Showing posts with label Michael Niezgoda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Niezgoda. Show all posts

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Micheal Niezgoda and Ann Centner provided the fireworks at the Firecracker 5K

If you've been around Tallahassee, Florida long enough, you may remember going to Lake Ella on Independence Day for the fireworks. Since then the show has moved to Tom Brown Park. But starting in 2014, the Independence Day destination for Tallahassee runners is a morning appointment at Cascades Park to race the Capital City Kiwanis' Firecracker 5K. Michael Niezgoda kept that Thursday morning, 4 July 2019, appointment in a big way, winning the race in 17:43. Ann Centner was the first woman across the finish line, placing fourth overall in 18:03.

Michael Niezgoda
Michael Niezgoda

It was the 37th annual Firecracker 5K. For thirty years, from 1983 to 2012, the Greensboro, Florida Kiwanis Club hosted the Firecracker 5K in Gadsden County on a course that ran from Sycamore to Greensboro. After inheriting the race in 2013, the Capital City Kiwanis Club staged the race in Phipps Park for a year before moving downtown to Cascades Park. That was where the 2019 Firecracker started at 8:00 AM. Trevor Sununu set the early pace for the field, but he didn't have much time to enjoy the lead before Niezgoda took over.


"It was right in front of the Edison, about three-fourths of a mile," said Niezgoda. "Trevor kept surging during the first mile, trying to keep ahead of me. But I could tell the pace was slowing. So I had to get by him."

Trevor Sununu
Trevor Sununu

Once past Sununu, Niezgoda pulled steadily away, opening a gap of 70 meters during the second mile. During the third mile Zach DeVeau overtook Sununu and began to narrow Niezgoda's lead. But Niezgoda was still more than 50 meters ahead when he crossed the finish line in a winning 17:43. DeVeau took second in 17:54, and Sununu was third in 17:58. Tallahassee Community College cross-country coach Gary Droze was the first master runner in the race, finishing fifth overall in 18:25. Master runner Michael Martinez was able to keep Coach Droze in sight throughout the race, but only to see the Coach pull farther ahead. Martinez was the second master and sixth overall in 18:38.


"I live right here in Tallahassee, but I don't run many local races," said Niezgoda. "This was a sign-up-the-day-before type of thing."

Zach DeVeau
Zach DeVeau

If you don't see Niezgoda at many 5K races, it's because he's getting ready for something longer.


"I'm training to do the Chicago Marathon," said Niezgoda.

Gary Droze
Gary Droze

On any Fourth of July morning in Florida you can expect high temperatures, and after the race there were more than a few complaints about the heat. None of those complaints, though, came from women's champ Ann Centner.


"I wasn't really that hot out there," said Centner. "5K, I don't really feel the heat. 10K, I would."

Ann Centner
Ann Centner

Centner's 18:04 was the fastest women's time at the Firecracker 5K since the race moved to Tallahassee. It was a speedy run from the outset, but Alyson Churchill was right with Centner. A rising senior on the Chiles High cross-country team and the 2016 Florida high school cross-country champion, Churchill had won the Firecracker 5K women's title in 2015.


"I think she went out pretty fast, because my first mile was pretty fast, too. 5:35 or 5:38," said Centner. "I was probably out faster than usual but I've been doing shorter workouts, training for the mile."

Alyson Churchill, Ann Centner
Alyson Churchill & Ann Centner

After that 5:35 (or 5:38) opening mile, Churchill took over the lead.


"I was behind Ann for a mile," said Churchill. "I passed her right at the mile, and then she passed me at the turnaround."


"At the turnaround I put in a surge and she didn't go with me," said Centner.

Alyson Churchill
Alyson Churchill

Nor did anyone else. Center went 18:04, taking first in the women's standings. Alyson Churchill ran 18:55, placing runner-up for the women and tenth overall in 18:55.


"That was exciting!" said Churchill. "I enjoyed doing a community race."

