By: Roger Hopper
Season Overview
After the spring was a wash and the summer a shadow of its usual self, it was great to see road racing make a strong comeback this fall, in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Almost too strong a comeback, as the backlog of races postponed from the spring and summer was finally unleashed, resulting in Grand Prix runners like myself scrambling to compete in as many contests as possible in order to secure those oh so valuable Grand Prix points. With the absence of some of our favorite larger events necessitated by COVID, the smaller club Grand Prix events had free rein of the fall racing schedule, and lost time was made up for with Grand Prix events for the Colonial Road Runners, Peninsula Track Club, Tidewater Striders, and the inter-club Hampton Roads Super Grand Prix taking up every Saturday except for two during the fall season. Once again, like the handful of events that went on during the summer, hats off to the race directors and club presidents rolling with the punches to reschedule or maintain these events and pull them off in a safe, compliant, and effective manner. There were some remarkable competitions and performances this fall, thanks to their hard work creating the opportunities. Not too far off the quality of last fall's rankings, this season was certainly much more competitive than the summer. The almost exclusively fantastic race weather played a role in this, but more important was the resilience of the 757 running community to continue to train and race hard in the face of unprecedented uncertainty.
Male Overall
To be the best, you have to beat the best. While I didn't get the chance to race rankings-10K-equivalent-high Jeffrey Dover or runner-up David Gregory this fall, I did defend my summer #1 ranking against others in the top 5 on several occasions. I picked up wins at the Powhatan Creek Trail 5K in 16:05, Logy Bear 8K in 27:07, Ice-aholics 8K in 26:52, FURever Homes 8K in 26:17, Queens Lake 5K in 15:45 (age grade = 81.59%), and finally the Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K in a PR-tying 15:44 (81.67%), all course records save for Ice-aholics and Queens Lake. Dover and Gregory only raced once, and it takes two to qualify, so for the 2nd consecutive season I earned the top spot, matching my season-best time of 15:44 at the DOG Street 5K last season. 2nd-ranked William Thompson was 2nd at all of the races I won except for Piankatank, where in his absence 5th-ranked Andre Gallant, a recent Coast Guard Academy graduate, was my top competition with his 2nd place 16:20 in the perfect fall afternoon weather. In the mix with Thompson, 4th place Gallant, and me at Queens Lake, the most competitive race of the season, also in great racing conditions, was Adam Otstot, whose stellar 15:54 for 3rd there earned him the #3 spot on this list, and the male-rankings-high age grade of 83.86%. Otstot spoiled Thompson's chance for a win at the only Colonial Road Runners race I missed all fall, the Virginia Fire Chiefs 5K, where he prevailed 15:58 (83.51%) to 16:09. Thompson's superior season best time of 15:50 (81.16%) to vanquish Otstot at Queens Lake, as well as his body of work throughout the season, gives him the edge over Otstot in the rankings, replicating his #2 ranking from the summer. Further to his credit, Thompson also handed me my lone defeat of the fall at the Run for the Hills 10K, where he won 34:10 to 34:38 on the hilly course. Completing the top 5, and replicating his #4 ranking from last fall, is David Kidd, whose strong 1:14:12 at the Strider Half Marathon was good for 2nd place in ideal racing conditions that morning.
