TULSA – Masters athletes Timothy Martin and Deborah Torneden were the overall victors at USATF Masters 15 km Championships, hosted by the Federal Credit Union Tulsa Run on Saturday, Oct. 31.
The hilly course suited 41-year-old newcomer Martin (New Salisbury, Indiana) as he charged away from the start and never looked back at M40 John Gardiner (Rancho Santa Margarita, California) and M48 Christian ‘Cush’ Cushing-Murray (Santa Ana, California), the duo from the Cal Coast Track Club who were in hot pursuit. Martin built his lead steadily throughout the race and took the overall masters crown in 49:43, winning by 70 seconds. Gardiner and Cushing-Murray finished second and third respectively.
On the women’s side, W50 Torneden (Manhattan, Kansas) improved her 2014, third-place finish by five minutes to win in 1:01:34. Crossing the line in second and third were W55 Elena Shemyakina (Geneva, Illinois) and W50 Janice Rempe (Roswell, Georgia).
Age-Grade Competition
Sabra Harvey (Houston, Texas), W65, turned in the most impressive performance of the day, age-grading at 96.06%. Overall women’s champion and W50 athlete Torneden performed at 89.07%. Next was W60 Honor Fetherston (Los Gatos, California) at 87.72.
On the men’s side the win was decided by a few hundredths of a percentile as M60 runner Tom Bernhard (Castro Valley, California) took his second straight age-grade championship at 87.77%. M53 Nat Larson (Amherst, Massachusetts) earned second with 87.74% and Cushing-Murray was third with 87.45%.
Age Group Competition
Fifteen age-group champions were crowned. In the W60-64 category, Fetherston had the victory in 1:07:36 to Andriette Wickstrom’s (Storm Lake, Iowa) finish in 1:08:07. On the men’s side, three races were even closer. In the M60-64 age group, Bernhard defeated John Victoria(Colorado Springs, Colorado) 59:19 to 59:44. In the M75-79 group, Fay Bradley (Independence, Kansas) beat Roland Cormier (Jackson, N.J.) by seven seconds, 1:23:11 to 1:23:18. The closest race of the day was in the M70-74 group, where Przemyslaw Nowicki (Holmdel, N.J.) defeatedPaul Carlin (Indianapolis) by a mere four seconds, 1:10:54 to 1:10:58.
Team Competition
The Atlanta Track Club took the W50+ division. On the men’s side, the Cal Coast Track Club took the M40+ division; Playmakers Elite/New Balance (Lansing, Michigan) won the M50+;Boulder Road Runners won the 60+ and the Shore AC (NJ) won the M70+.
Contributed by: Paul Carlin
National Media Coordinator
USA Track & Field-Masters Long Distance Running
317.372.0267
therunningprof@gmail.com