Trouble Afoot!: Springtime 10K winners, 2007 to 2022

When it came to COVID-19, Gulf Winds Track Club's Springtime 10K had the misfortune of being a late March / early April race. So the 2020 race was scheduled right when the pandemic shutdown began, and the 2021 event before the shutdown was lifted. Both were canceled.

But the Springtime Road Race was back on the streets of Tallahassee in 2022. Here, in anticipation of the 46th annual Springtime on 1 April 2023, are the winners of the fourteen Springtime 10K races contested during the years from 2007 to 2022.

Springtime 10K winners, 2007 - 2022

		2007 Men's Champion, Matt Dobson 33:27 Wearing bib number 588, Matt Dobson starts up Lafayette Street near the end of the second kilometer of the 2007 Springtime 10K. Although Dobson hailed from Jay, Florida he was no stranger to the Capital City's roads, having already won titles at Gulf Winds Track Club's Tallahassee Turkey Trot 15K in 2004 and 2006, as well as the Springtime 10K in 1994 and 1995.
2007 Women's Champion, Lara Shaw 37:23 In 2007 the Springtime 10K still finished with a one-kilometer circuit of the greenspace bounded by Lafayette, Meridian, Gaines, and Suwannee Streets. Here, Lara Shaw has just started that final lap. Placing fourteenth overall, Shaw would finish at the top of the women's standings, with Lisa Johnson second in 38:03 and Sheryl Rosen third in 38:52. Remember those names.
	2008 Men's Champion Joey Zins 31:59 A graduate assistant on Florida State's track and cross-country coaching staff, Joey Zins won the 33rd annual Springtime 10K by almost 200 meters. Here he makes the climb up Lafayette Street early in the race, accompanied by Luke Beevor (2nd, 32:33) and Tripp Southerland (3rd, 34:02).
	2008 Women's Champion, Sarah Docter-Williams 38:16 In this photo, Sarah Docter-Williams starts the final kilometer of the 2008 race, where she picked up her fourth of four Springtime 10K titles. I won't say it was her last, because she's still running. Half a minute back, Lisa Johnson was the women's runner-up.
		2009 Men's Champion, David Altmaier 35:00 300 meters from the finish line and 100 meters ahead of his nearest challenger, David Altmaier makes the turn from Gaines Street onto the Suwannee Street homestretch of the 2009 Springtime 10K.
	2009 Women's Champion, Lisa Johnson 38:34 With just over 300 meters to go, women's winner Lisa Johnson is driving toward the finish line of the 2009 Springtime 10K. Finishing seventeenth overall, Johnson was followed in the women's standings by runner-up Seeley Gutierrez (31st, 40:49) and third-place Sheryl Rosen (34th, 41:20).
		2010 Men's Champion, Chris Lake 33:09 Taking advantage of excellent running weather, Chris Lake cruised the Springtime 10K in 33:09, winning the race for the first time. Nate Kaiser was second in 33:35 and Stephen Cox third in 33:44.
2010 Women's Champion, Sheryl Rosen 38:23 After a few times of featuring high but not at the top of the women's standings at the Springtime 10K, Sheryl Rosen won the women's title at the race in 2010. It was her first Springtime title, but it wouldn't be her last.
2011 Men's Champion, Chris Lake 32:34 Outrunning three-time Canadian Olympian Kevin Sullivan (2nd, 32:45), Chris Lake won a second-straight Springtime 10K in 2011.
		2011 Women's Champions, Pasca Cheruiyot 34:52 Florida State alumna Pasca Cheruiyot posted the fifth-fastest women's time in the first 35 years of the Springtime 10K to win the 2011 race. Not even her FSU coach, Karen Harvey (18th, 37:33) could keep up with her, and had to settle for the women's runner-up spot. 2010 women's champ Sheryl Rosen (36th, 39:03) was third.
2012 Men's Champion, Chris Lake 33:29 Construction on Cascades Park led to some extreme course changes in 2012, with the race starting south on Monroe Street. In the photo, Chris Lake is speeding down a hill on Gaines Street with about half a kilometer left in the race. Lake picked up his third straight Springtime 10K title that day. Over 200 meters back Stephen Cox was runner-up in 34:18.
2012 Women's Champion, Lindsay Zeiler 37:33 Florida State graduate assistant track coach Lindsay Zeiler with half a kilomteter to go in the 2012 Springtime 10K. For the first two kilometers of the race it was Zeiler and 2010 women's champion Sheryl Rosen in front of the women's field, but after that it was all Zeiler. Rosen (13th, 38:35) took second in the women's competition.
		2013 Men's Champion, Kevin Sullivan 31:42 Here, near the halfway point of the 2013 Springtime 10K, Stan Linton shadows leader Kevin Sullivan. Sullivan lost his shadow soon afterwards, going on to win the race by 250 meters. Linton, second in 32:32, would go on to compete for Florida State University.
