USATF NE mountain series - through five races

Lincoln, NH, July 6, 2009

Inov-8 Series almost complete

by dd

Inov-8 USATF New England Mountain running series

The fifth race of the six race series was held in Lincoln, NH on Sunday July 5. The course at Loon Mountain tested runners with both uphill and downhill running and surfaces from dirt road to grass trail. Jim Johnson (CMS) and Kasie Enman (BAA) were the individual champions under blue skies and cool temperatures.

The series will end on July 12th at the summit of Mount Ascutney in Vermont. Most of the titles in both overall and age groups are still to be decided in the “best five of six” format.

Abby Mahoney (CMS) leads the women but with only four finishes, she has to run Ascutney to take home the title. Dawn Roberts (GSH) is currently in second with Karen Encarnacion in third. Kathy Hurst, Kathrin Midgeley, and Donna Smyth could also be a factor depending on the final result at Ascutney.

Andy McCarron (CMS) leads the men by a decisive margin, but also needs his fifth finish in order to secure the top spot in the series. He is expected to race at Ascutney. Dave Dunham (CMS), Todd Callaghan (GCS), and James Pawlicki (CMS) are all within .39 points (using best 4 out of 5) battling for the next spots. That is the equivalent of about 7 seconds. All three are expected to compete at Ascutney.

In the age groups Haley Heinrich has run away with the women’s under 20 category. Abby Mahoney should win the 20-39 if she runs Ascutney. Dawn Roberts and Kathrin Midgely are likely to take second and third. Karen Encarnacion is leading the 40-49 with Donna Smyth, Dawn Heinrich, and Frannie Graves fighting for second and third. Lisa Doucett is running away with the 50-59 category with Suzanne Welch and Jacqueline St Hilaire in second and third. Diane Levesque could also figure in the top three should she race at Ascutney.

On the men’s side Michael Robinson has wrapped up the under 20 category. Andy McCarron is likely to move into the lead in the 20-39 with Todd Callaghan, James Pawlicki and Tim Mahoney trailing McCarron and all within 10 points of each other. Dave Dunham and Tim Van Orden are ahead of the pack in the 40-49 with Todd Brown, Dan Poliquin and Kevin Pascoe in a close race for third. Martin Tighe has a comfortable lead over Paul Bazanchuk with a six man battle for third. Peter Orni leads the 60+ with Gene Fahey and Donald Hogardt in a title contest for second. Frank Hurt has wrapped up the 70+ age group.

The series has been a great success thus far with all of the races attracting record or near-record fields. In all 1,283 finishers have covered a total of 34.8 miles with 9,291’ of climb and 5,717’ of descent. Over 100 runners have completed all five of the races!