University of Albany

The 7^th Annual SIOP conference 5K race/fun run was a big hit and featured close individual and team races. Over one hundred runners turned out for the Saturday morning run, making this year’s race the largest one yet. The course was a 5 kilometer (3.1 miles) loop around Backman Lake Park in Dallas. The weather was ideal (for a change!), with sunny skies and mild temperatures at the start. Patrick Murphy, a first-year doctoral student at Wright State and former collegiate miler, won the race in 18:36. Margaret Barton successfully defended her women’s title, finishing in 11^th place overall with a time of 21:52. The age group results are listed below. Once again, the women’s 20-29 year old category provided the most excitement, with the top three finishers–Michelle Combs, Amanda Julian, and Megan McCusker—being separated by less than a minute.

The University team competition was extremely competitive this year. Reigning champion Tulane University and four-time champion Penn State did not field complete teams this year, leaving the door open for a new champion. Bowling Green’s #2 Team and COE-Action of the University of Calgary waged a close battle for the title, with Bowling Green prevailing by a aggregate four person time of 1:34:07 to Coe-Action’s 1:36:28. Wayne Ormond gave Coe-Action a big lead by finishing 7^th overall (20:23). Bowling Green countered with tight pack running among their top 3 runners, with Matt Sederburg (23:04), Matthew O’Connor (23:05), and Amanda Julian (23:06) finishing in 21^st, 23^rd, and 24^th, respectively. Adding to the team suspense was Coe-Action’s Teresa Kline (23:04), who finished in 22^nd to break up the pack. Jeff Stanton sealed Bowling Green’s victory with his finishing time of 24:52.

Patrick Murphy teamed with advisor Robert Tett to win the advisor-advisee category (42:43), with Penn State’s Rick Jacobs and Greg Loviscky 2^nd and Bowling Green’s Jeff Stanton and Amanda Julian 3^rd. And, oh yeah, the Sacketts (Paul and Pat, 48:01) won the mixed doubles competition again, although this year they were challenged by Mike Coovert and Dawn Riddle (50:49).

AGE GROUP RESULTS