2014 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships

XC Club National Championship – 12/13/14

Tom Steenkamer’s race recap of Pike Creek Valley Running Club’s participation:

This event marked the first time the club had participated in a major USATF event on such a grand scale. We have a few members who had previously participated as individuals in USATF championships but for most of them this was a new experience in many ways. Many of the 64 club members had never run cross country in high school or college. We did have a few ringers who were prior All-State runners as well as several with collegiate experience at the Division 1, 2 and 3 levels.

We traveled via charter bus from the Wilmington riverfront to Lehigh University (in Bethlehem, PA) which made the day seem more like a collegiate team road trip. Our home for the day would be a heated tent provided by the MidAtlantic USATF. The tent proved both large and warm enough for folks to stretch, relax and even catch a nap.

The dusting of snow the Saucon Valley area received early that week had melted leaving a few soft spots but otherwise the grass course was in fine shape. The only exception to that was an ~200m section around the 1k mark where the course passes by the construction site for a new softball field. No grass there and a nice slick coating of mud but thankfully this area did not have significant impact on any of the races. Women competed on the traditional Paul Short 6k course, and the men followed a modified version of this same course for their 10k race.

PCVRC sent 64 runners to the line that cool December morning. Members ranged in age from 21 to 82 competing as teams in the 4 races. PCVRC had teams in both the men’s (2 teams) and women’s open races. In the masters races we fielded teams in 10-year age groups from 40 thru 70 in the men’s race and 40 thru 60 in the women’s race. Standard cross-country scoring applied – order of finish for the top 5 or in some of the master’s age groups (men’s 70 and all women’s masters) top 3 finishers creating a team score.

Race Field Sizes
Women’s Masters: 270
Men’s Masters: 633
Women’s Open: 387
Men’s Open: 615
Total: 1905

PCVRC Team Results
(Editorial note – our men’s 60+ team did not have enough members to score as a team.)

Men’s Open A 25th
Men’s 40 A 27th
Men’s 50 A 6th
Men’s 70 A 4th

Men’s Open B 53rd
Men’s 50 B 24th
Men’s 70 B 6th

Women’s Open A 24th
Women’s 60 A 4th
Women’s 40 A 12th
Women’s 50 A 15th
Women’s 40 B 29th

Individual Highlights
(Editorial note – Listed age-group individuals based on top-20 finish in their respective age group.)

Men’s open:
Andy Weaver 61st overall

Women’s masters:
Kirsten Belair 14th overall

Women’s masters age group:
Kirsten Belair 10th
Diane Kukich 10th
Carol Giampietro 14th
Carole Feole 17th
Beth Howlett 17th

Men’s Masters age groups:
John Schultz 2nd
Chuck Crabb 5th
Greg Cauller 7th
Doug Ridge 10th
Tom Steenkamer 12th
Bob Callahan 16th
Frank Owczarek 17th
Don Coats 18th
Tim Schuler 19th
Chuck Hall 19th

Closing Thoughts
What other sport can anyone who pays the entry fee get on the same field as world-class athletes and compete regardless of age or ability!?!

Special thanks to the Pike Creek Valley Running Club board for their support that made this day such a success.
Congratulations to everyone who joined us and Thank You for participating. Wishing everyone a healthy 2015 and I hope to see many more of you out at some of next year’s Mid Atlantic USATF road or trail races!

*** Final Results ***

Pike Creek Valley RC
USATF Club Cross Country National Championship teams

Open Women Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 12:45 START
JoAnna Baird, Jessica Cataldo, Lynn Knothe, Julie Macedo, Sarah Rusk

Open Men Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 1:30 START
Kevin Cataldo, Michael DiGennaro, Daniel Feeney, Zach Kaminski, Tyler Muse, Bill Steele, Andrew Weaver

Open Men Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team B 1:30 START
Mark Hannagan, Josh Loren, Jonathan Mazzio, Michael O’Brian, Daniel Suher

Women 40+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 10:30 START
Kirsten Belair, Amy Blithe, Lisa Jalot, Andrea Ladany, Sheri Sweigart

Women 40+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team B 10:30 START
Lorri Fencer, Kelly Jones, Traci Melvin

Men 40+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 11:30 START
Seth Blumerman, Keith Crispin, Matthew Cutrona, James Diienno Jr, Christopher James, David Landon, Paul Randolph, Michael Reph, James Steele

Women 50+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 10:30 START
Theresa Cannon, Lori Culnane, Carole Feole, Carol Giampietro, Linda Odle

Men 50+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 11:30 START
Gregory Cauller, Charles Crabb, Tim Schuler, Thomas Steenkamer, John Stoudt, Dirk Sweigart, David Wiechecki

Men 50+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team B 11:30 START
Michael Brown, Epi Camacho, Raymond Christensen, Shawn Coughlan, David Farren, Thomas Jermyn, William Lee Kauffman Jr, Richard Szymanski

Women 60+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 10:30 START
Beth Howlett, Diane Kukich, Mary Nardo

Men 60+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 11:30 START
Charles Hall, John Hays, Mark Holliday

Men 70+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 11:30 START
Robert Callahan, Don Coats, Gerald Herman, Frank Owczarek, Douglas Ridge

Men 80+ Pike Creek Valley Running Club – Team A 11:30 START
John Schultz

Our Team Coordinators

PCVRC thanks Tom Steenkamer and Rich Szymanski

Our Team Photographers

PCVRC thanks John Culnane and Mark DeNio
View complete photo galleries:

• John Culnane: All events
• Mark DeNio: Open Men
• Mark DeNio: Open Women
• Mark DeNio: Masters Men
• Mark DeNio: Masters Women

Our Club Leadership

Club President Claire Neilan and our Board handled logistics.

Our Team Supporters

PCVRC thanks all of those who participated and/or donated refreshments or their time to this exciting event!