Today’s Five & Wine 5 Mile Run in Newark produced five age-group winners among Creek Road Runners and one new state age-group record.
The most notable age-group winner on the day was CRR Diane Kukich (60-69), who took 77 seconds off the old 65-69 state record by posting a time of 39:41. Just last weekend in Virginia Beach, she came in second in the USATF National Masters 8K Championship race in her age group, which earned her a silver medal, and took away an additional silver for her second-place age-grading score of 85.4 in that same race. (Age grades in the 80-89 range are considered “national class.”) There were 69 women in her age group on the course that day.
Among the other age-group winners were CRR Andrew Weber (30-39), who finished second overall to national-class runner Steve Sinko in 30:06; CRR Dan Weile (40-49), who placed 9th overall in 34:25; CRR Mark Deshon (60-69), who finished 11th overall in 34:47 while competing in his first race in this age group; and 
CRR Theresa Kauffman (50-59), who ran 43:54.
The only other podium finisher among the group was CRR Ryan German, who posted a 35:06 while finishing 3rd in the 30-39 age group.
Note: Unlike most CRR postings, these are all chip times, because gun times were not made available.
Congratulations to CRR Charlie Riordan who was just appointed Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Innovation at the University of Delaware. These three areas certainly cover a lot of ground on campus. We know that Charlie will shine; the question is… Will he still run? Could depend a lot on corporate sponsorship (see image at right), although with his new position, we imagine a bit of a bump in that category too. See you on Creek Road, Charlie.
The fastest of the CRRs was CRR Andrew Weber, who just edged out CRR Clark Ridge for both 6th place overall and 2nd among the 30-39 men. Weber ran a 5:06.2, just ahead of Ridge’s 5:07.0, in the field of hundreds of runners and walkers.
Two CRRs won their respective age groups. In 13th place overall was CRR Bruce Weber, who ran a solid 5:22.2 to win the 50-59 age group. CRR Diane Kukich won her age group (60-69) in 7:12.6. These two winners posted wonderful age-graded scores in so doing. Weber’s 91.9 was the second highest among all competitors, and Kukich scored an impressive 87.0, fourth highest overall. (Scores from 90-100 are considered world class; 80-100 is considered national class.) By comparison, Andrew Weber’s score was 84.1, and Ridge’s was 83.9.
Those of us who know former University of Delaware cross-country and track and field coach CRR Jim Fischer are indeed thinking how bittersweet an honor this must be for him to be told he’ll be so received by the same institution that five years ago took away from him the job he so loved.
CreekRoadRunners.org 