Mo Palmer
Mo Palmer

Churchill doesn't get to compete in many community events, being busy racing for the Chiles High Timberwolves--for instance, at the 2018 High School State Championships, where the Chiles girls won the team title. One of the athletes she raced that morning was Palmetto High senior Morgan "Mo" Palmer. Palmer, now headed to Florida State University, was the third woman and nineteenth overall in the Firecracker 5K, running 19:45.


Davidson University distance runner Caroline Willis outkicked Florida Tech alum Amanda Sava for the fourth spot in the women's standings, 20:20 to 20:24. Willis and Sava were 21st and 22nd overall. Stacy Biggart of Tallahassee was the first woman master and eleventh female finisher, 44th overall in 23:17.

Caroline Willis, Amanda Sava
Caroline Willis & Amanda Sava

521 athletes finished the Capital City Kiwanis' 2019 Firecracker 5K. Gulf Winds Track Club chip-timed the race.


Top Ten Men, 2019 Capital City Kiwanis Firecracker 5K
  1. 17:43, Michael Niezgoda (M, 30)
  2. 17:54, Zach Deveau (M, 31)
  3. 17:58, Trevor Sununu (M, 23)
  4. 18:25, Gary Droze (M, 58)
  5. 18:38, Michael Martinez (M, 53)
  6. 18:41, Hawthorne Hay (M, 17)
  7. 18:45, Michael Rhodes (M, 50)
  8. 18:48, Khalil Randell (M, 22)
  9. 18:59, Mickey Moore (M, 49)
  10. 19:04, Myles Gibson (M, 53)

Top Ten Women, 2019 Capital City Kiwanis Firecracker 5K
  1. 18:03, Ann Centner (F, 27)
  2. 18:55, Alyson Churchill (F, 17)
  3. 19:45, Mo Palmer (F, 18)
  4. 20:20, Caroline Willis (F, 20)
  5. 20:24, Amanda Sava (F, 24)
  6. 20:50, Brittney Barnes (F, 31)
  7. 20:54, Megan Churchill (F, 17)
  8. 21:45, Mia Wiederkehr (F, 21)
  9. 22:18, Kirsten Tucker (F, 23)
  10. 22:49, Laura McDermott (F, 39)

Recent winners of the Firecracker 5000m
DateMenWomenFinishers
4 July 201917:43, Michael Niezgoda18:03, Ann Centner521
4 July 201815:34, Ricardo Estremera19:12, Katie Sherron479
4 July 201716:48, Charlie Johnson19:42, Katie Sherron520
4 July 201616:06, Stanley Linton20:35, Brittney Barnes399
4 July 201517:00, Michael Potter19:23, Alyson Churchill370
4 July 201417:06, Joseph Garcia18:58, Katie Slater431
4 July 201318:22, Roger Schmidt20:53, Katie Showman180
4 July 201216:14, Stanley Linton22:36, Nancy Stedman128
4 July 201117:20, Joel Piotrowski21:35, Stephanie Stout73
3 July 201018:45, Cliff Skelton22:29, Nancy Stedman87
4 July 200916:46, Daniel Lee19:26, Emily Ness78
4 July 2008
4 July 200718:05, Tony Guillen21:51, Julie Clark88
4 July 200617:40, James Cook20:03, Julia Vola76
4 July 200516:44, Jeff Dubias20:30, Heather Bailey56
3 July 200415:48, Caleb Carmichael18:39, Kara Newell127
4 July 2003
4 July 200216:57, Jason Fulghum22:07, Janice Hochstein80
4 July 200117:22, Paul Hoover17:53, Sarah Docter-Williams94
4 July 200015:57, Gary Droze18:10, Sarah Docter-Williams155
4 July 199916:37, Tim Simpkins17:56, Sarah Docter-Williams
4 July 199816:05, Damian Wilson17:35, Sarah Docter-Williams
4 July 1997
4 July 199615:45, Gary Droze19:13, Carrie Weyant
4 July 199416:07, Gary Droze18:19, Lisa Herman
4 July 199016:55, Bill Crooks19:10, Vikki Saga
4 July 198916:47, Paul Hoover20:27, Mae Cleveland
4 July 198817:02, Paul Hoover
From 1983 to 2012 the Firecracker 5000 was run in Gadsden County from
Sycamore to Greensboro.
In 2013 the Firecracker 5000 was run in Tallahassee on trails in Phipps
Park.
In 2014 the Firecracker 5000 was run in Tallahassee from Cascades Park
on USATF Certified Course FL14067EBM.
In 2015 the Firecracker 5000 was run in Tallahassee from Cascades Park
on USATF Certified Course FL15071EBM.
In 2016 the Firecracker 5000 was run in Tallahassee from Cascades Park
on USATF Certified Course FL14149EBM.


