© Copyright – 20019 – Athletics Illustrated
The USATF National Cross Country Championships took place Saturday, December 14 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Five races were contested, Masters men 60-plus, and 40-plus, master women 40-plus, open women (6K) and open men (10K).
The top three women in the open race were Aisling Cuffe, Katelyn Touhy, and Cally Macumber. They finished at 20:07, 20:11 and 20:15, respectively. Of note, Mary Cain, former Nike Oregon Project runner, competed in her first race since her op-ed video with the New York Times about Alberto Salazar, her former coach, and his apparent bullying and fat-shaming antics.
Cain, previously the US’s top teenager over middle-distances (1500m) showed good form finishing 33rd in a race four-times longer than her specialty. She ran unattached and finished in the time of 21:11. There were 406 competitors in the race.
It was her first race since May of 2019 and second in three years. While sporting adidas shoes, she was with the leaders until approximately 3K into the race, when she began to fade a little, as Cuffe and Touhy began to apply pressure.
The top three teams in these club championships were HOKA Aggie Running Club with 73 points, Nomad Track Club with 104 and Boston Athletics Association with 125. HOKA had athletes place in positions 3, 9, 19, 20 and 22.
Cuffe runs for Nomad as did the 11, 28, 31 and 33-place finishers. Cain was listed in the individual results as “unattached”.
B.A.A.’s top finisher was fourth-place Natosha Rogers also with Hansons-Brooks Distance Project.
The top three men in the 10K were Morgan Pearson, Aaron Templeton, and Dillon Maggard. Pearson and Templeton both run for Tinman Elite, while Maggard represented Brooks. They finished in 29:54, 30:07 and 30:17, respectively.
No surprise that Tinman Elite had the lowest score at 22 points with finishers crossing the line 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8th position – a solid thumping of the entire field.
HOKA NJNYTC finished second, while HOKA Aggie Running Club again hit the podium. The teams earned 126 and 137 points, respectively.
Hoka NJNYTC’s top finisher was Jacob Riley in fourth, while HOKA Aggie’s top finisher was Frank Lara (31:10) in 15th.
The meet allows USATF to nominate team members to compete in the 2020 Pan Am Cross Country Cup going on in Victoria, BC on Feb. 29, 2020.
Full results are available here: https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=1933
