Cheatham Annex 2009

By Rick Platt

At age 54, Williamsburg’s age-group superstar Steve Chantry became the oldest runner ever to win a Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix race Saturday morning at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance- sponsored Salute to the Military “Red, White and Blue 5K” at the Cheatham Annex base in Williamsburg.

Chantry completed the certified (VA-07011-RT) 5K race course in 17:25, just three seconds ahead of Robert Schabron, 34, of Smithfield (17:28), with Warhill High senior Kyle Ashley, 18, of Toano (17:39) in third.

Williamsburg’s Jennifer Quarles won her second CRR race of 2009, to go with three runner-up finishes this year, and has a narrow three-point lead, 47-44, over Mercedes D’Amico, in her quest to win her fifth CRR women’s Grand Prix title. Quarles, 37, won in 19:31, a dozen seconds ahead of Laura Shannon, 46, of Williamsburg (19:43), the CRR Grand Prix champion in both 2007 and ’08. Shannon was running her first CRR event of 2009. In third was Mercedes D’Amico, 51, of Newport News, in 20:44. In fourth (20:53) was Connie Glueck, 45, of Williamsburg, two days after her birthday that moved her into a new age group. Glueck, the Grand Prix runner-up in both 2007 and ’08, is now in third place in the 2009 standings with 37 points.

For the men, after six CRR Grand Prix events, Bruton High track coach and teacher Mark Tompkins leads with 39 points, followed by Steve Menzies with 25. Menzies, like Glueck, is age 45, and also was fourth overall on Saturday with a time of 17:43.

In a race that recognizes and supports the active duty and reserve military personnel in the area, as part of Armed Forces Day, there were also special awards given to the top three military men and women, as well as the Commanders Cup given to the military branch that had the five highest finishers. That title in 2009 went to the Army team, who place their five scorers in the top 17 overall (of 168 official finishers), and included Chris Roach of Newport News (6th, 17:50), Craig Hymes of Yorktown (7th, 17:53), Jeremy Logan of Newport News (10th, 18:32), Joshua Dover of Ft. Eustis (14th, 19:29) and Brian Hakes of Williamsburg (17th, 19:52).

The Army team scored 30 points by standard cross-country team scoring, followed by a tie for second between the Air Force (56) and Navy (56), with the Coast Guard a close fourth (68). The Marines did not field a team. Leading the Navy team was Greg Dawson, 43, of Williamsburg (18:20, 9th overall), who was recently promoted to captain in a ceremony in Norfolk on May 1.

The top three military men came from three different branches, as race runner-up Robert Schabron of the Air Force (17:28) was first military, Justin Murray, 24, of Matawan, NJ and the Coast Guard was second military (17:47), and Chris Roach of the winning Army team was third (17:50). They were 3rd, 5th and 6th overall. The women’s military division was not as competitive, as Tami Spellman, 38, of Lebanon, IL and the Air Force won by almost five minutes with her 23:39 time. Second and third for the military women were Jess Aloisio, 25, of San Diego and the Coast Guard (28:16) and Kelly Thorkilson, 30, of Newport News and the Coast Guard (30:01).

Breaking Cheatham Annex 5K race age-group records were Kyle Ashley (men 15-19, 17:39), Robert Schabron (men 30-34, 17:28), Tom Ray of Kitty Hawk, NC (men 75-and-over, 30:22), Mercedes D’Amico (women 50-54, 20:44), Joan Coven of West Point (women 65-69, 25:10) and Pauline Ely of Hampton (women 70-and-over).

Both the men’s and women’s winners in the 5K race walk set race records, Steven Shapiro, 55, of Hampton (28:42) for the men and Linda Janssen, 47, of Virginia Beach (34:19) for the women.

Trailing Shapiro were Tom Gerhardt, 57, of Chesapeake (29:53) and William Lipford, 56, of Hampton (30:05). Second and third for the women were Heidi Sleasman, 36, of Virginia Beach (39:07) and Jayne Henn, 53, of Williamsburg (40:18).

In addition to the 168 finishers in the 3.1-mile event, there were 17 finishers in the one mile fun run/walk, led by Pamela Lovett of Newport News.