The band played on while Andrew Smith and Alondra Reyna-Lopez won the Marching Chiefs 5K

The last of the litter from homecoming tailgate parties in the parking lots of Florida State University on Sunday morning, 27 October 2019. But since 2017, the morning after homecoming hasn't just meant continuing clean-up from Saturday, it has also been time for the Marching Chiefs 5K. Andrew Smith won the third annual race in 16:30, racing away from defending champ Tristan Cravello. Alondra Reyna-Lopez repeated as the top woman in the race, defending her 2018 title with a 20:50 performance.

Andrew Smith

Hundreds gathered on Marching Chiefs field at 9:00 AM, where the start of the race was heralded by a performance of the Florida State fight song. Band members of the Marching Chiefs performed at several points along the course. Tristan Cravello, a third-year Florida State undergraduate and the 2018 winner of the Marching Chiefs 5K, led the early stages of the race, along with Andrew Smith. Running side by side near the two-kilometer mark, the two runners were nearly 200 meters ahead of the next runner. During the third kilometer, Smith broke away from Cravello, quickly opening up a gap. By the end of the race, that gap was over half a minute, as Smith won the race in 16:30. Cravello took second in 17:04, much faster than his 2018 winning time of 17:43. Gary Droze, the Tallahassee Community College cross-country coach, was the fastest master runner in the race, placing third overall in 17:45.

Tristan Cravello and Andrew Smith

Smith's last win in Tallahassee had been in the 2018 Trails And Trails Half Marathon, over a year before the Marching Chiefs 5K. He hadn't been around town, though.


"I was in Jacksonville running for First Place Sports," explained Smith. "But this fall I moved to Thomasville where I'm coaching at Thomas University. They just started a cross-country program this year. We've got our conference championship in two weeks."

Alondra Reyna-Lopez

The Marching Chiefs 5K had yet another cross-country connection in women's champ Alondra Reyna-Lopez. The two-time winner of the race is a second-year undergraduate at Florida State and a member of the Florida State women's cross-country team. In the 2019 Marching Chiefs race, Reyna-Lopez led the women's field from start to finish, placing eleventh overall in 20:50 and finishing more than 300 meters ahead of the next woman. Katie Lewis took second in the women's standings, finishing eighteenth overall in 22:21. Michelle Hadden was the third woman and thirtieth overall in 23:44. Paula O'Neill was the top woman master in the 5K, the fourth female and 32nd overall in 23:50.


578 athletes finished the 2019 Marching Chiefs 5K, the most in the three-year history of the race. Gulf Winds Track Club of Tallahassee chip-timed the race.


Top Ten Men, 2019 Marching Chiefs 5K

1. 16:30, Andrew Smith (M, 24)
2. 17:04, Tristan Cravello (M, 20)
3. 17:45, Gary Droze (M, 58)
4. 19:19, Christopher Reynolds (M, 18)
5. 19:45, Kurt Dietrich (M, 28)
6. 20:15, Joseph Blake (M, 18)
7. 20:35, Philip Culver (M, 24)
8. 20:47, Alex Krynski (M, 18)
9. 20:47, Ben Ranzinger (M, 20)
10. 20:49, Matthew Williams (M, 19)

Top Ten Women, 2019 Marching Chiefs 5K

1. 20:50, Alondra Reyna-Lopez (F, 19)
2. 22:21, Katie Lewis (F, 28)
3. 23:44, Michelle Hadden (F, 30)
4. 23:50, Paula O'Neill (F, 58)
5. 23:57, Moira Conley (F, 20)
6. 24:07, Gabi Hoban (F, 19)
7. 24:46, Hannah Fliess (F, 18)
8. 25:02, Mezindia Nkembo (F, 20)
9. 25:29, Catherine Rodriguez (F, 30)
10. 25:45, Gabrielle Donofrio (F, 21)

Marching Chiefs 5K winners, 2017 - 2019
Date	Men	Women	Finishers
19 November 2017	21:07, Bobby Duggleby	24:22, Alyssa Terry	426
21 October 2018	17:43, Tristan Cravello	20:38, Alondra Reyna-Lopez	443
27 October 2019	16:30, Andrew Smith	20:50, Alondra Reyna-Lopez	578

Links

• Complete results of the 2019 Marching Chiefs 5K
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT3xGBbPDW5Afaq4m6CaQ3GHj9_8RQX8YZRmByTj-ANvFELK85cQNRAihuoy9t3plbkU-DG_FQhesVm/pubhtml
  
  
• More "Trouble Afoot!" photos of the 2019 Marching Chiefs 5K
  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10114509695196363
  
  
• "Tristan Cravello and Alondra Reyna-Lopez run to beat the band at the Marching Chiefs 5K"
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2018/10/marching-chiefs-2018.html
  
  
• USATF course certification map FL18040TY for the 2018 Marching Chiefs 5K
  http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=FL18040TY
  
  
• Marching Chiefs 5K
  https://www.marchingchiefs5k.com/
  
  
• John Philip Sousa would be impressed with the offerings on the Trouble Afoot! racing calendar
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

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