Masters Athletes Head for a Chilly Outing at the 2024 USATF Cross Country Championships

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — The USATF Cross Country Championships will be held this Saturday, January 20^th at Pole Green Park in Richmond. There are two races for Masters Athletes; the Women’s race at 10:30 AM with the Men’s following at 11:30. The forecast is for a sunny, but chilly morning; temperatures at the start will be several degrees below freezing! It will not be the first time Masters athletes have raced over the turf in frigid weather.

The temperatures may be cold, but the competition will be hot! Carrie Dimoff, the 13^th place finisher in the Marathon at the Doha World Championships, and Renee Metivier, a 5-time competitor for Team USA at the World Cross Country Championships, are vying on the turf again. At the Club Cross Championships in Tallahassee on December 9^th, they went 1-2, with Dimoff taking the honors in 21:17 and Metivier 23 seconds behind in 2^nd. They will be challenged by the defending 2023 champion here in Richmond. April Lund took top honors, with two minutes to spare, on a time of 22:03. That qualified her to represent Team USA at the first WMA Cross Country Championships in Australia, where she won a W40 gold medal and a silver with Ben Bruce in the Mixed Relay. Kasie Enman, who won the 2011 World Mountain Running Championships in Tirana, Albania, will also challenge. No stranger to the turf, Enman captured the 2021 Masters 5 Km Cross Country Championship at Boston’s Franklin Park in 18:20. Two Virginians could break onto the podium. Julia Siegel Breton ran here last year as an Open runner, covering the 10 Km course in 38:31 to finish 32^nd. Mindy Mammen ran for the University of Tennessee, helping her Cross Country team to SEC victories from 2003-5 and the national title in 2004. She clocked 59:04 at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in April.

The Men’s race may be as one sided as last year when Ben Bruce broke the race up after the first 2 Km loop and strode away for a decisive victory. Fernando Cabada enters as a strong favorite. He competed three times for Team USA in international competitions, twice in the Half Marathon and once in the Marathon. Cabada continues to compete at a high level, taking top Masters honors at the 2023 Houston Half Marathon in 1:04:15. Three months later he won the USATF Masters Ten Mile Championship in 49:03. If Cabada runs into any trouble, there is plenty of competition. Neil McDonagh finished 2^nd here last year, less than half a minute behind Bruce in 25:26. McDonagh is coming off a strong performance at the Colleen De Reuck Cross Country Classic in Boulder where he clocked 16:56 over 5 Km at altitude. Those two are the favorites for gold and silver. Three who should contend for the final podium spot include Brian Flynn, Adam Otstot, and Jeremy Redfern. Flynn finished 4^th at Club Cross in Tallahassee and won the USATF Masters 12 Km Championship in Highlands NJ in 39:00. Otstot finished 4^th in this championship last year and ran a 15:31 5K and a 32:59 10K this year. Redfern‘s time at the 2022 California International Marathon was 2:28:59. In March of this year he ran in the Elite section of the L.A. Marathon, finishing at 2:34:23.

An exciting Age Division race is anticipated in W50, where Lorilyn Bloomer, who won the 2020 edition of these championships in San Diego, goes up against Abby Dean, who took top division honors at the 5 Km Championships in Atlanta in February in 19:20 and at the 10 Km Championships in Dedham MA in 38:15. W60 features three top performers, Mary Cass who took top W60 honors at the 2022 Club Cross Championships; Suzanne La Burt, who took top W60 honors at the 2023 Club Cross Championships; and Marisa Sutera Strange, who is returning after some time away from national competition. Strange took top honors overall at the age of 56 in winning the 2019 USATF Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee. In M50, Philippe Rolly, who finished 1 second behind the winner here last year, will try to hold off Gregory Putnam, who won three road and one cross country national championships this year, and Rusty Snow, whose 1:13:24 at the Ventura Half Marathon earned top M50 honors. In M60, Nat Larson, who holds multiple American Road records and has won the last three championships he contested on the turf, is the favorite. Mark Zamek will try to find a way to eliminate the 18 seconds that stood between him and Larson at the end of the race in Tallahassee last December. M65 features a competitive race as well, between Roger Sayre, who finished 3^rd in M60 at Club Cross in 2021; David Westenberg, defending champion; and Ken Youngers, who finished 2^nd here last year, but has beaten Westenberg recently. Age-Grading Individual Champions will be honored as the strongest competitors overall, across all age divisions.

There are also exciting team races on tap with teams from Virginia vying for home state bragging rights while attempting to defeat out of state rivals from the mid-Atlantic states, Georgia, California and Oregon.

Submitted by
Paul Carlin