Ten
Team USA Minnesota Runners to Compete
at USA 15k
Championships in Jacksonville March 13
Results
from NACAC Cross Country Championships
Minneapolis/St. Paul -
March 9, 2010 - Ten Team USA Minnesota distance
runners - five women and five men - will be among the
competitors at the 2010 USA 15k Championships, which
are being held in conjunction with the 33rd annual
Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Fla. Billed as
"the largest 15k in the USA," the March 13
race features a deep field of top American women
and men.
The championship race has
an $85,000 prize purse that includes $12,000 each for
the first place man and woman, a $20,000 purse for the
top three overall male and female teams, along with an
"equalizer bonus" of $5,000 (the top women
start 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the field and the
first person - male or female - to cross the finish
line receives the bonus). In the 2009 race, Team
USA Minnesota won both the men's and women's team
competition known as the TenBroeck Team Cup.
On the women's side, the
Team USA Minnesota runners include Katie
McGregor, Emily Brown, Kristen Nicolini, Meghan
Armstrong and Michelle Frey. All
five ran the race in 2009, with McGregor and Brown
finishing second and third respectively. This
year's race will mark the fifth appearance at Gate
River for McGregor, who has a best in the distance of
49:56.
Brown recently finished
seventh in the women's 8k at the USA Cross Country
Championships in February and last weekend competed at
the NACAC Cross Country Championships. Nicolini
is opening her 2010 season at the 15k after
finishing third at the USA Women's Marathon
Championship last fall in a time of 2:35:06.
Armstrong has so far this year set a personal best in
the half marathon of 1:13:56 and won the ING Miami
Half Marathon, and Frey recently won the Cowtown Half
Marathon.
The men's side of the Team
USA Minnesota roster at the 15k includes Jason
Lehmkuhle, Josh Moen, Matt Gabrielson, Antonio Vega and
Patrick Smyth. With the
exception of Smyth, who is making his first appearance
at the 15k Championships, the others all competed at
the 2009 event.
Lehmkuhle, who placed
eighth at the 15k championships in 2009, won the
Mercedes Half Marathon in February. Moen was
second in the USA 10 Mile Championship last fall
and more recently, sixth at the USA Half Marathon
Championships in January. So far this year,
Gabrielson has placed ninth at the USA Half Marathon
Championships and 10th at the USA Cross Country
Championships. Vega is the 2010 national
champion in the USA Half Marathon and placed
eighth at the USA Cross Country Championships.
So far this year Smyth has finished second at the USA
Half Marathon Championships and second at the USA
Cross Country Championships.
The Gate River Run starts
and ends at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium with the
elite women beginning at 8:25 a.m. (Eastern time) and
the men's elite field and all other 15k participants
starting at 8:30. The American 15k records of
42:22 for males and 47:15 for females were each set on
this course.
NACAC Cross
Country Championships - March 6
The U.S. won the open team
titles for men and women at the sixth annual North
America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic
Association (NACAC) Cross Country Championships
at the Mt. Irvine Resort in Tobago on March 6.
The NACAC Championships contested races for the open
men's 8 km and open women's 6 km, along with two
junior races.
Emily Brown
was a member of the U.S. open women's team that took
the team title, beating out the team from Mexico by 14
points. Brown finished seventh overall.
About Team USA
Minnesota
Team USA Minnesota
is based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Formed in 2001, the purpose of the training center is
to improve the competitiveness of post-collegiate
American distance running and to develop Olympians.
The athletes are coached by Dennis Barker, head cross
country and track coach at Augsburg College in
Minneapolis. Team USA Minnesota's major sponsor
is Life Time Fitness (www.lifetimefitness.com)
and its silver sponsor is Twin Cities in Motion (www.mtcmarathon.org).
It is also supported by the New York Road Runners and
the USA Distance Project along with a grant from
Running USA. For more information, visit the
team's web site at www.teamusaminnesota.org.
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