		2013 Women's Champion, Stefanie Slekis 36:05 Running in Capital City Runners colors, Stefanie Slekis took the women's 10K title at the 38th annual Springtime race. 2010 champ Sheryl Rosen was runner-up on the women's side, placing 18th overall in 37:11.
2014 Men's Champion, Kevin Sullivan 32:03 On rain-soaked streets, Kevin Sullivan won his second Springtime 10K title, this time by more than 400 meters. Three-time Springtime winner Chris Lake was second in 33:37.
	2014 Women's Champion, Seeley Gutierrez 38:09 Remember Seeley Gutierrez, women's runner-up in the 2009 race? Gutierrez returned in 2014 to claim the Springtime 10K women's title. In spite of the wet conditions, it was her fastest Springtime performance yet.
		2015 Men's Champion, Stephen Cox 32:59 Stephen Cox figured in the top ten of quite a few runnings of the Springtime 10K, but in 2015 he won the race after chasing down three-time champion Chris Lake. Lake was runner-up in 33:10.
2015 Women's Champion, Sheryl Rosen 37:30 Finishing 200 meters ahead of the next woman, Sheryl Rosen picked up her second Springtime 10K women's title in the 2015 race.
		2016 Men's Champion, Roger Schmidt 34:06 Here's a photo of Nate Kaiser in pursuit of Springtime 10K leader Roger Schmidt with a kilometer to go in the 2016 race. Schmidt couldn't be caught that morning, though, and won the 41st annual Springtime 10K. Kaiser was second in 34:16.
2016 Women's Champion, Adriana Piekarewicz 39:09 Adriana Piekarewicz took the lead in the women's field two-and-a-half kilometers into the 2016 Springtime 10K and never had to look back after that. The Florida State alumna went on to win the women's title by more than 300 meters. Two-time Springtime champ Sheryl Rosen took second in 40:30 and Alyson Churchill was third in 40:38.
		2017 Men's Champion, Chris Haynes 32:51 Chris Haynes' running career started at Lee High and continued at North Florida University, both in the flat country of Jacksonville. Nevertheless, he handled the Tallahassee hills well enough to win his first Springtime 10K. Haynes passed Charlie Johnson halfway through the race to take the lead, then expanded that lead during the second half of the race on his way to the win.
		2017 Women's Champion, Ani Veltcheva 37:21 Two weeks before the 42nd annual Springtime 10K, Ani Veltcheva ran a 17:17 5K in Orlando, a single-age world record for twelve-year-olds. She brought that fitness to Tallahassee and led the women's field from start to finish, becoming the youngest Springtime champion ever.
2018 Men's Champion, Chris Haynes 32:31 It took defending champion Chris Haynes seven kilometers to shake Justin Garrard, but he finally did. Haynes motored home the last three kilometers to get his second Springtime win, while Garrard finished second in 33:23.
		2018 Women's Champion, Katie Sherron 38:57 By 2018, Dr. Katie Sherron had won most of Tallahassee's races, but not the Springtime. Leading the race, Sherron and Ann Centner were able to shake off two-time Springtime champ Sheryl Rosen, but their own battle went all the way to the end of the 10K. At the finish line Sherron held off a late charge by Centner, 38:57 to 38:59.
		2019 Men's Champion, Chris Haynes 32:39 Before 2019, only three men had ever won the Springtime 10K three years in a row--Jessie Close (1990-1992), Muchapiwa Mazano (1999-2001), and Chris Lake (2010-2012). Chris Haynes became the fourth member of that exclusive club in the 2019 race, placing first in 32:39. Austin Whitelaw shared the lead for the first three kilometers, but after that it was all Haynes. Whitelaw took second in 34:36.
2019 Women's Champion, Ann Centner 37:10 After coming up second best in a close race for the women's title at the 2018 Springtime, Ann Centner made sure that the 2019 race was anything but close. Centner finished more than 400 meters ahead of the next woman in 37:10, her first Springtime win. Sheryl Rosen, a two-time Springtime women's champ, finished runner-up to Centner in 38:50.
2022 Men's Champion, Chris Haynes 31:23 The COVID-19 shutdown canceled the 2020 and 2021 Springtime Road Races, delaying any ambitions that Chris Haynes may have had to win a fourth consecutive Springtime. When the race returned in 2022, so did Haynes. He ran his fastest Springtime yet, roaring to a winning 31:23--the swiftest mark at the Tallahassee 10K since Joseph Zepherinus won the 2003 race in 30:56.
		2022 Women's Champion, Ann Centner 34:58 In 2022, the Springtime 10K women's field included no fewer than three past champions--Sheryl Rosen (2010 and 2015), Dr. Katie Sherron (2018), and Ann Centner (2019). Centner ran away from everyone, finishing with a 600-meter lead in 34:58 and placing third overall. Sherron was second in 37:01 and Rosen third in 39:52.