Gorgeous weather...excellent performances...great
cameraderie...and unique food produced a memorable
evening at the 3rd annual Wanderers Distance
Track meet at the Roxborough High School track
on August 22.
A mixture of Philadelphia track veterans as
well as many new faces produced some superb races
with Kevin Forde, Austin
Perron, Steve Metraux,
Chuck Shields, Chante
Moore and Mark Bond all
coming up winners.
Kevin started things off with a victory in
the one mile run finishing in a time of 4:45,
with second place finisher Steve Metraux and
third place finisher Andrew Bove breaking five
minutes. Laura Fanelli won the women's division
in 5:20. Mark Bond won the second heat in 5:24
nipping Bryson Lipscomb by a second and veteran
Tom Yunker coming in third in 5:41.
Chuck Shields produced a massive performance
in the 3,000 meters winning the event in 9:33
with Wanderers Jeff Hayes and Matt
Joosse coming
in second and third in times of 9:43 and 10:36
respectively. Wanderer Polly Jansen won the women's
division in 12:04.
In the 800 meters, Austin Perron won in 2:11
nipping Kevin Forde by two seconds. Troy
Artis was third in 2:26. Chante Moore won the second
heat and the women's division in 2:32 in a photo
finish over Shakira Fleming who was given the
same time. Anya Curtis finished third in 2:37.
Steve Metraux came back to blitz the field
in the 5,000 meters winning in 16:41 followed
by John Wesner in second in 18:43 and Steve
Mague in 18:46. Laura Fanelli won the women's division
in 19:31.
But Steve and Kevin were not finished for the
evening. They ran on the winning medley relay
team at the end of the evening with Kevin
Jude and Ted
Trocky.
A great performance was also produced by race
director Leslie Turchetti and
race officials,
Chris Moore, Jim Trainor, Barbara
Gorka and
Teri Bizzel, coach of the Mt.
Airy Track Club who was dragooned into service
as race timer.
Bin Ruiter displayed his award
winning culinary skills by producing a delicious
meal of pulled pork and beef brisket for all
the competitors and their families and fans,
and Leslie cooked up some great side dishes.
All in all, some 30 pounds of meat were consumed
by the runners and spectators.
Kevin Forde and Steve Metraux have become fixtures
at the Wanderer track meets, but this year they
ratcheted up their performances a few notches.
Kevin lowered his time by more than 10 seconds
in the mile from his performance in 2005, while
Steve improved by 10 seconds his finish in 2004
and by more than 30 seconds his 2005 performance
in the 5k.
A strong contingent of runners showed up from
the Mt. Airy Track Club, and they impressed the
crowd with their speed, form and poise. Runners
from the Roxborugh CYO team were also a welcome
addition to the meet.
The Philly Runners club flexed their running
muscles at the meet with
Kevin Gruenfeld, Kevin Jude, Steve Mague, John
Wesner and Craig Stone joining Seve
Metraux out on the track and posting
some excellent times. Some other performances
should not be overlooked. Polly Jansen had barely
five minutes to recover after winning the women‘s
5k before coming back to run the 800 meters and
then topped off her evening's work with an 800-meter
leg on the Wanderer's relay team. Laura Fanelli
won the women's division in both the mile and
the 5k, and Matt Joosse doubled up on the mile
and the 3k.
(Click
here for a ZIP file of ALL 135 pics 8Mb)
Track Meet Report | Race
Results | Photo
Album | Kevin
Gruenfeld's Pics
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