It was a windy, dry, overcast day at Eastwood Golf Course for the 18th running of the Mayo Open Cross Country meet, which followed the high school invitational on Thursday, September 11th. None of the defending overall or master champions showed up, so Brett Carroll, the lone sub-17 minute finisher in 16:48, claimed victory in his first attempt since leaving the high school ranks. Patrick Stewart was 2nd and Jerry Wille, former 6-time champ, was 3rd and first master finisher, with times of 17:30 and 17:37 respectively. Of historical interest, Jerry also ran the first edition of this event in 1985, in 17:35.
Renee Saxman decided at the last minute to run the race, and, despite back surgery last winter, came away with a double victory, first overall as well as first master woman, in 23:54. Karen Yaszemski (25:30) and Katie Schneider (25:31) had a tight race for second.
The number of participants exceeded last year's total, 44 vs. 40 in 2002, including one drop out and 8 without numbers, who wished to remain anonymous. Considering the conditions, an even more amazing feat was the setting of a new 60 and over course record in the men's division by John Brown, in 20:38. The previous record was 25:08, set by Pat Brown in 1997.
Those who assisted in timing and keeping participants on course were Paul Anderson, starter Dennis Johnson, Gary Larson, Jim and Sarah Martinson, Roger Spee (who directed the first 4 editions of the race), and Gail, Nathaniel and Rebecca DeBoer. Rebecca was in charge of passing out home-grown cucumbers to those who like vegetables or wished to have a 'trophy' to commemorate this no-entry-fee event.
Place Name, Age Time 1. Brett Carroll, 23 16:48 2. Patrick Stewart, 34 17:30 3. Jerry Wille, 47 17:37 4. Jay Allen, 38 18:03 5. Steve Blatti, 34 19:59 6. Steve DeBoer, 48 20:07 7. John Brown, 60 20:38 8. Jeff Bostow, 47 20:51 9. Denny Rehm, 53 20:52 10. Jeff Wibben, 43 20:59 11. Matt Schrader, 27 21:01 12. Mark Mueller, 40 21:15 13. Jim Clennon, 51 21:19 14. Gary Dutton, 44 21:23 15. Brian Purrington, 52 21:45 16. Paul Krause, 28 21:49 17. Unnamed/numbered 21:57 18. Unnamed/numbered 21:59 19. Jim Mason, 43 22:32 20. Unnamed/numbered 22:32 21. Renee Saxman, 42 23:54 22. Unnamed/numbered 23. Dan Edwards, 43 24:31 24. Patricia Torchia, 41 24:45 25. Unnamed/numbered 24:50 26. Fred Woolman, 62 25:05 27. Pat Brown, 67 25:23 28. Karen Yaszemski, 48 25:30 29. Katie Schneider, 21 25:31 30. Unnamed/numbered 25:40 31. James Hebl, 58 26:03 32. Susan Powers, 52 26:21 33. John Resman, 45 26:23 34. Unnamed/numbered 26:25 35. Larry Pederson, 60 26:55 36. Unnamed/numbered 27:04 37. Lin Gentling, 52 27:54 38. Brooke Haas, 14 28:14 39. S. Jarvinen, 16 28:17 40. Sarah Torchia, 11 28:52 41. Anna Resman, 12 28:59 42. Ian Torchia, 7 29:23 43. Laura Martin, 40 32:24