With Virginia's high school cross country season on ice due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, many prep runners took to the roads, and in doing so filled out most of the rest of the top 16. Best among them was Tabb High senior Michael Menapace, whose wins in somewhat sloppy course conditions at the high-school-centric Gummy Bear 5K (16:29) and Strider XC Classic 5K (16:53) earned him #6. Western Branch senior Cooper Hurst was right on Menapace's heels, finishing in 16:30 for 2nd at the Gummy Bear 5K. This was after his 3rd place finish to Thompson and me at Powhatan Creek in 16:43. Right with Hurst at Powhatan Creek were his Western Branch teammates 9th-ranked Michael Jones, 4th place in 16:47, and 11th-ranked Lucas Simmons, 5th place in 16:58. Sandwiched among all of the high schoolers is rankings-regular Emmanuel Gomez, whose swift 27:36 win at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler nets him #8. Rounding out the top 10 is Warhill High senior Cary Caldwell, who was 4th at the Gummy Bear 5K to Menapace, Hurst, and Jones as well as 6th at Powhatan Creek behind Hurst, Jones, and Simmons. Caldwell outranks Simmons by bouncing back from finishing 10 seconds behind Simmons' 16:58 at Powhatan Creek to finshing 20 seconds ahead of Simmons with his own 16:58, his season best, at the Gummy Bear 5K. Caldwell dropped 4 spots from his 6th overall ranking during the summer. Salem High harriers #12 Draven Fernandez and #14 Robert Cummings round out most of the youth in the top 25 with their respective personal bests of 17:08 at the Gummy Bear 5K and 17:36 at Queens Lake. Fernandez drops 8 spots and Cummings 7 compared to their top 10 rankings this past summer. Top-ranked master Andy Riley splits the Salem teammates at #13 with his 17:31 for 7th at Queens Lake. Warhill High School graduate Evan Clary rounds out the top 15 after finishing one second behind Cummings at Queens Lake, in 17:37, improving on his #16 ranking from the summer.
As mentioned above, there were a couple of fantastic performances by runners that only raced once this fall. CNU alum Jeffrey Dover owned the Strider XC Classic 5K in 15:30 (82.90%), as he did last year in 15:26. Kellam High grad David Gregory dominated the Strider Half Marathon to win in a fantastic 1:11:48 (80.80%). And I would be remiss to not mention rankings-regular Chris Free's over-6-minute marathon PR 2:44:03 for 3rd at the Strider Marathon. Free would've just snuck into the top 10 with a second race.
With race directors finding ways to put on more races than during the summer despite the ongoing COVID situation, there were many more opportunities to compete than there were last season. This, combined with great racing weather all fall, resulted in this season's male overall rankings being of much higher quality than the summer, and there was even just a small drop in quality compared to fall 2019, quite the acheivement given the absence of many of the usual and fast races necessitated by COVID this year. The 10K equivalent needed to make the top 5, 10, and 25 was only 30-60 seconds slower than last fall, while being over 2 minutes faster than this past summer for each of those same thresholds. I see this as an absolute win for our local running community - despite the pandemic, everyone is still training hard and putting up quality times!
Male Masters
Andy Riley tops the male masters category in dominating fashion, by over a minute in terms of 10K equivalent, on the strength of his 17:31 (age grade = 78.40%) for 7th in great weather for fast times at the Queens Lake 5K. As was the case for the summer rankings, masters-10K-equivalent-high Mark Tompkins would've been first by a minute with a second race, but he only ran one. Jason Miller improves one spot from the summer with his great 29:56 for 6th at the flat and fast Dismal Swamp 5 Miler. Steven Kast continued to show improvement with a fantastic pair of 82% age grades, 82.92% for his 18:21 for 5th at the Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K and 82.33% for his 18:29 at Queens Lake. The 55-year-old former CNU standout runner Kast has been on a great trajectory over the past couple years, consistently improving from 5K times in the 21s in early 2019 to the 20s in mid-2019 and early 2020 to the 19s earlier this year and now deeper and deeper into the 18s. Greg Lynn replicated his #4 master ranking from the summer, finishing just 3 seconds behind Kast at Piankatank in 18:24. Lynn topped 5th-ranked Randy Shelton at Powhatan Creek 18:35-19:02, but Shelton's best race was his 30:28 for 8th at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler, where he did beat Lynn by just 14 seconds. Shelton picked up a win at the Boys Home Harvest Hustle 10K in Covington in 41:32, and was the top male finisher at the Indian Fields 20 Miler in 2:22:29, where the top overall finisher was female one-racer Kristin Herring in 2:20:03. Shelton moves up one spot from his ranking last season.
