GRC and Minnesota Distance Elite take the club cross country titles on the Worlds course
The club championships ran the Worlds loops a day later; GRC Tracksmith won the men's team title and Minnesota Distance Elite the women's.
Photograph: the boardwalk and pond at Apalachee Regional Park, Tallahassee, by The Bushranger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe USATF Club Cross Country Championships ran on Sunday at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, on the 2 km loops that had hosted the World Cross Country Championships the day before. Five races: masters women over 6 km, masters men 60 and over 8 km, masters men 40 to 59 over 10 km, open women 6 km, and the open men's 10 km to close the day.
GRC Tracksmith, the Washington, DC club, won the open men's team title with 74 points. Cameron Miller led the club home in second place overall, a club record. Brooklyn Track Club was runner-up on 101, with Travis Mahoney fourth in 31:13 and Ryan Cutter eighth in 31:31. Tracksmith Boston Hares were fifth.
Minnesota Distance Elite won the open women's title with 21 points, all five scorers inside the top seven. Peninsula Distance Club was second on 70 and Central Park Track Club third on 104.
In the masters races, Carrie Dimoff won the women's 6 km in 21:38 from Renee Metivier, 22:07. Malcolm Richards took the men's 40-plus 10 km in 32:07, and John Van Danacker the 60-plus 8 km in 29:51, with Brian Crowley second in 30:07 and Paul Smith a second behind him. West Valley Track Club won both the men's 40-plus and 50-plus team titles.
Club cross country is the sport at its least sponsored: five scorers, a muddy loop, and a trophy that goes back to a Tuesday night group run. Running it on a World Championship course a day later is as close as most of these runners will get to the big stage, and they did not waste it.
Sources: USATF; USATF New York; USATF New England; Georgetown Running Club.
