THE BROOKS BLOG

Arciniaga 6th at USA 20km Championships; McMahan and White place 5th and 6th in the women’s race

Rochester Hills, MI, September 1, 2008–Hansons-Brooks (powered by Saturn) athlete Nick Arciniaga placed sixth at the USA 20km Championships in New Haven on Labor Day. In the women’s race, Dot McMahan placed fifth, with teammate Melissa White a few steps back in sixth. Both women ran personal bests of 1:09:33 and 1:09:47, respectively.

James Carney (Boulder, Colo.) took control early and led most of the race before breaking the tape for his second USA Championship this year in 59:11. He was followed by 2006 NCAA Cross Country Champion Josh Rohatinsky (Portland, Oreg.), and 2004 Olympian Dan Browne (Beaverton, Oreg.) who ran 59:58 and 1:00:06, respectively.

Arciniaga’s sixth place finish is his highest placing in a USA Championship race, and his 1:00:47 finishing time is the third best in team history for 20km. Teammate Kyle O’Brien finished 23rd overall, finishing in a time of 1:04:58.

Former Georgia All-American Jill Steffens (Athens, Ga.) ran a well-paced effort and surged past two-time Olympian Elva Dryer (Gunnison, Colo.) in the final 400 meters to claim her first national title. Dryer led most of the race, eventually gapped the field, and appeared to have secured the second national road title of her career–at least, until Steffens and 19 year-old Ilsa Paulson (Flagstaff, Ariz.) combined efforts and rejoined the Olympian just after ten miles. Over the final miles there were several lead changes–with Steffens making her final move to the front in the last straightaway to claim victory.

McMahan, who ran with the eventual champion Steffens for much of the race, couldn’t match her efforts when she made the move to catch Dryer over the second 10km.. She had no trouble, however, matching her own effort from a year ago–running almost two minutes faster than her previous personal best from the USA Championships last year, where she placed eighth (1:11:23) Both McMahan and White improved on the previous team best of 1:10:07, set by Davila a year ago.

For complete race results, visit the New Haven Road Race web page.

ABOUT - The Hansons-Brooks Distance Project is a post-collegiate training program for runners with Olympic aspirations. Athletes in the program live and train together in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Team sponsors include Brooks Sports, Inc., Saturn Corporation, Aruba Sport Eyewear, and Hansons Running Shops.

release via Mike Reneau