2010 York River State Park 5K

By Rick Platt

At Saturday’s York River State Park Recovery Rocks 5K Run, the 11^th race in the 17-race Colonial Road Runners 2010 Grand Prix Series, most all of the major contenders for the men’s overall GP title were there. Bruton High cross country coach Mark Tompkins, 34, took over the Grand Prix lead with a 16:52 win on the hilly, but scenic, York River State Park road and trail course.

Kurtis Steck, the 15-year-old Lafayette High phenom, was just two seconds behind in 16:54, followed by rapidly-improving Todd Kessler, 27, of Newport News (17:43), then Greg Dawson (18:08), 44, in an upset over Steve Chantry (18:10), 55, with another Lafayette runner, Brandon DeCoursey, 17, also in 18:10 in a three-way sprint.

Tompkins now has the Grand Prix lead with 57 points, closely followed by Chantry (55) and Dawson (51). Still in contention are Lafayette grad Patrick Cunningham (37), who will be focusing on Christopher Newport University cross country this fall as a freshman, and Kessler (35). Scott Gemmell-Davis (25), another Lafayette runner, and Steck (23) will also focus on cross country, and won’t have a chance to run CRR events until the final two races, the Governor’s Land 5K (Nov. 20) and the Sentara Sleighbell 5K (Dec. 18).

For the Masters (40-and-over) Grand Prix title, if Dawson (44 points) and Chantry (39) win overall awards, as expected, that race comes down to Steve Menzies (17), Paul Pelletier (13) or Daniel Shaye (10). Pelletier (18:58) and Shaye (19:07) were ninth and tenth overall at YRSP, although Shaye had run a 17:56 at the Vineyards 5K two weeks earlier. Chantry and most runners consider the YRSP 5K about 20 seconds slower than the flat-and-fast Vineyards course.

For the women at YRSP, Arlyne Spalla, 41, of Yorktown won easily in 20:04, followed by Amber Lewis, 26, of Williamsburg (21:23), Mercedes D’Amico, 52, of Newport News (21:28) and Connie Glueck, 45, of Williamsburg (21:33). For the women’s overall Grand Prix, Jennifer Quarles (74 points) is in prime position to win her sixth CRR Grand Prix title, despite not running Vineyards or YRSP. Glueck (58), already a three-time runner-up, will likely finish second again in 2010, with Lewis (39) solidly in third, followed by Sarah Rybarczyk (22), Warhill 5K and Vineyards 5K winner Darcy McDonald (20) and Spalla (20), also a two-time winner (Spalla had won the Yorktown Victory Run 8 Miler back in April). For the Masters women, with Glueck (41 points) most likely getting one of the three overall GP awards, that Masters race will likely come down to one of the next four—Spalla (10), Robin Corson (10), Mary Beth Bird (8) or Ellie Bustin (8).

There were seven YRSP age-group records broken Saturday—Kurtis Steck (15-19, 16:54), Steve Chantry (55-59, 18:10), Rick Platt (60-64, 20:21), Kenneth Mitchell (65-69, 23:13), Bill Fenwick (75-and-over, 26:35), Arlyne Spalla (women 40-44, 20:04), and Mercedes D’Amico (50-54, 21:28).

There were 118 finishers in the 5K, and an additional seven finishers in the 1 mile fun run, in the event organized by the SpiritWorks Foundation, along with the Friend of York River State Park. The first ¾ miles were up the asphalt park entrance road, with the remainder on the wide, gravel-and-dirt park nature trails, with a long, challenging half-mile hill in the third mile before a downhill finish.

That downhill finish was instrumental in the exciting finish among Dawson, Chantry and DeCoursey. Chantry was ahead through two miles in 11:27 (5:47 and 5:40), but fatigue hit, and first DeCoursey, then Dawson passed him on the steep hill. Relying on his track speed for the final downhill, he was barely able to hold off DeCoursey (18:10.09 to 18:10.42), but could not catch Dawson (18:08.52). It was Dawson’s first legitimate win ever over Chantry. The other came at the Yorktown Battlefield 10 Miler in 2008, but Chantry had already won the 5K an hour earlier at that event.

Chantry had focused on track this summer, but a severe allergic reaction forced him to scratch from the finals of the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Masters outdoor track nationals in Sacramento in late July. He did come back a couple weeks later with a race 55-59 age-group record of 35:36 at the Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine.

Walsingham cross country coach Rich Higgins won the men’s race walk title at YRSP in 33:35, while Smithfield’s Robin Land was first for the women in 38:33.