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Monday, November 5, 2018

Michael Niezgoda and Stella Lewis run down wins at the Rex Cleveland Downhill Mile

Sunday, 4 November 2018, was the day that tens of thousands of athletes were on the streets of the Big Apple, running the 26.2 miles of the 48th New York City Marathon. For a smaller group of athletes in Tallahassee, the focus that day was on a single mile, Gulf Winds Track Club’s third annual Rex Cleveland Road Mile. Michael Niezgoda won the race in 4:47.38, and Stella Lewis was the first female finisher, placing fourth overall in 5:53.15.

Michael Niezgoda

The mile is usually a track event, but occasionally mile races are run on less traditional courses. In the years immediately after World War II, Atlantic City, New Jersey staged an annual race on the city’s boardwalk. The goal of the Boardwalk Mile was to get a sub-4:00 performance. The race was entirely straight, a tailwind was possible, and some years the leaders were paced by a relay team. Without any of those advantages, Roger Bannister became the first athlete to break 4:00 for a mile, running in a different race on a track on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean. After that, interest in the Boardwalk Mile dwindled and the race faded away.


New York City revived the idea of an off-track mile on a straightaway in 1981 with the first running of the annual Fifth Avenue Mile. In Tallahassee, George West did New York one better, organizing the Belle Vue Mile. West’s course on Belle Vue Way was not only straight, but entirely downhill. Additionally, he treated the athletes to beer and oysters after the race.

Stella Lewis

The Rex Cleveland Road Mile is Tallahassee’s most recent downhill mile. First run in 2016, the race starts in the heights near the Capital City Country Club, plunges to Cascades Park, crosses South Monroe Street on the Cascades Park Bridge, then descends the bridge to finish along FAMU Way, following the course of the Saint Augustine Branch.


“It’s really a downhill three-quarters of a mile,” noted master runner Bill McGuire. “You better save something for that last level quarter mile.”

Jim Halley

Even the last quarter mile is slightly downhill, or the Saint Augustine Branch wouldn’t flow downstream. It probably doesn’t feel downhill to the runners, though, not after the pounding their legs take during the drop early in the race.


That initial downhill is dramatic enough that Niezgoda came through the first quarter-mile in 64 seconds. He had run track for Livonia Churchill High and for the University of Alabama, but his average pace for a mile had never been that fast. It was also quicker than he had planned on running that day.

Clifton Lewis

“Going into it, I just wanted to break 5:00,” said Niezgoda. “I’m not really training for a mile now, so anything under 5:00 is great.”


Niezgoda’s winning time, 4:47.38, was well under 5:00.


“I ran the 800 in college, so this is right in my wheelhouse,” said Niezgoda. “I crossed the finish line today, high-fived my wife, and said, ‘This is fun!’”

Jackson Rowe

Jim Halley followed Niezgoda across the finish line, second in 5:19.23. Taking third in 5:29.62 was Jackson Rowe, a seventh-grader on the Montford Middle School cross-country team.


