USATF Southern California

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The Coaster Run ~ SCA 5K Road Championships

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LOS ANGELES, CA – Wayne Joness (JO-ness), newly appointed Long Distance Running Committee Chairman for the Southern California Association of USA Track & Field, has announced the first USATF Road Championship for 2008.

The COASTER RUN 5K on Sunday, April 13th, in Buena Park will serve as the 2008 Southern California USATF 5K Road Championship. Produced by Renegade Racing, the race is a fund-raiser for the Speech & Language Development Center and also includes a 10K (which is not a USATF Championship) and a 1K Kids Walk/Run.

Race day registration, the start & finish, and post-race Expo are all located at Buena Park’s famous Knott’s Berry Farm at 8039 Beach Boulevard. Last year’s 5K drew 655 runners and the 2007 men’s and women’s 5K winners over the flat, fast course were Julio Jimenez (16:08) and Ceci St. Geme (17:47).

This year’s race will feature a separate Elite 5K Race featuring cash prizes for the top-5 male and female finishers. Entry standards for the elite race are 17:00 for men and 20:00 for women. (Those running in this race will be exempt from receiving age-group division awards.)

In the Elite Race, all entrants must be 2008 members of USA Track & Field. In the Open 5K race, the top-3 USATF member finishers in the following 13 different men’s and women’s age groups will receive gold-silver-bronze USATF Championship Medals:
13 & under, 14-18, 19-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, and 70+.

What’s more, all 5K/10K participants will receive 1/2 price entry to Knotts Berry Farm. Those raising $100 or more in donations for the Speech & Language Development Center will earn free entry to the park.

PRIZE MONEY: 2008 COASTER RUN ELITE 5K
Elite Men: Elite Females:
1st Place $400 1st Place $400
2nd Place $250 2nd Place $250
3rd Place $150 3rd Place $150
4th Place $100 4th Place $100
5th Place $50 5th Place $50
USATF Championship
Medals to places 1-10 USATF Championship
Medals to places 1-10

APRIL 13 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
6:00am Race Day Registration Opens:
7:30am 5K Elite Race
7:45am 5K Open Race
8:00am 10K Open Race
9:00am Kids 1K Walk/Run
9:30am Awards Presentations
6:00am-11:00am Finish Line EXPO

To register for the 2008 Southern California 5K Road Championships,
please visit http://www.make-u-fit.net/events-detail.asp?ID=8

REGISTRATION FEES:
$25.00 5K Elite Race
$25.00 5K Open Race
$35.00 10K Open Race
$15.00 Kids 1K Walk/Run
$5.00 Late Fee Applied after March 30

“This is the first Southern California USATF Road Championship in more than 2 decades, says Wayne Joness. So we are very excited to partner with the Buena Park Speech & Language Development Center and Renegade Racing on their Coaster Run and hoping to grow both their race and our Southern California Road Championship Series.”

CONTACT:
Wayne Joness
Chair, Open Athletics Long Distance Running Committee
Southern California Association/ USA Track & Field
Cell (310) 600-5332 Email: [email protected]

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Joness Named New SCA LDR Chair

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LOS ANGELES, CA-The Southern California Association of USA Track & Field has announced the appointment of Wayne Joness (pronounced JO-ness) as the new chairman of its Open Athletics Long Distance Committee.

A native of Appalachian Virginia, in 1985 Wayne received a B.A. degree in English from the University of Virginia where he also studied music—the field in which he now works since moving to Los Angeles in 1990. He became a distance runner in high school and, after that, was a recreational runner until relocating to the Los Angeles running mecca.

Over the past 18-years, Wayne has been actively competing in road racing throughout Southern California. He’s run more than 200 So Cal races in total, including 111 10K’s, 26 marathons, and 14 half-marathons. 3-weeks ago, Wayne ran the Tokyo Marathon in 3:38 and he will be returning to run the historic Boston Marathon in April.

Wayne has been a member of Track Club LA since 2004 and participated with the club in numerous masters level cross country events.

