Trafeh Runs Away From Men's Field, McGregor Wins Women's Title At Gate River Run

By USATF
March 13, 2010

JACKSONVILLE - Mohamed Trafeh (Duarte, Calif.)took control from the gun to win his first ever U.S. title, running 42 minutes, 57 seconds Saturday at the USA 15 km Championships in Jacksonville, Florida. After finishing as runner-up the previous two years, Katie McGregor (Saint Louis Park, Minn.)easilytook the Women's title in 49:50.

With this year's race once again featuring the Equalizer Bonus, the elite women's race started five minutes before the rest of the field. At the start, clear, cool conditions met more than 13,000 runners as McGregor and two-time champion Jen Rhines (Mammoth, Calif.), 2006 champion Blake Russell (Monterey, Calif.), 2008 Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet (Oakland, Calif.) and 2004 Olympian Colleen De Reuck (Boulder, Colo.) led more than 45 of the top U.S. women through the opening miles.

By five miles, McGregor and Rhines had pulled away from the field and were in a two woman race for the championship. Approaching six miles, McGregor made her move and began to pull away from Rhines.

As she made her way up the famous Hart Bridge, McGregor steadily extended her lead and cruised to the finish 36 seconds ahead of Rhines. Boulet held on to take third in 50:38 as De Reuck took fourth in 50:50 and Rebecca Donaghue (State College, Pa.) finished fifth in 51:12.

In the men's race, Trafeh jumped to an early lead, building a 10 second lead by the time he passed the first mile in 4:22. As his lead grew with each mile, Trafeh had only McGregor to chase for the Equalizer Bonus.

Shortly after passing 10 km in 28:19, Trafeh passed the lead women to cruise to a 54 second win over Tim Nelson (Corvallis, Ore.). 2010 USA Half Marathon champion Antonio Vega (Minneapolis, Minn.) took third in 43:55 while his Team USA Minnesota teammate Jason Lehmkuhle (Minneapolis, Minn.) finished fourth in 43:59. Sean Quigley (Braintree, Mass.) rounded out the top-five in 44:05.

2010 marked the 17th year that the championships have been hosted by the Gate River Run and featured a total prize purse of $58,000, with Trafeh and McGregor each earning $12,000 for their championship titles.

Trafeh also earned the Equalizer Bonus of $5,000 for being the first male or female to cross the finish line. The 5 minute "head start" was based on the time differential of the U.S. 15 km records: 42:22 for the men (Todd Williams, 1995) and 47:15 for the women (Deena Drossin, 2003), both set on the Gate River Run course.

Video highlights

Video highlights of the USA 15 km Championships and pre- and post-race video interviews with top athletes are available at www.usatf.org in cooperation with RunnerSpace.com.

Top 20 results appear below. More results here.

   21     1       Mo Trafeh, 24, Duarte, CA                      14:04       28:18       42:58    42:58    4:37                       
    1     2       Tim Nelson, 26, Corvallis, OR                  14:30       29:06       43:51    43:52    4:43                       
   15     3       Antonio Vega, 26, St Paul, MN                  14:30       29:06       43:55    43:56    4:43  Team Usa Minnesota   
   17     4       Jason Lehmkuhle, 32, Minneapolis, MN           14:28       29:05       43:58    44:00    4:44  Team Usa Minnesota   
   19     5       Sean Quigley, 25, Philadelphia, PA             14:30       29:05       44:05    44:06    4:44                       
   25     6       Ryan Vail, 23, Gresham, OR                     14:31       29:23       44:37    44:37    4:48                       
    5     7       Patrick Smyth, 23, Minneapolis, MN             14:31       29:18       44:42    44:42    4:48  Team Usa Minnesota   
   39     8       Nicholas Arciniaga, 26, Fountain Valley, CA
                                                  14:36       29:44       44:50    44:51    4:49  Playmakers Racing    
   61     9       Charlie Serrano, 26, Long Beach, CA            14:30       29:31       44:53    44:54    4:49  International City   
   27    10       Stephan Shay, 24, East Jordan, MI              14:31       29:33       44:54    44:54    4:50  Bay Area Track Club  
   45    11    1  Lucas Meyer, 26, Ridgefield, CT                14:51       29:50       45:03    45:04    4:51                       
   67    12    2  Ryan Sheehan, 26, Kelamazoo, MI                14:45       29:40       45:11    45:12    4:51  Playmakers Racing    
   23    13    3  Jason Hartmann, 28, Boulder, CO                14:32       29:40       45:24    45:24    4:53  Boulder Harriers     
   59    14    4  Ian Burrell, 25, Flagstaff, AZ                 14:30       29:23       45:37    45:38    4:54                       
   71    15    5  Crosby Freeman, 26, San Francisco, CA          15:10       30:17       45:40    45:42    4:55                       
   33    16    6  Stephen Haas, 26, Bloomington, IN              14:37       29:56       45:41    45:41    4:55                       
   77    17    7  Abebe Yimer, 29, Santa Fe, NM                  14:31       29:54       45:46    45:46    4:55                       
   37    18    1  Michael Spence, 31, Ogden, UT                  15:07       30:21       45:49    45:50    4:56                       
   63    19    8  Sergio Reyes, 28, Palmdale, CA                 15:11       30:19       45:53    45:54    4:56                       
   29    20    9  Josh Moen, 27, Eden Prairie, MN                14:31       29:44       46:00    46:00    4:57  Team Usa Minnesota    

 

 

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