Moving out of the top 5, #6 Peter Pommerenk took advantage of great marathon weather to notch a BQ 3:00:58 for 6th at the Strider Marathon, a race in which he beat 8th-ranked Carter Ficklen by just over 8 minutes after Ficklen beat Pommerenk by a narrow 4 seconds, 31:20-31:24, at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler. Ficklen's strong Swamp 5 Mile run propels him 6 spots higher from where he was ranked over the summer. Andrew Crookston is #7 after his 18:46 for 21st at the Queens Lake 5K. Crookston's 39:38 for 4th at the Run for the Hills 10K must've surprised 4th-ranked Lynn, who only ran 40:08 for the hilly course, but Lynn did bounce back to top Crookston by 2 seconds at Queens Lake, and he ran far superior times on fast days at Piankatank and the Powhatan Creek 5K. #9 Andrea Buoso ran a great 1:27:42 for 4th overall at the Strider Half Marathon, and rounding out the top 10 is Chris Laws with his great 19:13 at Queens Lake that was surprisingly only good for 24th place on that very competitive day. The next 2 finishers at Queens Lake are also the next 2 runners ranked, with #11 Tim Stewart running 19:16 for 25th and #12 Rick Samaha running 19:29 for 26th and an outstanding age grade of 82.89% to go with his 80.88% grade for his 19:58 at the Virginia Fire Chiefs 5K. Samaha dropped 3 spots from his summer #9 ranking. 13th-ranked Robert Whitaker was off of his game at Queens Lake in 20:04, but he rebounded well to run 19:36 for 10th and an age grade of 81.93% at Piankatank. Queens Lake race director Paul Pelletier is #14 despite missing out on running that fast race, instead offering a strong 19:36 to finish just 3 seconds behind Whitaker at Piankatank. Whitaker and Pelletier dropped 8 and 6 spots, respectively, compared to the summer rankings. Rounding out the top 15 is Joe Calkins, whose 19:41 was good for the win at the Lighthouse 5K down in the Outer Banks, but also saw him drop 5 spots from the summer.
There were a few great male masters with only one race, to go with the already-mentioned Mark Tompkins. John Lomogda doesn't race much, but when he does it is always spectacular. The 51-year-old struck again with his 17:57 for 4th overall and an age grade of 82.08% at the Strider XC Classic 5K. A second race and Lomogda would've been ranked 2nd, as would have Tidewater Striders president Thomas Hicks, who was too busy race directing all fall to find the time to compete more than once. He did make the most of his lone effort, an 18:00 80.56% age grade for 4th overall at Piankatank.
Like the overall men, the male masters rankings saw a large uptick in quality compared to the summer. The 10K equivalent to qualify improved by 40 seconds for the top 5, almost a minute for the top 10, and a whole 5 minutes for the top 25. There was quite the dropoff from last fall, over a minute for the top 10 and over 3 for the top 25, but considering almost every single one of the top times in last fall's top 25 were from races that were cancelled this year due to COVID, this isn't all that surprising. Many of those races, especially the usual J&A Racing fall events, are some of the fastest courses around for their distances, and usually take advantage of great fall racing weather. That was not the case this year, but many great performances were put forth nonetheless.
Female Overall
It's about time Sika Henry made these rankings! The triathlete doesn't race much, but when she does it is always inspired. Talk of her first sub-3 marathon was abound before, and especially after, her dominating 18:23 (age grade = 80.87%) win at the Queens Lake 5K, and she lived up to the hype by running an outstanding 2:57:13 three weeks later to place 3rd at the Strider Marathon and earn her #1 ranking. 2nd-ranked Jenny Moran improved 2 spots from her summer #4 ranking thanks to her fantastic 1:25:11 win at the Strider Half Marathon, which came a week after her PR 19:14 win at the Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K. Each of Henry and Moran's races mentioned above benefitted from nearly-ideal racing weather, and these two competitors took full advantage of it, running PRs and besting the rest of the rankings field by 2 and a half minutes. Somewhat disappointingly, we didn't get to see Moran and Henry race each other or anyone else in the top 5 other than Henry's over-2-minute victory over 3rd-ranked Emily Honeycutt at Queens Lake, but I did get my summer rankings wish of seeing how a race between then #1 Megan Schulze and #2 Honeycutt would play out. Honeycutt triumphed twice, first at the Virginia Fire Chiefs 5K where she finished 2nd in 19:42 to Schulze's 3rd-place 20:13; both times were these runners' season bests. Honeycutt also topped Schulze 43:03-44:38 for the win at the hilly Run for the Hills 10K. Honeycutt would also win the Powhatan Creek Trail 5K in 20:16 and the FURever Homes 8K in 35:31. Schulze recorded some wins as well, taking the Ice-aholics Freedom Run 8K in 34:38, the challenging Viking Dash 20K in 1:58:39, and the short-course New Kent Turkey Trot 5K (3 miles) in 20:52. Rounding out the top 5 is Western Branch High senior Saylor Burris, who ran 20:31 to finish 2nd at the Powhatan Creek Trail 5K, 15 seconds behind Honeycutt.
