MASTERS CAME OUT TO PLAY AT OUR HOUSE IN SUMMIT The Our House five miler in Summit last Sunday was the USATF-NJ Masters championship and it was assuredly a Masters race with seven men over age forty in the top ten overall and five women from that category in the top ten women overall file. Many of the top performers were from the Morris area. Ben Reynolds of Chatham, now 44, finished in 26:01 for first place overall and his 89.4% age graded PLP (Performance Level Percentage) was also tops. Rich Burke, 40, of Morristown placed fifth overall in 27:46 and also fifth in age grading with a PLP of 81.3%. John Sabatino, 41, of Morris Plains was seventh overall in 28:58. On the women’s side Jeanne Pare of Mendham placed third woman overall with her 32:16, which gave her an age graded score of 82.7%. Janice Morra, 49, of Morristown placed sixth overall woman with her time of 34:48 that age graded at 78.5%. |
Age grading is important at most Masters championships in New Jersey because prize money is meted out based on the age grading tables. The Our House race paid down through seven levels. Jane Parks of Morristown, 55, ranked third in age grading with a score of 82.9% for her finishing time of 35:35. On the men’s side Carl Weaver of Morris Plains, 59, scored 80.7 % for sixth in age grading with his time of 32:34.
The Sneaker Factory Men’s 40 team is on a streak. They won yet another championship having won all three of the championships raced so far, the only team to be able to claim those bragging rights. In fact it wasn’t a bad day for the Sneaker Factory club as their W50 team placed first in their division and the W40 team took second. Sneaker Factory is in second place overall in the Club Grand Prix. No surprise that the Raritan Valley Road Runners are first.
Morris County took third in the M50, M60, and W60, and fifth in M40 and W40. They are in third in the Club Grand Prix. The Rose City Runners were second in W60, third in the W50 and fourth in W40. Nine clubs sent 43 Masters teams to the race.
The next Masters championship is in June at the Pine Beach 5K.
COMPUSCORE WEBSITE WAS OVERLOADED ON SUNDAY, WENT DOWN FROM ALL THE HITS
CompuScore, the consummate scoring firm that handles the scoring for, well, scores of races, took a hit on Sunday. Actually it was too many hits, according to Dave Siconolfi, CEO of the firm. With close to six thousand runners in the New Jersey Marathon, which includes a relay and the Long Branch Half Marathon, plus the Our House 5 mile in Summit and other races being posted on the CompuScore website, the internet server could not handle the high volume of hits. It went down and stayed down until sometime on Monday.
The results for the marathon races were posted on that website, and the Our House was posted on the USATF-NJ website, but it was a frustrating few hours for all concerned.
The CompuScore server has now increased its ability to handle another load like this weekend, and what happened on Sunday should not happen again said Siconolfi.
LOCALS DO WELL AT NEW JERSEY MARATHON RACES
Erik Prince, 35, of Chester finished third in the New Jersey Marathon with a time of 2:40:48. Mary Christian, 44, of Flanders placed sixth woman overall in 3:13:57 and second masters woman. Wendy Locke, 46, of Boonton placed third woman in the Long Branch Half-Marathon in 1:30:32.
Since we are talking about age grading, Christian age graded at 76.5% and Locke at 80.6%. Both women were first in their race in age grading for Masters women.
STILLWATER STAMPEDE ON THE 18TH
The Stillwater Stampede 5K at Swartswood State Park in Newton is in May this year, leaving its usual June date. It will be next Sunday, May 18th at 10:00 a.m. It offers a modest purse three places down, and a bonus prize for breaking the course record, 15:21 for men, and 18:07 for women. Check it out at the Bears Running Club website .
Originally published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey on Sunday, May 11, 2008
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2008
