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Tag Archives: parsons

Castagno: a 2026 Hall of Fame Inductee

10 Friday Apr 2026

Posted by deshon in News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

castagno, cross country, fischer, parsons, Tatnall School, track and field, University of Delaware

Salesianum School and University of Delaware standout and longtime award-winning Tatnall School track and cross-country coach Pat Castagno will be among ten inductees into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame (HOF) this spring. An excerpt from the HOF announcement follows:

For 25 years, Patrick Castagno has coached Tatnall School track and field and cross-country teams to statewide dominance and national prominence.

Castagno joined the Tatnall faculty in 2001 and reinvigorated the cross country and track programs. Since then, the Hornets have won 62 state championships, with 273 individual and relay titles. Eight Hornets teams and five individual runners have qualified for the Nike Cross Country Nationals.

Castagno has been named U.S. Track and Field Coaches Association Coach of the Year five times and Delaware Coach of the Year 15 times.

Nearly 80 of his athletes have competed at the college level, including an NCAA champion and [fellow HOF] inductee, Juliet Bottorff.

One of Castagno’s former Tatnall great runners, CRR Sam Parsons, who also had a successful runner career both in college at North Carolina State and then on the pro circuit, went on to become Delaware’s first sub-four miler and the first person to break the four-minute-mile barrier on Delaware soil.

A successful college runner himself, Castagno was coached at the University of Delaware by another Delaware Sports Hall of Famer, CRR Jim Fischer.

CRR Bill Rose appears in Penn Relays video

30 Sunday Apr 2023

Posted by deshon in News, Race Results, Stories

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Tags

400m, Delaware Running Club, parsons, penn relays, rose

Well, the news story video centered on 70-year-old Guy DeLillio and his friend Jack Garniewski, Salesianum class of 1971 alumni who ran in this year’s Penn Relays as part of the Delaware Running Club masters 400m relay team. But, our own CRR Bill Rose (center in the photo), who is nearing 65, was also on the team that competed and appears in the video.

photo of 2023 Delaware Running Club relay team

Here’s an excerpt of how Rose described his experience at this hallowed meet.

We were 6th out of 6 teams that finished [out of the] 10 teams registered. Two teams did not start (not surprising for 60+ teams).  One team was DQd for false start, and one team was DNF due to a fall. We did it in 68+ seconds. Our goal, which we claimed when we registered, was 68-72 seconds. We are happy and proud to have competed and finished.

Our sprint speed, if sustained, would equal a 14:10 5K—about a minute slower than Sam Parsons’ pace. [World best marathoner] Eliud Kipchoge runs 14:20 pace for a whole marathon. So I could keep up with [Kipchoge] for 100 meters, if I do a max sprint.

Anyone who has seen Rose train knows that he starts his training runs fast (seemingly close to “max sprint”) and keeps it going.

First State Half Marathon standouts

27 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by deshon in Race Results

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Tags

deshon, First State, half marathon, parsons, repetti, tague, weber

On a cool, windy Saturday, March 25, 319 participants finished the First State Half Marathon, held right here in Newark, Delaware. Among the age-group winners were two Creek Road Runners.

photo of Andrew Weber
photo of Doug Repetti

Placing 7th overall and winning the men’s 40-49 division was CRR Andrew Weber, clocking in at 1:20:30*, just a bit over six minutes per mile.

Winning the men’s 70-and-over division was CRR Doug Repetti. Repetti finished 180th overall and 113th among the men in 2:07:09*.

Of note was the the close finish of two other CRRs. CRR Steve Tague finished in 95th overall in 1:50:52*, just 15 seconds ahead of CRR Christina Parsons’ time of 1:51:07*.

*chip time

Editor’s Note: CRR Mark Deshon got an up-close-and-personal view of this rather unusual out-and-back race, as he handed out water and/or encouragement to the above-mentioned from the turnaround.

Drafting off an Olympic champion

08 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by deshon in Race Results

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Tags

3000m, 3km, European championships, indoor, parsons

photo of Sam Parsons being introduced in Berlin

Drafting is generally a good thing, provided the person you’re drafting off is someone you think will benefit you by doing so. But drafting at the back of the pack in a prestigious international indoor track event can be risky. This was certainly the case in a qualifying heat of the European 3,000m indoor championship held recently.

However, if you’re shadowing the recent 1,500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, it’s a good bet that you won’t be at the back of the pack at the end of the race. That’s precisely what Newark native and German champion CRR Sam Parsons did, having run on Ingebrigtsen’s heels at the very back for about 80% of the race. Ingebrigtsen ended up winning the 3,000m heat, but following his lead was enough for Parsons to finish third in the race, easily making it into one of the top six qualifying spots for the European final.

> See the heat 1 video

Parsons PRs at Millrose Games

15 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by deshon in Race Results

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Tags

3000m, 3km, indoor, Millrose Games, parsons, PR

photo of Sam Parsons

The Armory in New York City was the venue for a great, indoor-banked-track battle in the men’s 3000m during the annual Millrose Games, which was broadcast on the NBC network.

Our own CRR Sam Parsons, coming off a smashing 5000m PR in Boston in January, this time set a personal best in the 3000m with a time of 7:39.94, placing eighth among a loaded international field. For those of you who like to see per-mile times, Parsons ran this race of nearly two miles at a 4:06.7/mile clip! Simply amazing.

At one point in the race, Parsons was positioned in sixth and leading the chase pack of runners that had been left behind by the lead group, but he was then passed by a couple runners in the final couple laps. He ended up just shy of 6.5 seconds behind the winner, Josh Kerr of Great Britain.

Parsons finished in 6th place in last year’s European Championships in the 5000m.

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Creek Road Runners is an informal association of runners/joggers who frequent the only quiet scenic road out of Newark, Delaware.

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Recent Posts

  • Three generations compete in the DMR at Penn
  • Memorial bench now adorns Creek Road
  • Seashore Running Festival standouts
  • Barlow and Rose honored at UD
  • Castagno: a 2026 Hall of Fame Inductee
  • R.I.P. CRR Bruce Hubbard
  • Another annual trail run ends 2025
  • Rose and Weber show well at XC Championships

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You’re a real runner if…

acronyms like PR and DNF are verbs.

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you know that PR stands for something other than Puerto Rico.

you use your bib numbers to wallpaper your garage.

your resting heart rate is too low to give blood.

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