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2006 - SYNOPSIS Well, if you are reading this, then you already know that we finally got the Record Book on a Website. The format for the Honor Roll is basically the same as last year’s booklet. However, since each distance now has a separate file, we are no longer page limited; so we have changed the organization somewhat and moved the Race List for each distance into the ”Distance” file right behind the Honor Roll itself. And following the Race List is the APPENDIX of extra honor roll times for each individual, but no longer in a “compressed” format. So the same information for each time in the Honor Roll, is now available for each APPENDIX time as well. With almost 670 new times achieved in 2006 by Kansas runners, it was expected that there would be quite a few new AGE GP records. The ladies lead the parade with 16 new records, one tied plus four Resident records. The “tied” record was set by WSU standout Desiraye Osburn of Lyndon in her only 5 K “road” race of the year at 16.26, tying the best ever 5 K by a lady in Kansas and was also a Resident record. Wichitan Deb Torneden turned 45 this year and destroyed three age group records – 2 mile, 10 K and 10 mile. The only other female runner to break more than one record was by 61 year old Beth Rogers of Wichita who wiped out the Half Marathon and Marathon records – the Marathon record was one she set just last year. Unfortunately for Deb, her 40-44 record in the 2 mile was clipped by Mary Grene at the River Run, and that time was the best age-graded time of the year for the ladies. (See the Age Graded file) One of the most impressive performances by a young runner was recorded by Iowa runner Rebekah Topham in the 5 K ; only 10 years old at the time, her outstanding 19.04 time knocked 27 seconds off the old 12 & Under record. However, 11 year old Kaelyn Balch of Wichita ranked right up there with her with an impressive 12.04 time in the 2 mile, also knocking 28 seconds off that 12 & Under record. On the male side of the ledger, 13 new Age Gp records were set and three Resident Records. The most surprising time of the year was turned in by Australian Andrew Letherby; he knocked out Jon Sinclair’s all-time best ten mile record that had stood since 1991. Although he was only 32 years old, it was still easily the best age graded time of the year in any event. In that same Atwood race, two Coloradan’s Brad and Noel Pace, set records in their age groups. But kudo’s for the year for male runners goes to Paul Heitzman of Eudora. Paul turned 75 early in the year and bested Deb’s 3 records, by picking up 4 new ones for himself – 2 mile, 5 K, 8 K, and 10 K. The oldest of these records was set in 1994 by Frank Miorandi of Coffeyville, an old rival of these author, but Paul clipped Frank’s record by more than a minute and a half. But the actual oldest Record broken was the 10 K , 1988 resident record in the 16 – 19 age group. Alex Umberger of Wichita ran a 32.10 time and was followed across the finish line by another 19 year old, Brock Phillips, who also ran under the old record. We finally had a 12 K race in Kansas this year for the first time in ten years, and that race at Lawrence generated 3 new records, two by the guys and one by 65 year old Fran Breslauer of Lawrence. 51 year old Jay O’Neill of Wincester and 10 year old Stan Skwarlo of Lawrence were the male record setters. The oldest record setter was Olive Drew who claims Hutchinson as her home town, but runs practically all her races in the Kansas City area. We had to set up a new age group for she and Faye Potter of Shawnee, as they are the only known 90 year old runners , male or female, competing actively. Olive ran at least three 5 K races on Kansas courses this year, with her best time coming on the fairly new Roeland Park, KS, course. The oldest male record breaker was by 80 year old Glenn Opie of Great Bend; he knocked more than 7 minutes off the existing 10 K record. So as an interesting note - 10 of the 13 male record breakers were over 45 years of age – so as the song says “where have all the young men gone.” But, on the other hand, 11 of the 16 female record breakers were also over 45. And even more interesting, if you leave out the kids under 20, only 2 male record breakers were between 20 & 44, and only 2 female record breakers were in that 20-44 age bracket – that’s excluding the tie by Osburn. We again need to thank all those who work to get results to us. And actually this was the best year ever in covering the Kansas racing scene. We had about 100 known races on certified courses and compiled results on 96 of them. However the certification had expired on one course which we had to throw out. One course was not run as certified, and results were screwed up on another, so actually we’re only missing 2 races which is almost a miracle. Steve Riley of Lawrence was once again a big help, tracking down course information as well as results in the Northeast area. And as usual Missouri State Record keeper Mike Lundgren helped with the Kansas City area. But the biggest accolade this year goes to Steve Robb of Pittsburg who is donating his time and expertise to load all of the State Record Book data on this Website, and will be helping to maintain it as updates come in. We hope to update the State Records section periodically during the year, but not the Honor Roll. However, we have a detail file that I will load as results are submitted, so as to avoid the January-February crunch that always leads to errors. Many of you, including myself, would rather have a printed book, but sales have dropped off so much that we can no longer afford the printing costs, despite help from several donors. And the work to compile the data in book form is almost 50% more time consuming as the website format. So hopefully there will be fewer errors and we can correct those few on-line much more easily than printing a new book. Also you can print from the website whatever really interests you, but you can’t change the data as listed. For corrections or basic info about the data, you will need to contact me at my E-mail address millardcrook@netzero.net, or by snail mail at 15 Circle Drive, Mulvane, KS, 67110, or in desperation, my phone number is 316-777-1321. |