“Wayne Joness is familiar with the Southern California road racing scene, and with its most prestigious events and those with the most promise for growth, says SCA Open Athletics Vice President, Skip Stolley. He is the ideal candidate to chair our Open Athletics Long Distance Running Committee. Wayne says he looks forward to expanding awareness of USA Track & Field development initiatives within the Southern California Road Running Community and in helping to expand our series of Southern California USATF Road Race Championships.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Wayne Joness
Chair, Open Athetics Long Distance Running Committee
Southern California Association/ USA Track & Field
Cell (310) 600-5332 Email: [email protected]

CONTACT: Skip Stolley
Vice President, Southern California Association/ USA Track & Field
Chairman, SCA Open Athletics Committee
825 16th Street /suite B
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Tel (310) 453-7655
[email protected]

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Veterans Favored to Win 3,000M Race Walks

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Johnson City, Tennessee-Sometimes in race walking, as in life, quality is better than quantity. As John Mayer sang, ìtwice as much ainít twice as goodî. This will certainly be true on Friday, March 7, at the NAIA Indoor National Track & Field Championships 3,000 meter race walks.

The fields are set at twenty one combined total for the walking event, set to go at noon local time. This year eight women and thirteen men will compete on the boards in Johnson City.

This is down from last yearís event when there were a total of twenty five competitors. The good news is that the quality the athletes bring to these championships translated to faster qualifying times than in the previous year.

To enter the championships the men had an A standard of 17:00 for 3k, and the women had a standard of 18:20. The NAIA is the only collegiate body that has the race walk as a national championship event.

Women
In an interesting note, the womenís race is comprised of only freshmen and sophomores, the lone exception being Rachel Rhodes of Houghton the sole upperclassman, a senior. This bodes well for the future of not only collegiate walking but for USATF race walking on the female side if we can keep these young women walking past college.

The Veterans
Tina Peters, Goshen SO, (15:12.09) is the returning indoor and outdoor national
champion. She has won several meets this year indoors so looks to repeat.
Amanda Johnson, Lindsey Wilson SO, (15:50.70) has improved tremendously
from last year, racing regularly in USATF race walk events.
Rachel Rhodes, Houghton SR, (16:33.64) placed third at last years outdoor meet.
Katie Malinowski, Cornerstone SO, (18:11.78) ninth in Fresno, has cut her time
by over a minute.

The Challengers
Chelsea Adams, Houghton FR, (17:09.94) is the fastest of the freshman class.
Megan Wong, Westmont FR, (17:14.24) has set personal bests every time she has raced.
Emily Hansen, Concordia SO, (17:44.27) comes in with the sixth fastest time in the nation.
Janelle Brown, Cornerstone, FR (18:17.26) rounds out the field in eighth.
Tina Peters

MEN
Chris Tegtmeier, Concordia, is the overwhelming favorite in the menís race. Chris has qualified for the 2008 Olympic Team Trials-Menís 20km Race Walk to be held in Eugene. He has won several indoor meets this season in convincing fashion.

Thiago Ferreira, Missouri Valley, a newcomer, hails from Brazil and looks to make the race competitive.

Seth Campbell, Brad Sinick, Tom Stolee, Peter Muldoon, Nathan Dreher, and Geoff Karhoff are all veterans from last year’s races and look to be in the hunt again this year.

For more information on the 2008 NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championship 3,000 meter race walks and results go to naiarw.com.

2008 NAIA INDOOR RACE WALK ENTRANTS

WOMEN
1 Peters, Tina SO Goshen 15:12.09
2 Johnson, Amanda SO Lindsey Wilson 15:50.70
3 Rhodes, Rachel SR Houghton 16:33.64 HT
4 Adams, Chelsea FR Houghton 17:09.94 HT
5 Wong, Megan FR Westmont 17:14.24 HT
6 Hansen, Emily SO Concordia ( Neb. ) 17:44.27
7 Malinowski, Katie SO Cornerstone 18:11.78
8 Brown, Janelle FR Cornerstone 18:17.26

MEN
1 Tegtmeier, Chris SO Concordia ( Neb. ) 12:52.24 HT
2 Ferreira, Thiago JR Missouri Valley 13:52.66
3 Campbell, Seth JR Cedarville 14:10.81
4 Sinick, Brad SR Malone 14:34.31
5 Wiseman, Josh FR Cedarville 15:02.98
6 Stolee, Tom SO Concordia ( Neb. ) 15:03.24 HT
7 Muldoon, Peter SO Central Methodist 15:04.00
8 Dreher, Nathan JR Concordia( Neb. ) 15:16.24 HT
9 Bacon, Grant FR Cedarville 15:18.50
10 Karhoff, Geoff JR Central Methodist 15:26.85
11 Dehning, Chris JR Concordia ( Neb. ) 15:35.24 HT
12 Lew, Daniel JR Westmont 15:53.19
13 Adams, Zach FR Houghton 15:56.84 HT

