Lake Matoaka 4.3M Trail Challenge

Williamsburg, VA, August 7, 2002

Race Report/Results courtesy of Rick Platt, Run Fast Promotions.

Ned Berg has become the "Avis" of the annual Lake Matoaka Trail Challenge, finishing second Wednesday evening for the fifth consecutive year. Jamestown High grad Bryce Ruiz won easily this year in 23:42 for the 4.3-mile race, with Berg, 43, over 2 1/2 minutes back with a 26:18, two seconds ahead of Ross Halleland, 17, a visiting high school runner from San Diego.

The Lake Matoaka run is the oldest continuously-held race on the Peninsula, dating back to the mid-1970s. Berg loves to run the challenging footing and hills of the trails around Lake Matoaka, and has run very consistent times while finishing second every year since 1998 (25:43, 26:29, 26:44, 27:04 and this year's 26:18). The winners the past five years have been Daniel Shaye (24:36 in '98, 26:02 in '99), T.J. Ciccone (25:23 in '00), John Piggott (24:43 in '01) and N.C. State-bound Ruiz.

Berg's streak could easily have been six years, since in 1997 he won the race (in 26:31) only because the lead runner (from Chicago) made a wrong turn less than 200 meters from the finish, just out of sight of the Zable Stadium finish line.

Twelve runners broke the 30-minute barrier this year, including Ruiz, Berg, Halleland, Ciccone (26:51), John Hopke (26:54), Chad Simpson (27:39), Craig Wortman (27:55), Josh Chapman (28:19), Jim Bates (28:27), Bill Alto (28:37), Tim Roberts (29:01) and Ryan Gaul (29:28).

For the women Margarita Doreste of Newport News won in 32:07, well ahead of Jen Quarles, 30, of Williamsburg (33:27). However Quarles had just completed four miles of Colonial Road Runners' intervals (ten "singles") at Barksdale Field 15 minutes before the Lake Matoaka start, so had good reason to be tired. Completing the women's top five were Kim Harwig (33:46), Rhonda Venable (33:57) and Ronda Ford (34:12).

*** Info on our PTC Summer Fun Run Series*****

The Lake Matoaka run was the third of five consecutive Wednesday evening Peninsula Track Club Summer Fun Run Series events. At the Moonlight 5K July 24, there were 23 finishers at Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton. The top five men were Bill Alto (20:40), Scott Bartram (20:51), Marco Pargas (22:37), Dave Venable (23:06) and Daniel Brewer (23:28). Three women were under 30 minutes--Irene Bierie (23:59), Jean Troutman (24:13) and Allison Engel (25:46).

The next Wednesday (July 31) was the Predict Your Time 5 Miler at Newport News Park, where a remarkable seven runners (of the 45 finishers) were within four seconds of their predicted times, despite not being allowed to wear watches. Margarita Doreste was near perfect, predicting 37:30 and running 37:30.01, an amazing one hundredth of a second off.

The other accurate predictors were Chris Dowling (68:15 predicted, 68:14 run), Cindy Slominski (45:00, 45:01), Jan Spangler (46:30, 46:32), Rick Hartung (37:00, 37:02), Don Brown (46:30, 46:32) and Keith McCaffrey (37:30, 37:33). In contrast the farthest off was Jahmil Edwards, who predicted 47:17, but ran 41:50.

LAKE MATOAKA 4.3 MILE TRAIL CHALLENGE Zable Stadium, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA - August 7, 2002

Men Place O'All Name City Age Time

1 1 Bryce Ruiz WBG 19 23:42 2 2 Ned Berg NNW 43 26:18 3 3 Ross Halleland CA 17 26:20 4 4 T.J. Ciccone WBG 26 26:51 5 5 John Hopke WBG 16 26:54 6 6 Chad Simpson NOR 34 27:31 7 7 Craig Wortman WBG 36 27:55 8 8 Josh Chapman HPT 17 28:19 9 9 Jim Bates HPT 46 28:27 10 10 Bill Alto NNW 51 28:37 11 11 Timmons Roberts WBG 41 29:01 12 12 Ryan Gaul WBG 14 29:28 13 13 Ryan Kent YKT 16 30:14 14 14 Steve Amarillo NNW 39 30:32 15 15 Ben Bristow WBG 22 30:37 16 16 David Witte YKT 37 30:46 17 17 Curt Gaul 40 30:50 18 18 Randy Chambers 30:58 19 19 Jim Christol 31:17 20 20 Don Brown WBG 39 31:24 21 21 Norman Tessier 31:55 22 22 Dave Venable HPT 46 31:59 23 23 Bill Sutton 31:59 24 25 Jason Boyd 32:52 25 27 Daniel Brewer HPT 14 33:38 26 29 Steve Long NY 48 33:57 27 31 Mike Hutson OH 31 34:04 28 33 Ed Ward 21 34:23 29 34 Keith McCaffrey YKT 47 34:36 30 35 Woody Chapman 49 34:56 31 36 Percy Jones HPT 16 34:58 32 37 Ben Sambrano WBG 36 35:27 33 42 Bill Fenwick WBG 69 35:52 34 43 Joe Ogden 41 36:04 35 44 George Kent YKT 57 36:28 36 45 Mark Burwell WBG 40 36:56 37 46 Patrick Brewer 14 38:02 38 56 Jim West WBG 65 40:42 39 57 Ray Comstock 41:42 40 58 John Hopke 44 42:20 41 60 Rick Hartung HPT 48 42:30 42 61 Ted Cooprider 43:09 43 64 Larry Turner SEA 59 51:42

Women

Place O'All Name City Age Time

1 24 Margarita Doreste 32:07 2 26 Jen Quarles WBG 30 33:27 3 28 Kim Harwig YKT 33:46 4 30 Rhonda Venable HPT 41 33:57 5 32 Ronda Ford 42 34:12 6 38 Wendy Vogan WBG 26 35:31 7 39 Kylie Ruiz WBG 15 35:46 8 40 Sarah Chapman HPT 15 35:46 9 41 Lindsay Kent YKT 12 35:51 10 47 Katie Sanborn HPT 15 38:03 11 48 Elizabeth Hopke WBG 14 38:45 12 49 Allison Engel 26 38:46 13 50 Tajah Sultan 11 39:37 14 51 Lindsay Whisnant 16 39:37 15 52 Jamie Carraway 39:56 16 53 Liz Adams 39:59 17 54 Julie Martin 40:11 18 55 Leslie Whisnant 40:27 19 59 Taylor Williams 11 42:28 20 62 Alisa Spangler-Mille 43:24 21 63 Liz Slonaker 51:41 22 65 Jeannine Beer 37 52:20