6th-ranked Ashley Diette ran well to record 33:56 for 8th at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler to go with her BQ 3:22:54, also for 8th place, at the Strider Marathon. #7 Alette McGuire improved greatly over 4 weeks, starting with a 22:38 for 7th at Powhatan Creek and improving to 20:52 for 2nd at the Strider XC Classic 5K. 8th-ranked Julie Hicks, also 2nd master, ran better than her summer times, but dropped 2 spots due to a marked increase in quality at the top. Her fall season was highlighted by her 21:01 for 3rd place at Queens Lake. #9 Cannon Jean, a Jamestown High junior, is the only high schooler other than Burris in the top 16, a contrast to the men where half the top 16 were still in high school. Jean improved throughout the season, running her best time a week before it was over with her 21:12 for 2nd place at Piankatank, where she outkicked Hicks by one second. Hicks topped Jean by 38 seconds at Queens Lake to secure the higher spot here. Closing out the top 10 is Jessie Japzon, whose 1:38:34 was good for 5th at the Strider Half Marathon. The next 4, and almost 5, ranked runners all ran their best times at Queens Lake. Notable among them is 11th-ranked Meaghan Gsell, who stacked up top-6 finishes at every Colonial Road Runner race all season. Gsell's highest finish was 2nd overall at the Ice-aholics Freedom Run 8K in 37:15, but her best times came during a pair of 4th-place efforts at Queens Lake (21:35) and Fire Chiefs (21:54). 12th-ranked Christine Fernandez, mother of male overall also #12 Draven Fernandez, fell 5 spots from the summer despite her time at Queens Lake, 21:42, having over a minute better 10K equivalent than her best summer time. #15 Svetlana Goncharova does have the slightly superior time, but Karen Grabowski ranks one spot ahead of Goncharova due to her beating Goncharova at Powhatan Creek, Fire Chiefs, FURever Homes, and Queens Lake, though Goncharova did beat Grabowski at Run for the Hills and the Logy Bear 8K. 13th-ranked Denise Littman beat Grabowski and Goncharova at Queens Lake and FURever Homes.
There were some great one-off female overall performances this fall, led by rankings-regular Christin Hoffstadt's 2:56:26 PR for 2nd place at the Strider Marathon. Another race and Hoffstadt would've been #1. Kristin Herring was 1st overall at the Indian Fields 20 Miler in 2:20:03, beating all of the men at that race and achieving a time that would've been good for a ranking of 3rd had she run another race. Jamestown High junior Caroline Bauer dominated the Gummy Bear 5K, winning by almost a minute and a half in 19:29. Gwen Riley's lone race of the fall was a 19:41 win at the Fire Chiefs 5K where she topped Honeycutt and Schulze's season bests. The next 4 one-offs all finished within 3 seconds of each other at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler, where Ocean Lakes High juniors Ryan Smith and Maggie Reed both crossed the line in 32:43, just ahead of junior teammate Elise Richardson's 32:46 and Renee Merchant's 32:45. Tabb High alum Kasandra Aulenbach won the Logy Bear 8K in 32:37, a time far superior to what it might appear to be due to the challenging nature of that 8K course. 2nd behind Kasandra was her younger sister, Tabb junior Katryna Aulenbach, in 33:23, ahead of race director and Tabb cross country and track coach Emily Honeycutt's 3rd place 34:57.