CONTACT
CHRIS RAEL
CHAIR, OPEN ATHLETICS RACE WALKING COMMITTEE
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION/USA TRACK & FIELD TEL (714)469-4353 [email protected]

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2008 SCA Election Results

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Election Date: January 26, 2008

President – Dave Snyder

Executive Vice President – Paul Mahoney

Secretary – Christine Long

Treasurer – Thom Confer

Membership – Bob Hickey

Vice President (Athletes Advisory) – Rich Benoy

Vice President (Youth Athletics) – Lorena Beck

Vice President (Open Athletics) – Skip Stolley

Vice President (Masters Athletics) – Mark Cleary

2007 Open Athletics Year in Review

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Our 22nd annual Jim Bush Southern California USATF Championships was a stellar meet, producing 66 qualifying performances for the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships. Held at Occidental College on Sunday, June 3, our Championships also served as the USATF West Region Championships and drew athletes from 11 other Western States. These Championships present “traveling cups” in 15 of its 36 men’s and women’s events. In these events, the winners receive a 16-inch silver cup they must return the following year. If he or she does not defend their title, the Cup is awarded to that year’s winner… and so on. Cup donors have named them after individuals or organizations they wish to memorialize. The cups are perpetual and have a one-time cost of $250. Pictures of our 2007 cup winners are posted on the SCA website at www.scausatf.org.

Our 10 men’s and women’s distance races at Oxy produced 39 national qualifying marks. Six days later, on Thursday evening, June 7, we conducted a USATF High Performance Distance Meet at Mt. SAC in cooperation with the USATF National HP Committee. Unfortunately, while the weather conditions for the June 3 was ideal, June 7 was a cold and windy day—very unusual conditions for that time of the year. While we had some very competitive races with runners who traveled from around the country, they did not produce the times we had hoped for.

On July 13-14 at spectacular Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City, Southern California’s VS Athletics Track Club placed third in the men’s team competition at the 2007 USATF National Club Track & Field Championships. In just its second year of existence, the VSA men scored in 17 events amassing 110 points. Led by wins by Nick Garcia (Shot Put) and Jeff Ryan (Pole Vault), the VS Athletics men scored in every event in which they were entered and Nick was one of only 5 athletes who were able to defend their 2006 titles in the meet’s 38 individual events. In addition to Nick and Jeff’s gold medals, the VSA men had 8 silver and 5 bronze medal winners.

In the Women’s team competition, the VS Athletics women scored in 10 events and placed 7th led by Roseline Agboke’s gold and bronze medal performances in the 1500 meters and 800 meters, Katie Kraychir’s silver in the Hammer, and Genevieve Graff-Ermeling’s bronze in the 5000 meters. Katie, just an 8th grader, became the youngest athlete ever to score in the National Club Track & Field Championships. Southern California’s Cheetahs International Track Club placed 10th in the team standings led by Mireya Beltran’s high jump gold, a bronze medal 100m finish by Angela Daigle-Bowen, and a long jump bronze and 4th place in the 110m Hurdles by Tameisha King.

The New Jersey’s Shore AC won the Men’s and Women’s team titles with New York’s mega-club, the Executive Track Club, placing 2nd in both divisions. The meet featured 618 athletes from athletes representing 62 clubs and 27 States.

Our 3rd annual Southern California USATF Grand Prix Summer Series concluded on August 1. Beginning June 27, the 6-week series was held in conjunction with the LAUSD All-Comers Meets at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys on 5 consecutive Wednesday evenings. (There was no meet on July 4.) In 30 men’s and women’s events, athletes scored points by placing 1st through 8th towards $5000 in prize money at the end of the Series. Participation was up by more than 20% over last year to almost 500 athletes—all of whom had to be USATF members to score GP points in their events. That said, we are looking at doing something very different in 2008 to support Southern California’s Olympic hopefuls.

