The low humidity and sunny skies, combined with a temperature in the 60s made for a delightful 5-kilometer run at Eastwood Golf Course on Thursday, September 13th. Dan Simmons cut 14 seconds of his time last year to win the 16th edition of the Mayo Open cross-country race following the Mayo High School Invitational Cross-Country meet. He finished in 16:04, a time bettered only once on this course (16:01 by Brian McSloy in 1986), and would have won the high school meet as well.
Jay Allen finished 2nd in 17:09, followed by the 1st master’s finisher, Jim Hannon, in 17:16. On the women’s side, the first three finishers were all 40 and over (Deb Dilling in 21:37, Julie Yost in 24:03, and Susan Powers in 26:14). In fact, of the top 15 finishers, 13 were age 39 and above.
Despite the aged nature of the competitors, Ian Torchia, age 5, became the youngest finisher in the race’s history. Also unique this year, was that winner Dan Simmons was the only runner in the 20-29 age group of either sex.
Volunteers kept everyone on course and get a special thanks – Starter Dennis Johnson, Paul Anderson, Gary Larson, John Modry, Jerry Willie, Bruce Petz, and the DeBoers (Rebecca, Nathaniel and Gail).
Place Name Age Time 1 Dan Simmons 25 16:04 2 Jay Allen 36 17:09 3 Jim Hannon 43 17:16 4 Gerry Werven 39 18:32 5 Brad Kautz 44 18:57 6 Steve DeBoer 46 19:23 7 Gregory Hagen 47 19:52 8 Brian Purrington 50 21:21 9 K C Reed 47 21:28 10 Steven Faas 42 21:43 11 Jim Mason 41 21:46 12 Deb Dilling 43 21:47 13 Tom Spackman 51 23:43 14 Mike Ewen 44 23:46 15 Julie Yost 41 24:03 16 Josiah Faas 16 25:12 17 Charlie Hannon 11 25:18 18 Susan Powers 50 26:06 19 Deb Braun 32 26:14 20 Kelsey Torchia 10 26:57 21 Sarah Torchia 9 29:45 22 Ian Torchia 5 34:32 23 Laura Martin 38 34:34 24 Linda Gentling 50 34:34 25 Patricia Torchia 39 34:10