The female overall rankings were massively improved from the summer, with the 10K equivalent standard to make the top 10 improving 3.5 minutes from around 48 minutes to 44:30, and the standard to make the top 25 improving almost 10 minutes from 57:22 to 47:49. This isn't too surprising since the number of races more than doubled and race conditions were much more ideal. Still, many things are easier said than done, and it is great to see the local ladies go out and execute on a high level. There was a 4 minute increase in the 10K equivalent needed to make the top 10 and 25 compared to last fall, and perhaps this can be partially attributed to there only being about half the races, 24, as there were in fall 2019, 43.
Female Masters
Jenny Moran replicated what the great Teresa Allman accomplished during the winter 2019-2020 edition of these rankings, topping the female masters category by over 5 minutes! Some good redemption for Moran as she was 2nd to Allman in those very rankings. To my knowledge, Allman hasn't raced since, and in that vacuum Moran has dominated this category for a second consecutive season. Time will tell if she can make it 3 in a row, but I wouldn't bet against her as she has improved greatly throughout 2020, starting with a 42:04 10K equivalent last winter, improving to 41:24 over the summer, and catapulting to 38:29 here on the strength of her 1:25:11 win (age grade = 79.30%) at the Strider Half Marathon. This isn't unknown territory for Moran, who was the top female master last fall with a 10K equivalent of 39:59, but she has undoubtedly been most impressive this fall, a season during which despite being a master she also achieved #2 overall. 2nd-ranked Julie Hicks and 3rd-ranked Christine Fernandez, like Moran, replicated their rankings from the summer. Like #4 Denise Littman, they had their best races at the Queens Lake 5K, making it too easy to rank them in the order they finished there. 5th-ranked Deborah Simpson and 6th-ranked Kerry Johnson round out the masters women fast enough to make the overall top 25, with Johnson throwing down a BQ 3:34:56 for 11th at the Strider Marathon.
The top 6 fall female masters are all below age 45, but age didn't stop #7 Kimberly Moore (53) and #8 Connie Glueck (56) from being next on the list. Glueck starts a trio of runners who finished 7th, 8th, and 9th at the Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K to earn their 8th, 9th, and 10th place rankings here. #9 Susan Hagel fell 5 spots from the summer thanks to the 5 newly-ranked runners just ahead of her, while despite all of these competitive newcomers, Daphne Papaefthimiou managed to improve one spot to 10th, thanks of course to her 2 minute 5K improvement from 26:44 over the summer to 24:44 at Piankatank. #14 Betty Brothers was on top of her game, achieving an awe-inspiring rankings-high age grade of 86.28% with her 41:55 at the Dismal Swamp 5 Miler. Like Papaefthimiou, 15th-ranked Maria Peters was a rare positive mover in this category, up 3 spots from her summer ranking thanks to her over-3-minute 5K time improvement from 28:57 last season to 25:51 here.
Top female masters with only one race include Kristin Herring's overall win at the Indian Fields 20 Miler in 2:20:03 - a second race and Herring would've been ranked 2nd here. From her it is a long way down to Anne Spillane and Karen Lindauer's 12th and 13th place finishes at the Strider 5 Miler. It had been a long while since Debbie McLaughlin's last race, but she showed she still has it with her 22:30 for 11th place at Queens Lake. A second race and the 55-year-old McLaughlin would've been ranked 7th with a 10K equivalent almost 3 minutes ahead of her would-be fellow quinquagenarians in the top 10.
Like all of the other categories, the female masters rankings saw a great uptick in quality compared to the summer, and a great drop in quality compared to fall 2019. Making the top 10 got over four 10K equivalent minutes harder since last season, while the time needed to make the top 25 improved by a whopping 12 minutes. The top 10 was 4 minutes, and the top 25 6 minutes, slower than last fall in terms of 10K equivalent, but the improvement from the summer is promising. May we see further improvements this winter!
Races
In order to be considered for these rankings, a race must have open entry to all, have full results listed on a website, and preferably list age, gender, and city of residence of all runners. Road and cross country races will be considered. Any race that is known to have an actual distance significantly different from its advertised distance will have its actual, or more accurate best-guess, distance displayed in parentheses. Races will fall into the following seasons based on the following boundaries: spring is the first full weekend of March up to but not including Memorial Day weekend, summer includes Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, fall is from after Labor Day to before Thanksgiving, and winter includes Thanksgiving races up to but not including the first full weekend of March.