2007 Open Athletics Year in Review—continued
Page 2 of 3

OPEN CROSS COUNTRY

On Saturday, November 10, our 2007 Cross Country Series concluded with the Southern California USATF Cross Country Championships at Kenneth Hahn Park in Baldwin Hills. The meet featured a stellar field in the Open Men’s 8K race and 3 new SCA clubs, one of which—the Pacers Running Club—won the Open Men’s team title. In the Open Women’s 6K race, the team title was won by See Jane Run for the 3rd consecutive year. In Masters team competition, the defending champion So Cal Fleet Feet was upset in the Men’s 6K race by Team Runners High and in the Women’s 6K race by Track Club LA. Eight (8) traveling gold cups are awarded to the men’s and women’s open and masters team and individual champions at the annual SCA Cross Country Championships.

Previously, on October 6 at the Vanguard Invitational at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, and on Saturday, October 20 at the Cougar Invitational at Cal State San Marcos, we took part in a 2-meet San Diego vs. Southern California USATF Cross Country Challenge. In these 2 meets, the cumulative times for the top-5 unattached or club runners from the San Diego and Southern California Associations in the Men’s 8K and Women’s 5K races were tallied. The Association with fastest cumulative time from both meets was awarded the Challenge Cup. Unfortunately, the San Diego Association sent no open runners to the Vanguard meet…which compromised the integrity of the series for Southern California runners and our representation at the Series Final at San Marcos. This resulted in San Diego overcoming a 4:43 deficit to win the Cup. It might have been prophetic when, a day later, wildfires burned right to the edge of campus, because the message was clear. In 2008, we need to conduct a series that will advance Open and Masters Cross Country in Southern California in a far more effective manner than did the “San Diego Challenge.”

LONG DISTANCE RUNNING

At the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday, November 3 in New York City, Justin Patananan and Aaron Sharp of Nike Team Run LA were part of a 7-man Southern California contingent in the field of 132 competitors. 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi was 8th overall in 2:15:09 while Aaron finshed 64th in 2:24:15. The other Southland runners in the field were James Lander (40th in 2:20:09), Antonio Arce, Steve Frisone, and Josh Cox. To qualify for the Trials, all had run a marathon in 2:22:00 or better in the previous 12-months. The race was marred by the tragic death of Ryan Shay who collapsed and died after just 5 ½ miles. Ryan won the 5000 meters at our 2007 Jim Bush Southern California USATF Track & Field Championships last June at Occidental College

OPEN MUT (Mountain/Ultra-Distance/Trail Running)

The 2007 Southern California Ultra Series was a great success with 82 members participating in its 18 races. In his latest Leaderboard newsletter, Series Director Gary Hilliard congratulated to all series participants for making the 2007 series one of the best in recent memory.

SCA Open and Masters MUT chairs Lorraine Gersitz and Jay Anderson have been collaborating with Gary for the past 2-years to promote USATF membership among the participants in this very successful series. Still, many participants choose not to become USATF members, even though two of the Series events serve as SCA Association Championships: the Mt. Disappointment 50-Mile Trail Run and the High Desert 50K Trail Run. In 2008, we will be offering ultra-runners an additional incentive to enter the series and to join USATF by offering prize money to the overall and age-group winners of the SCA Grand Prix Series.

The following races were part of the 2007 Southern California Ultra Runners Grand Prix Series:

01/13/07 Avalon Benefit 50-Mile
01/20/08 50K Calico Trail Run
02/04/07 Twin Peaks Ultra 50K/50-Mile
02/17/07 Orange Curtain 100K/50K
03/31/07 Lake Hodges 50K
04/07/07 San Juan Trail 50K
04/21/07 Leona Divide 50-Mile
05/05/07 Wild Wild West 50K
05/12/07 PCT 50-Mile Trail Run
05/19/07 Bishop High Sierra 50M, 50K, 20M
06/02/07 Shadow of the Giants 50K
06/10/07 Holcomb Valley 33-Mile
08/11/07 Mt. Disappointment 50K
08/25/07 Bulldog 50K Ultra Run/25K Run
09/15/07 Angeles Crest 100-Mile Endurance Run
10/20/07 San Diego 100
11/24/07 Santa Barbara 9 Trails 35-Mile Run
12/02/07 High Desert 50K & 30K