Rowe wasn’t the only middle school athlete in the race. Stella Lewis, first in the women’s standings at 5:53.15, is an eighth-grader at Swift Creek. Lewis also ran the 2017 Cleveland Mile.


“My time here last year was 5:59,” said Lewis. “My fastest track time last spring was 5:58.”

Madison Sims

Clifton Lewis, a fifth-grader, was the second female finisher and fifth overall in 5:59.62. Madison Sims, a sixth-grader on the Fort Braden School cross-country team, was third in the women's standings and fourteenth overall in 6:24.19.


Nico Wienders was the first master runner in the race and fourth male finisher, coming in sixth overall in 6:00.85. Lourena Maxwell was the top woman master and seventh female finisher, eighteenth overall in 6:44.18.


76 athletes finished the 2018 Rex Cleveland Road Mile. Gulf Winds Track Club chip-timed the race.


Top Ten Men, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2018 Rex Cleveland Road Mile
  1. 4:47.38, Michael Niezgoda (M, 29)
  2. 5:19.24, Jim Halley (M, 39)
  3. 5:29.62, Jackson Rowe (M, 12)
  4. 6:00.85, Nico Wienders (M, 47)
  5. 6:05.55, Brian Molen (M, 42)
  6. 6:08.41, Michael Kennett (M, 45)
  7. 6:13.88, Cadden Maxwell (M, 12)
  8. 6:18.69, Jeff Nielsen (M, 60)
  9. 6:18.69, Connor Aarons (M, 12)
  10. 6:20.94, Darren Whiddon (M, 46)

Top Ten Women, Gulf Winds Track Club's 2018 Rex Cleveland Road Mile
  1. 5:53.15, Stella Lewis (F, 14)
  2. 5:59.62, Clifton Lewis (F, 10)
  3. 6:24.19, Madison Sims (F, 11)
  4. 6:35.63, Maddison Green (F, 13)
  5. 6:37.03, Aza Hampton (F, 12)
  6. 6:44.18, Lourena Maxwell (F, 43)
  7. 6:59.94, Logan Green (F, 13)
  8. 7:07.67, Charlotte Sikes (F, 7)
  9. 7:16.44, Loranne Ausley (F, 55)
  10. 7:28.61, Chloe Molen (F, 8)

Winners of Gulf Winds Track Club's Rex Cleveland Road Mile, 2016 - 2018
DateMenWomenFinishers
2 November 20164:09.14, Ricardo Estremera5:34.19, Amy Hines174
5 November 20174:25, Charlie Johnson5:53, Jillian Heddaeus163
4 November 20184:47.38, Michael Niezgoda5:53.15, Stella Lewis76


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Monday, April 16, 2018

Michael Niezgoda and Christina Linton survive the sand at the Hops & Half Shells 5K

Just south of Crawfordville, Florida, Tallahassee Community College opened the first building of the school's Wakulla Environmental Institute during early 2016. In April of the same year, TCC hosted the first annual Hops And Half Shells 5K cross-country race on the Institute grounds. Since then, the Institute has thrived. So has the race, and on Saturday morning, 14 April 2018, Michael Niezgoda won the third annual Hops And Half Shells 5K, running 18:10. Christina Linton repeated as the first woman in the race, placing fourteenth overall in 22:59.

Michael Niezgoda
2018 Hops & Half Shells 5K

The 158 acres of Institute land include just about every kind of natural feature you'd expect to see in Wakulla County--pine forest, swamps, sinkholes, a natural bridge, and lots and lots of sand. During 3.1 miles of cross-country running, the athletes in the Hops and Half Shells 5K got to experience all of that, especially the sand.


The race got underway just after 9:00 AM. Michael Niezgoda was out front immediately and moving away from the rest of the field. Gary Droze, the Tallahassee Community College cross-country coach, led the pursuit during the first half of the race, but after that Vince Molosky took over the second position. And Molosky began to eat away at Niezgoda's lead.

