Rush Hatcher and Emily Golden win Tifton's Run For Love 5K

You'd have to think that Rush Hatcher and Russ Benton would be seeing a lot of each other during Georgia's 2024 high school cross-country season. After all, Hatcher was a junior on the Worth County High cross-country team, and Benton a junior on Tift County High's squad of harriers. But on Saturday morning, 3 August 2024, days before the season opened, Hatcher and Benton met on the roads of the Tifton, Georgia campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College at the 35th annual Run For Love 5K. Hatcher edged out Benton for first place, both athletes clocking 17:07. On the women's side, Emily Golden won for the ninth time, placing thirteenth overall in 19:30.


Not far behind Hatcher and Benton's duel, Brookwood School sophomore Wesley Warren took third in 17:18. The top master runner in the race was Russell Coleman, ninth overall in 18:45.


Emily Golden's Run For Love women's title was her ninth in eleven years and her third in a row. Golden had first won in 2014 as a Tift Middle Schools cross-country runner, then added more wins as a Tift County High Blue Devil, and even more as an Anderson University Trojan. This was her first Run For Love as an Anderson alum.


Melissa Luke was the first woman master in the 5K, finishing runner-up to Golden in the women's standings and twentieth overall in 21:23. Kali Nicholson, a senior year cross-country runner at Lee County High, took third in the women's division and 25th overall in 22:29.


160 athletes finished the 2024 Run For Love 5K. The races are a fundraiser for the Tift County High and Tift Middle Schools cross-country program.


Top Ten Men, 2024 Run For Love 5K

1. 17:06.31, Rush Hatcher (M, 16)
2. 17.06.59, Russ Benton (M, 16)
3. 17.17.02, Wesley Warren (M, 15)
4. 17.35.84, Canaan Ponce (M, 18)
5. 17.38.50, Owen Davies (M, 16)
6. 17.49.59, Sawyer McGinnis (M, 17)
7. 18.06.80, Noah Coleman (M, 16)
8. 18.36.31, Jaxson Hughes (M, 16)
9. 18.44.19, Russell Coleman (M, 46)
10. 18.54.25, Sergio Martinez (M, 19)

Top Ten Women, 2024 Run For Love 5K

1. 19.29.28, Emily Golden (F, 23)
2. 21.22.25, Melissa Luke (F, 42)
3. 22.28.48, Kali Nicholson (F, 17)
4. 23.13.58, Katherine Currie (F, 14)
5. 23.35.95, Maria Kilheffer (F, 18)
6. 24.55.69, Ava Wilson (F, 18)
7. 28.13.65, Kynslee Collins (F, 13)
8. 28.40.25, Anna Kale Miller (F, 16)
9. 28.41.49, Lisa Dix (F, 12)
10. 28.47.25, Bailey Brock (F, 14)

Recent Run For Love 5K Champions, 2001 - 2024
Date	Men	Women
4 August 2001	16:57, Buddy Clark	22:19, Angie P. Brandenburg
3 August 2002	17:00, Buddy Clark	23:32, Jana Murkerson
9 August 2003	14:56, Alan Black	19:53, Angela Cobb
14 August 2004	16:43, Prichard Kelly	19:03, Angela Cobb
13 August 2005	17:21, Roberto Bonilla	19:36, Angela Cobb
12 August 2006	17:22, Derek Storbeck	17:45, Michelle Lafleur
11 August 2007	William Anderson	Kristen Ray
9 August 2008	16:48, Buddy Clark	20:59, Alice Smoot
8 August 2009	17:54, Jacob Kennedy	22:48, Katie Utley
7 August 2010	16:29, Hunter Honeycutt	21:29, Katie Utley
6 August 2011	17:53, Adam Ross	22:28, Melissa Tronolone
4 August 2012	16:19, Hunter Honeycutt	21:44, Madison Honeycutt
10 August 2013	20:07, Joshua Curry	22:46, Ashlee Golden
2 August 2014	16:49, Hunter Honeycutt	23:03, Emily Golden
1 August 2015	17:58, Dayton Cannon	22:07, Emily Golden
13 August 2016	19:31, Eliud Mendoza	21:29, Emily Golden
5 August 2017	18:31, Caleb Watson	21:37, Emily Golden
4 August 2018	20:00, Dan Hobby	20:10, Emily Golden
10 August 2019	18:39, Cameron Kaltschnee	20:17, Emily Golden
31 October 2020	18:57, Jared Hammond	21:58, Sidney Steele Flores
14 August 2021	18:55, Blair Golden	22:58, Ava Wilson
6 August 2022	17:52, Eyan Zupko	21:12, Emily Golden
5 August 2023	18:00, Blair Golden	19:34, Emily Golden
3 August 2024	17:07, Rush Hatcher	19:30, Emily Golden
Please contact me if you have results for 1990-2000 or 2007!

Links

• Complete results of the 2024 Tifton, Georgia, Run For Love 5K
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS1KKUmxlqSWL1uuYM0T3jKxd_zkUYjOwUpeyRErPyzbmbdvKD2KqUzS79Thg4tBz46d-AuacpMGOCa/pubhtml
  
  
• 2019 story, “Cameron Kaltschnee wins, Emily Golden gets a sixth-straight women's title at Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2019/08/run-for-love-2019.html
  
  
• 2018 story, “Dan Hobby wins and Emily Golden makes it five in a row at the Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2018/08/run-for-love-2018.html
  
  
• 2017 story, “A win for Watson and a fourth title for Golden at Tifton's Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2017/08/run-for-love-2017.html
  
  
• 2016 story, “Mendoza and Golden make it a Tift County sweep at the Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2016/08/run-for-love-2016.html
  
  
• 2015 story, “Cannon wins and Golden repeats at Tifton's Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2015/08/run-for-love-2015.html
  
  
• 2014 story, “Third time is as charming as ever for Honeycutt at the Run For Love”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/08/run-for-love-2014.html
  
  
• 2010 story, “Honeycutt and Utley take titles at rainy Run For Love 5K”
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/08/run-for-love-2010.html
  
  
• Find more lovable races in the Tallahassee region on the Trouble Afoot! racing calendar
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

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