2007 Open Athletics Year in Review—continued
Page 3 of 3

Last weekend on January 19, the 2007 Southern California Ultra Series Awards/Run/Potluck Lunch was held at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea. The pre-luncheon run, food, and camaraderie were enjoyed by dozens of Series participants. Gary and Lorraine took the opportunity to speak to those in attendance about the benefits of joining USTAF as many beautiful age-group awards and high-mileage plaques were presented. Dean Dobberteen was the 2007 Overall Male Winner and Keira Henninger was the 2007 Overall Female Winner. The 2007 Men’s Mileage Champion was Fred Pollard and the 2007 Women’s Mileage Champion was Michelle Barton. Complete results of the 2007 Ultra Series are available at http://www.socalultraseries.org.

OPEN RACE WALKING
Important news for race walking in 2007 was the appointments of Dawna Brown as SCA Youth Athletics Committee Race Walk Chair and Pedro Santoni to serve as Masters Athletics Committee Race Walk Chair.

Joining our Open Athletics Committee Race Walk Chair Chris Rael, this filled-out our three race walk committee chair positions and created a strong new team to promote the development of Race Walking in our Southern California Association. Dawna Brown is well-connected to our Youth Track & Field movement and has been an outstanding advocate for Race Walking within it. Pedro Santoni is a talented walker and highly-respected member of the Masters Race Walk community. At the Rose Bowl 10-Mile Race Walk–a race in which he was the overall winner–he received an overwhelmingly vote from by the race walkers present to be our Masters Race Walk Chair. With his experience as a veteran Race Walker, and background as a professor at Cal State San Bernardino, he has an understanding of the sport and the ability to work with others.

Other major race walking highlights in 2007 was two of our local NAIA collegiate race walkers, Paul Greive of Concordia University (Irvine, CA) and Lindsey Connolly of Westmont College (Santa Barbara, CA), qualifying for the 2007 National Indoor Track & Field Championships in Tennessee. These two novice walkers participated in the SCA Elite Race Walk Development Initiative launched by Chris Rael. In its first year, the initiative focused on the six NAIA schools in Southern California and recruiting their second-tier men and women distance runners to try competitive race walking (an NAIA championship event) at three coaching clinics that Chris conducted to provide the technical instruction, training methods, and encouragement necessary for them to experience success at the national level.

The athletes who participated in the first year of this flagship program worked very hard, reaped big rewards, and produced numerous break-through races in a short amount of time. In only 4-months of intensive training, Paul Greive of Concordia won his first two collegiate race walk events in times that qualified him for the NAIA National Track & Field Championships. He then won the Southern California USATF 5K Race Walk title with the 5th fastest time recorded by a collegiate walker in the U.S. for 2007 and placed 6th at the NAIA Championships to earn “All-America” recognition. Paul had never race walked before, but once he committed to the program he gave it his best effort under the watchful guidance of Chris Rael.

Lindsey Connolly of Westmont experienced similar success. In her first season of race walking she qualified for, and competed at, the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships, won the Southern California/West Region USATF Championship, and claimed the Santa Barbara Relays race walk title. Her biggest accomplishment, however, occurred at the 2007 NAIA Outdoor National Track & Field Championships in blazing hot conditions in Fresno, CA. With trackside temperature at race time above 100-degrees, Lindsey had a superb race with athletes who had been competing in the walks for years and finished in 6th place to earn “All-America” honors.

Although the initiative focused primarily on the NAIA athletes, an outreach program was also conducted with the SCA Youth Track & Field Committee and its youth coaches and clubs to foster the development of race walking within their ranks. New Youth Race Walk Chair, Dawna Brown, helped to coordinate and conduct mini race walk clinics and urge youth meet directors to include a race walk in their meets. During the 2007 track season, the number of youth race walk participants increased four-fold, as did the quality and depth of competition in those races. In 2008, we will be expanding these race walk clinics and doubling our efforts with youth track clubs to give athletes more exposure and opportunities to participate in race walking.

Respectfully submitted,

Skip Stolley, Vice President, Southern California Association
Chairman, SCA Open Athletics Committee

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