Staten Island Athletic Club's
3 Mile Fun Run
May 5, 2001
Keeping up the recent trend, two more of the Island’s best grabbed victories at this week’s fun run. Shawn Williams, third in last year’s Triple Crown, scorched the field and the course with the fastest time recorded this year, a superb 15:57. This sends out a clear message to the top Island runners, especially Ryan Maxwell, last year’s Triple Crown champion, who won last week’s fun run in a mere 17:13. Yes, I am trying to start a challenge. Winnie Ng ran away from the women’s field with an 18:48. Winnie, a former Olympic Marathoner who owns a 2:42 best for the 26.2 mile trek, recently won her age group (45 to 49) at the world-famous Rotterdam Marathon with a 2:58. She was second overall to Kari Proffit (last week’s fun run winner in 18:40), at the recent Queens half-marathon. Perhaps this too is a message to Proffit for the upcoming Island races. OK, now I guess I’m trying to incite a riot. Who says the fun run is a friendly race.
My last words to Shawn Wlliams, as he made way to the starting line, were, “Don’t hurt anyone”. Well, I guess he didn’t head the advice, as he quickly shook off two early challengers and proceeded to crush what was otherwise a strong field. It was clear after a mile that the battle was for second place. Eugene Saladis (17:03) overcame the fast-starting Luis “El Matador” Oyola (17:19) to take second. El Matador’s time shattered his previous fun run best from last year. The recently slimed-down Oyola appears to be resisting the brewskys, which could move him closer to the elite runners (and save Tommy Hart lots of money).
Scott Catone kept up his six-minute-mile tempo runs with an 18:01 in fourth place. John Wowk came from way back in the pack to run down a dozen runners with an 18:14 for fifth. Dave Panza (18:24), Michael Perry (18:33), an improving Scott LaMorte (18:42), and A-Born Etchison (18:50) completed the top nine.
Winnie Ng, took William’s cue and put an end to any thoughts of an upset, by opening up a large early lead. She cruised home with a good workout on a nice day, and wished that she could delay her return to hot and humid Hong Kong next month. She will be at the next few Island races, giving ample opportunity for the area’s best (of course, I won’t mention any names here) to test their abilities against an Olympian. Alma Ramos continued to slowly get back into shape after a slow start to the year, caused by illness. She took second in 21:31, just ahead of Barbara Byrne (21:35), who is enjoying a great year, but took it easy this week. Both will be recording much faster times very soon. Theresa Sorrentino continued to shave off a few seconds each week (three this week) and ran a 22:51 for fourth place.
Bob Polchinski broke through 20:00 for the first time this year after a few near misses, with a 19:52. Angela Conte ran her fastest fun run of the year in 25:07.
While we all like a clean park, nobody appreciated the Parks Department garbage truck doing his rounds on the course, which delayed the start of the race a few minutes. The next time that happens, we promise to tell he driver to, “Get the truck off the course!”, or “Get it, the truck, outta here”, or, “what the truck is your problem, we’re runnin’ here!”.
There will be no fun run for the next TWO weeks, as the Alzheimer’s race and Doreen’s race will be held. Both applications are on the web site. We’ll see you the Saturday before the Memorial Day run.
Results Place Name Sex Time Pace 1 Shawn Williams M 0:15:57 0:05:19 2 Eugene Saladis M 0:17:03 0:05:41 3 Luis Oyola M 0:17:19 0:05:46 4 Scott Catone M 0:18:01 0:06:00 5 John Wowk M 0:18:14 0:06:05 6 Dave Panza M 0:18:24 0:06:08 7 Michael Perry M 0:18:33 0:06:11 8 Scott LaMorte M 0:18:42 0:06:14 9 Winie Ng F 0:18:48 0:06:16 10 A-Born Etchison M 0:18:50 0:06:17 11 Bob Polchinski M 0:19:52 0:06:37 12 Joseph Quinn M 0:19:55 0:06:38 13 Mark Vogt M 0:19:59 0:06:40 14 Steve Woitkowski M 0:20:07 0:06:42 15 Fred Rigolini M 0:20:14 0:06:45 16 Keith Gill M 0:20:27 0:06:49 17 Gene Galasso M 0:20:28 0:06:49 18 Bernard Wright M 0:20:43 0:06:54 19 Paul Buckheit M 0:20:55 0:06:58 20 Alma Ramos F 0:21:31 0:07:10 21 Barbara Byrne F 0:21:35 0:07:12 22 Kevin Campbell M 0:21:41 0:07:14 23 Eric Zimbrosky M 0:21:55 0:07:18 24 Theresa Sorrentino F 0:22:51 0:07:37 25 Angela Conte F 0:25:07 0:08:22 26 Tony Celentano M 0:25:12 0:08:24 27 Paul Forster M 0:25:19 0:08:26 28 Joe Feldstein M 0:25:48 0:08:36 29 Steve Corrigan M 0:25:54 0:08:38 30 John Sbarbaro M 0:25:59 0:08:40 30 Mike Sekulo M 0:25:59 0:08:40 32 Emil Elrich M 0:26:22 0:08:47 33 Jim Hart M 0:26:27 0:08:49 34 Mike Garone M 0:26:31 0:08:50 35 Sam Carollo M 0:27:03 0:09:01 36 Ruth Fairbrother F 0:27:17 0:09:06 37 Elliot Fox M 0:27:22 0:09:07 38 Lisa Rigolini F 0:30:20 0:10:07 39 Marie Garone F 0:36:34 0:12:11