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| Clifton Lewis |
The Cadillac Trail Race is part of Gulf Winds Track Club's Summer Trail Series. The events on that circuit change from year to year, so although 2021 was the eighth Summer Trail Series, the Cadillac Trail Race was only being run for the fifth time. Not quite annual, Cadillac has been run in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2021. Of those five races, middle school girls have won the women's division at three.
Clifton Lewis was the most recent. The first was Emily Molen, a Deerlake Middle School cross-country runner. In 2014 Molen ran Cadillac in 48:25, placing twelfth overall. It was Molen's second win in a Series race; from 2014 to 2018 she won the women's division in five Series events.
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| Emily Molen |
Alyson Churchill has also been first in the women's standings of five series races. Her first Series win was at the Cadillac Trail Race on 30 May 2015. At the time, Churchill was a rising eighth-grader on the Swift Creek Middle School cross-country team. She placed seventh overall in the nine-kilometer race, running 42:51.
After winning the women's title in each of the four Series races of 2015, Churchill didn't return to the circuit until the final race of the 2016 Series--the Cadillac Trail Race on 30 July 2016. She had graduated from Swift Creek and was headed for Lincoln. Barely recovered from a stress fracture, Churchill won everything at that Cadillac, finishing first overall in 42:29.
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| Alyson Churchill |
Just over three month later she won the Florida cross-country title in the class 3A girls' high school race. Churchill finished her high school career at Chiles, graduating in 2020. Currently she races for Florida State University, where she has already earned NCAA-D1 All-American honors in indoor track.
Emily Molen's athletic endeavours didn't end in middle school, either. After Deer Lake, she ran cross-country for Chiles High from 2016 to 2019, during which period the Chiles girls won two state titles and placed runner-up twice. Since 2020 Molen has run cross-country wearing the green and blue of the West Florida University Argonauts.
Clifton Lewis has another year in middle school. Already she has placed ninth in the middle school girls' race at the Florida Youth Running Association's State Cross-Country Championships.
So don't be quick to dismiss any young athlete you make see racing the trails. If you hear one coming up behind you, you may want to pick up the pace. Or get out of the way.
| Women's Divsision Winners Cadillac Trail Race 2013 - 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Athlete | Age |
| 22 June 2013 | 45:07, Stephanie Liles-Weyant | 41 |
| 2 August 2014 | 48:25, Emily Molen | 12 |
| 30 May 2015 | 42:51, Alyson Churchill | 12 |
| 30 July 2016 | 42:29, Alyson Churchill | 13 |
| 12 June 2021 | 46:21, Clifton Lewis | 13 |
Links
- 2014: “Molen and Molen roll on the Cadillac Trail”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/08/gwtc-trails-4-2014.html
- 2015: “DeVeau and Churchill win the 2015 Trail Series opener”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/05/gwtc-trails-1-2015.html
- 2016: “Alyson Churchill motors to victory on the Cadillac Trail”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/07/gwtc-trails-4-2016.html
- 2021: “At Cadillac Trail, Dan Wurgler and Clifton Lewis lead the return of the Summer Trail Series”
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2021/06/gwtc-trails-1-2021.html
- Find a race in the Tallahassee region, on trail or off, on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
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