By David Yon
One hundred and thirty seven runners followed winner Gary Droze to the finish line in the Echo 5K on Saturday morning. Another 30 followed Sergei Duvanov in the one-mile. Gary Droze, no doubt in a hurry to get to Maclay’s cross country team’s meet at Tom Brown, took charge early and won the race with a time of 16:42. Seeley Lovett did not have race to Tom Brown, but she dusted the women’s field anyway crossing the line in 20:42 for first place among the women. Tim Bolton took second place in 17:28 just edging a hard charging Jack McDermott (17:36) who continues to make his bid for runner of the year with personal best performances. Kim Likens grabbed second place for the women with a time of 22:42.
As usual the race was well organized and the Junior Museum was the perfect staging place. Race director Pat Bruner (who gets lots of help directing from Co-director and husband Wes) baked three or four types of bread to serve up as awards for age group winners to choose from. ( I gladly collected as many awards to take to my early leaving friends as possible.) Proceeds from the race benefited ECHO (Emergency Care Help Organization). Both RAA and Bell Vue Middle Schools showed up for the race with nice size teams. RAA was under the supervision of GWTC member Gary Kenney, while Susan Cornwell and Mike Schneider continued the excellent tradition of Bell Vue cross-country runners.