevieve Printiss (F, 17)
  5. 23:15, Emma Szwarc (F, 15)
  6. 23:16, Rachel Williams (F, 21)
  7. 23:18, Maren Prince (F, 14)
  8. 24:16, Mia Wiederkehr (F, 20)
  9. 24:50, Dorcas Jepleting (F, 20)
  10. 25:04, Kenzie Mazziotta (F, 18)

After the 8K and 5K runners had cleared the trails of Phipps Park, it was time for the 3K runners to take their turn. The race turned into a duel between two middle school cross-country runners, Fairview seventh-grader Patrick Koon, the defending champions, and Swift Creek eighth-grader Connor Edwards. The two had met before on the trails during the 2017 cross-country season, but this was a new year and a new race.

Connor Edwards and Patrick Koon

“After the water I started catching up to Patrick,” said Edwards. “I caught him at the top of the hill. Near the end he started sprinting, so I started sprinting.”


Edwards proved to have the most leg speed left at the end of the race, and inched ahead of Koon for the win, 10:37 to 10:39. The marks were the two fastest times ever posted in the Miller Landing Madness 3K, both beating the event record of 10:48 run by James McClure in 2014. Khary Wright took third in 11:21.


There was another record on the female side, as Rory Claussen led the girls’ field from wire-to-wire. The seventh-grader ran 11:26, eclipsing the 11:34 run by Alyson Churchill in the 2015 Madness. A Panama City runner, Claussen took the Tallahassee hills in stride.

Rory Claussen

“It was fun,” said Claussen. “We don’t have a lot of hills in Panama City. I wanted to do some 3K races before the big fall races.”


One of the big fall races will be the Florida Middle School Cross-Country Championship, where Claussen finished second in 2017.


Behind Claussen, Maclay eighth-grader Ella Porcher was the second female and ninth overall in 11:55. Sofia Paredes, another Maclay eighth-grader, was third in the girls' standings and thirteenth overall in 12:05.


Top Ten Males, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 3K
  1. 10:37, Connor Edwards (M, 13)
  2. 10:39, Patrick Koon (M, 12)
  3. 11:21, Khary Wright (M, 15)
  4. 11:30, Jackson Rowe (M, 12)
  5. 11:51, Yi'en Liu (M, 11)
  6. 11:54, Ashton York (M, 14)
  7. 11:54, Jack Matthews (M, 13)
  8. 11:57, Peter Boulware (M, 11)
  9. 12:01, Lucas Mauch (M, 13)
  10. 12:02, Owen Franklin (M, 13)

Top Ten Females, 2018 Miller Landing Madness 3K
  1. 11:26, Rory Claussen (F, 13)
  2. 11:55, Ella Porcher (F, 13)
  3. 12:05, Sofia Paredes (F, 13)
  4. 12:31, Maya Tang (F, 13)
  5. 13:04, Lillee Tang (F, 13)
  6. 13:14, Ava Hill (F, 12)
  7. 13:36, Leah Kiros (F, 12)
  8. 13:43, Liliana Lewis (F, 12)
  9. 14:04, Alima Hemenway (F, 13)
  10. 14:10, Nora Peters (F, 10)

Miller Landing Madness Winners, 2008 - 2018
DateRaceMenWomenFinishers
30 August 20088K28:57, David Altmaier32:49, Sheryl Rosen76
5K17:12, Austin Stevens18:46, Jana Stolting110
3K11:21, Will Henderson13:14, Autumn Wable73
29 August 20098K28:05, Chris Lake33:03, Sarah Docter-Williams151
5K18:17, Austin Stevens18:17, Jana Stolting243
3K11:26, Chase Harris12:04, Cecelia Williams136
28 August 20108K26:28, Kevin Cook33:29, Sheryl Rosen168
5K17:15, Patrick Swain19:22, Stefanie Kurgatt160
3K11:14, Wil Luca13:30, Madeline Horgan110
27 August 20118K25:54, Kevin Sullivan32:17, Sheryl Rosen236
5K16:59, Jacob Slupecki20:14, Stefanie Kurgatt212
3K11:08, Evan Francis12:59, Cheyenne Hildinger157
25 August 20128K27:50, Vince Molosky36:36, Jane Johnson190
5K16:32, Joseph Garcia19:12, Stefanie Kurgatt258
3K10:57, Jake Mazziotta12:16, Adrianna Dugan148
24 August 20138K26:29, Will Stanford35:11, Katie Showman150
5K16:55, Joseph Garcia19:20, Emily Ness237
3K10:48, James McClure12:20, Chase Merrick135
23 August 20148K28:26, Chris Lake35:26, Brittney Barnes154
5K17:09, Joe Garcia21:13, Caroline Willis172
3K11:33, Jonathan McClure12:34, Alyson Churchill173
22 August 20158K28:45, Roger Schmidt38:07, Jane Skalski126
5K18:16,James McClure20:33, Caroline Willis207
3K11:14, Jonathan McClure11:34, Alyson Churchill205
20 August 20168K31:06, Geb Kiros37:19, Katie Sack160
5K18:03, Jake Mazziotta19:20, Alyson Churchill203
3K11:41, Trenton Blake12:52, Lindsay James171
19 August 20178K29:11, Clayton Carlson35:01, Kat Sack125
5K17:55, Jesse Boyd21:07, Elizabeth Skipper237
3K11:01, Patrick Koon12:43, Paige Churchill212
18 August 20188K33:07, Jim Halley36:04, Katie Sherron127
5K18:00, Jesse Boyd19:57, Sheryl Rosen201
3K10:37, Connor Edwards11:26, Rory Claussen177
The Miller Landing Madness was preceded in history by the Miccosukee Madness (2004-2007)
and the Tom Brown Bash (1977-2003) races.


Links
#2315
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 6:02 PM
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)