Katie McGregor Wins US 15K Title, Quigley (MA) Top 5

JACKSONVILLE – Mohamed Trafeh (Duarte,
Calif.)took control from the gun to win his first ever U.S. title,
running 42 minutes, 57 seconds Saturday at the USA 15 km Championships
in Jacksonville, Florida. After finishing as runner-up the previous two
years, Katie McGregor (Saint Louis Park, Minn.) easily took the Women’s title in 49:50.
 
With
this year’s race once again featuring the Equalizer Bonus, the elite
women’s race started five minutes before the rest of the field. At the
start, clear, cool conditions met more than 13,000 runners as McGregor
and two-time champion Jen Rhines (Mammoth, Calif.), 2006 champion Blake Russell (Monterey, Calif.), 2008 Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet (Oakland, Calif.) and 2004 Olympian Colleen De Reuck (Boulder, Colo.) led more than 45 of the top U.S. women through the opening miles.
 
By
five miles, McGregor and Rhines had pulled away from the field and were
in a two woman race for the championship.  Approaching six miles,
McGregor made her move and began to pull away from Rhines. 
 
As
she made her way up the famous Hart Bridge, McGregor steadily extended
her lead and cruised to the finish 36 seconds ahead of Rhines.  Boulet
held on to take third in 50:38 as De Reuck took fourth in 50:50 and Rebecca Donaghue (State College, Pa.) finished fifth in 51:12. 
 
In
the men’s race, Trafeh jumped to an early lead, building a 10 second
lead by the time he passed the first mile in 4:22.  As his lead grew
with each mile, Trafeh had only McGregor to chase for the Equalizer
Bonus. 
 
Shortly after passing 10 km in 28:19, Trafeh passed the lead women to cruise to a 54 second win over Tim Nelson (Corvallis, Ore.). 2010 USA Half Marathon champion Antonio Vega (Minneapolis, Minn.) took third in 43:55 while his Team USA Minnesota teammate Jason Lehmkuhle (Minneapolis, Minn.) finished fourth in 43:59.  Sean Quigley (Braintree, Mass.) rounded out the top-five in 44:05.    
 
2010
marked the 17th year that the championships have been hosted by the
Gate River Run and featured a total prize purse of $58,000, with Trafeh
and McGregor each earning $12,000 for their championship titles.   
 
Trafeh
also earned the Equalizer Bonus of $5,000 for being the first male or
female to cross the finish line. The 5 minute “head start” was based on
the time differential of the U.S. 15 km records: 42:22 for the men
(Todd Williams, 1995) and 47:15 for the women (Deena Drossin, 2003),
both set on the Gate River Run course.  
 
Video highlights
 
Video
highlights of the USA 15 km Championships and pre- and post-race video
interviews with top athletes are available at www.usatf.org in
cooperation with RunnerSpace.com.   
 
About the USARC
 
The
USA 15 km Championships were the second stop on the 2010 USA Running
Circuit (USARC).  The 2010 USARC is a USA Track & Field road
series, featuring USA Championships from one mile to the marathon and
attracts the best U.S. distance runners.
The circuit features ten events each for men and women.
 
The
2010 USARC will once again see a record amount of circuit prize money
for a non-Olympic year with total prize purse of $623,850 offered by
host events. U.S. athletes will also have the opportunity to qualify
for various Team USA events, including the IAAF World Half Marathon
Championships and the Chiba International Ekiden.
 
The first ten
U.S. runners earn points at each USARC race (15 for first, 12 for
second, 10 for third, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1), with a final $12,500
grand prix purse ($6,000, $4,000, and $2,500) for the top three men and
women point scorers overall. The USARC points at the USA Marathon
Championships will be doubled.
 
The mission of the USA Running
Circuit is to showcase, support, and promote U.S. runners.  Since its
inception in 1995, the USARC and its races have provided over $6
million dollars to U.S. distance runners.
 
For more information on the 2010 USA 15 km Championships visit www.usatf.org.