These old cats are plenty fast. Not a lot of head to head competition to gauge from so the award winners will be based on my own learned and subjective criteria.
MASTERS MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Several contenders here making this difficult to designate. I’ll first list some of the more noteworthy nominees:
Ivan Ivanov. The fastest master in the state but races so infrequently. 2nd Overall at the Governor’s Cup 15K (51:02) and 4th at the Buffalo Run 5 Mile (27:41).
Brian Bergt. 2nd in the 50-54 age group at Lincoln Marathon in 3:01:54.
Dave Johnson. At 57 years old still one of the fastest masters as evidenced by his 1:24:49 at the Lincoln Half Marathon.
Brian Kelly. 54 years old and still racing with the younger studs. 1st overall at Havelock 10K in 38:16, Thunder Run 5K in 17:46. 2nd overall at Ni-Bthaska-Ke 12K Trail Run.
Miguel Ordorica. 3rd overall master and 1st local at Lincoln Marathon in 2:56:41.
Bob Garcia. 57 years old and still coaxing very fast times out of an always broken body. Novartis 2 Mile in 12:23 and Havelock 3K in 10:46.
Bob Brindamour. 1st overall master, State Farm 10 Mile, 59:48.
And our winner is:
Tom Woods, Lincoln Running Co. Racing Team. Tom showed great range as well as speed. 1st O/A Governor’s Cup 5K in 16:26. 1st O/A Novartis 2 Mile in 10:34. 1st O/A Masters Lincoln Half Marathon in 1:16:38. 7th O/A Buffalo Run 5 Mile in 27:58. 3rd O/A Master Living History Farms.
FEMALE MASTERS ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Somewhat thinned ranks this year with neither Ann Ringlein nor Linda Kunasek racing hardly if at all and Roxi Erickson nowhere to be found. But still some good results. Nominees:
Stacy Mangers. 47 years old. First O/A at inaugural Omaha 5K besting all entrants (20:07). Daughter Scottie was 2nd O/A. Stacy spent most of the year on the injured reserve, she’ll be back!
Natalie Jetensky. 43 years old. Always full of running, Natalie ran a fine 3:11:18 at the Lincoln Full. 3rd O/A Master Living History Farms.
Theresa Gosnell. 41 years old. Theresa made her long awaited return to distance running with a fine and fast 1:26:51 at the Lincoln Half. 2nd O/A female Omaha Marathon in 3:04:08.
And the winner is:
Maureen Larsen, 41 years old, LRC Racing. Maureen took the masters title in just about every race she ran this year. Including a 9th 40-44 age group in 3:02:51 at the USA Masters Marathon National Championships (Twin Cities). 1st Master Lincoln Mile in 5:43. 1st Master Buffalo Run 5 Mile in 32:36. 1st Master Thunder Run 5K in 19:06.
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