Sell leads men’s field for USA 25 km Championships
By Jim Estes, USATF
Posted Thursday, 8 May, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS - Brian Sell (Rochester Hills, Mich.) will look to defend his men's national title and Kristin Price (Raleigh, N.C.) will lead the women's field Saturday at the 15th running of the USA 25 km Championships in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Championships are held in conjunction with the Fifth Third River Bank Run.
Joining Sell in the hunt for the title will be Peter Gilmore (San Mateo, Calif.), who recorded a personal best of 1:03:53 for the half marathon distance in February. Additional top-ten contenders include Sell's Hansons-Brooks teammates Mike Morgan and Patrick Moulten (Rochester Hills, Mich.); and former All-American at the University of Colorado Bret Schoolmeester (Portland, Ore.).
In the women's race, Price, a former All-American at North Carolina State University, will seek her first USA road title and will be challenged by Paige Higgins (Littleton, Colo.), Linsey Smith (Madison, Wis.) and Katie Nowak (Rockville, Md.).
This year's event will also host the USA Masters 25 km Championships featuring top masters (40 and over) athletes Liz Wilson (Seattle, Wash.) and Dennis Simonaitis (Draper, Utah).
The USA 25 km Championships features more than $45,000 in prize money with the men's and women's champions earning $4,000 each and the men's and women's masters champions earning $1,500 each.
USA Running Circuit
The USA 25 km Championship is the fifth stop on the 2008 USA Running Circuit (USARC) for men and the fourth for women. The USARC is a USA Track & Field road series, features USA Championships from 5 km to the marathon and attracts the best U.S. distance runners. The fourteenth edition for the men and thirteenth for the women, the 2008 USARC has seven events for men and nine events for women.
The first ten U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 for first, 12 for second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500 grand prix purse ($6,000, $4,000, and $2,500) for the top three men and women point scorers overall. The USARC points at the USA Marathon Championships will be doubled.
The mission of the USA Running Circuit is to showcase, support, and promote U.S. runners. Since its inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $4 million dollars to U.S. distance runners.
For more information on the 2008 USA 25 km Championships visit www.usatf.org.
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