Michael Niezgoda
Michael Niezgoda

"Vince tried to pull a Meb Keflezighi, running from behind," said Niezgoda. "I didn't see him at the start, but during the race I turned around and there he was."


The second half of the race featured patches of loose sand, footing that you would have expected on the beach rather than in the forest. Already fatigued from a fast start, Niezgoda wallowed through those sandy stretches, conscious of a closing Molosky.


"The last mile was brutal," said Niezgoda.

Vince Molosky
Vince Molosky

But Niezgoda endured, beating Molosky to the finish line 18:10 to 18:15. Coach Droze was third in 19:00, the top master runner in the race.


Despite the rugged course, the race and the Institute continue to draw the runners. Vince Molosky, for instance, had been at the first Hops and Half Shells 5K in 2016, and was running the 2018 event in spite of having just finished a 50 kilometer trail race in Torreya State Park a week earlier.


"I love it out here," said Molosky. "It's beautiful."

Gary Droze
Gary Droze

Coach Droze, who has run all three Hops and Half Shells races, wants to bring even more runners to the Institute. "I'd like to make this our home course and hold at least one meet out here each season," said Droze.


Kendall Ward, on the other hand, hadn't run at the Institute before Saturday. The Chiles High senior hadn't done much racing at all, having only recently taken up running after years of playing soccer.


"I'm not used to running on sand or grass," said Ward.

Christina Linton
Christina Linton

Nevertheless, Ward was leading the women's field for the first four kilometers of the five kilometer race, leaving behind the top woman from the previous year, Christina Linton.


"I didn't think I was going to catch her," said Linton. "But about two-and-a-half miles I did."


After overtaking Ward, Linton pulled away, running 22:59 and taking a second straight women's title. Ward was runner-up for the women, placing seventeenth overall in 23:19. Kathy Greene was the first woman master and third female finisher, twentieth overall in 23:39.

Kendall Ward
Kendall Ward

Ward may be seeing more of the Institute trails; after graduating Chiles she'll be running for Coach Droze's TCC cross-country squad. And where will Linton be racing next?


"The Palace Saloon 5K," said Linton.


That certainly shares a theme with the Hops and Half Shells race.


215 athletes finished the 2018 Hops & Half Shells 5K. Gulf Winds Track Club of Tallahassee, Florida chip-timed the race.


Top Ten Men, 2018 Hops And Half Shells 5K
  1. 18:10, Michael Niezgoda (M, 29)
  2. 18:15, Vince Molosky (M, 38)
  3. 19:00, Gary Droze (M, 56)
  4. 19:33, John Bikowitz (M, 32)
  5. 20:43, Gannon Hundley (M, 19)
  6. 20:48, John Schwenkler (M, 36)
  7. 20:58, Michael Martinez (M, 52)
  8. 21:17, Garrett Padgham (M, 34)
  9. 22:18, Adrian Mood (M, 30)
  10. 22:40, Peniel Scantlebury (M, 28)

Top Ten Women, 2018 Hops And Half Shells 5K
  1. 22:59, Christina Linton (F, 37)
  2. 23:19, Kendall Ward (F, 17)
  3. 23:39, Kathy Greene (F, 44)
  4. 23:56, Nancy Johnson (F, 44)
  5. 24:04, Katie Stolz (F, 28)
  6. 24:16, Ariel Urban (F, 27)
  7. 25:16, Lynn Varner (F, 53)
  8. 25:23, Madison Sims (F, 10)
  9. 25:24, Samantha Fillmore (F, 42)
  10. 25:25, Lauren Angnardo (F, 23)

Hops & Half Shells 5K winners, 2016 - 2018
DateMenWomenFinishers
23 April 201617:40, Zach DeVeau21:53, Katie Sherron319
22 April 201715:52, Stan Linton24:05, Christina Linton261
14 April 201818:10, Michael Niezgoda22:59, Christina Linton215


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