2023 was a time for progress, personal bests, and prolific performances. Like 2022, this year featured over 300 race performances from team members, who won at least 45 times, in over 30 cities across California, 17 states, and a team record 14 countries around the world. The year concluded with an emphatic USATF Club Cross Country National Championship for our women’s team, scoring an incredible 18 points. During the preceding 12 months, 8 new club records were set, including multiple bests by both Susan Aneno (including a superlative 1:59 800m), and Kayla Knapp, who lowered our women’s road 5K mark to 15:53 on her way to a second straight Pacific Association USATF Short Course Road Grand Prix Championship.
Women’s squad earned the win at PAUSATF and USATF Club Nationals. Photo: Steven Anderson
Championship Contention Continues…
In our 17th year of competition, the headline remains our first USATF Club Cross Country Championship, featuring an outstanding result of all five scorers in the top 10 individual places. With unattached athletes withdrawn for the team score, Claire Green (2nd), Maya Weigel (3rd), Kayla Knapp (6th), Holly Clarke (8th), and Ayla Granados (9th) totaled 18 team points. Green and Weigel surpassed our previous best individual finish of 4th by Katy Trotter, way back in our first year of 2007, and the squad beat our previous best team result of 4th (2017, 2018). However, our result in Tallahassee capped a year of top level action for the squad on many fronts.
Aneno hit 1:59 to cap an outstanding track season. Photo: Anderson
Internationally, Matt Leach competed in his 4th European 10,000m Cup for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Pacé, France, finishing as third scorer as the team earned fifth overall. Rafal Matuszczak notched 23rd place in the 40K race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Austria, helping Team Poland to 4th place. While earning a world ranking of 54th over the summer, Susan Aneno very narrowly missed qualification for the World Athletics Outdoor Championships in Budapest, where Dena Evans served as Women’s Head Coach for Team USATF, her third straight appointment to a US staff for the World Athletics Outdoor Championships. After a long road of rehab from foot surgery, Joshua Sealand won the EliiptiGO World Championships this fall.
Domestically, Ashley Lewis competed in her first USATF Indoor Championships, also at 800m, and Kayla Knapp finished 14th at the USATF 6K Road Championships, capping her undefeated PAUSATF spring road season as Short Course Grand Prix Champ. On February 3rd, we will look forward to cheering on Matt Lenehan, Holly Clarke, Maya Weigel, and brand newcomer Zach Hine at the US Olympic Marathon Team Trials in Orlando, Florida.
Lenehan heads to his 2nd US Olympic Marathon Trials in February. Photo: Anderson
Locally in the Pacific Association and Northern California, PDC athletes enjoyed another year of success at the front of the pack in a variety of championship and Grand Prix events. On the cross country course, the women’s team won our 11th association title in 16 years, scoring two full teams in the top 5 as Claire Green’s individual win led the squad. The men again finished a very strong 2nd, earning a spot in the top two teams as they have done every year except for one since 2016. Chris Olley was the individual runner-up, in his third straight podium finish in as many tries, supported by Ben Rigby, Steven Grolle, Joshua Sealand, and Donald Taggart. Trevor Halstead also won the title at this year’s John Lawson Tamalpa Challenge, as did Knapp at the Matt Yeo Memorial Aggies Open, and Granados, Clarke, Izzi Gengaro, Sarah Gayer, and JJ Escalera won the Open race at the Bronco Invitational.
Regionally and beyond on the roads…
Running for the first time as the “Peninsula Disco Club”, the women won their first attempt at the historic centipede competition at the Bay to Breakers 12K, as the men took second, following their 2022 victory. Both men’s and women’s teams won the recent PA Grand Prix Christmas Relays, the women won the July 4th Freedom Fest in Morgan Hill, and the men were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Mile of Truth, Great Race 4 Miler, and Stow Lake Stampede respectively. Overall, Knapp, Faith Reynolds, and Sarah Johnson earned 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the overall short course standings, while Oliver Langford and Kirk Scheibelhut finished 4th and 5th among all Pacific Association Open short course men. PDC also won the co-ed team title at the Alameda 10 Miler in August.
PDC Men earned PA runner-up honors in cross country for the sixth time in seven attempts. Photo: Anderson
In addition to his Mile of Truth victory, Chris Olley also won the Kaiser 10K, as the women went 1-2-3-4-6-7 in the same race, and Matt Leach set the course record at the Chichester 10K a few hours earlier in the UK. In September, Faith Reynolds continued a strong tradition of PDC athletes by winning the San Francisco JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge event.
PDC has 7 women marathoners with lifetime bests under 2:40.
Huge team depth at 13.1 and 26.2…
At the half marathon and marathon distances, PDC’ers had a very strong 2023. Beyond Weigel and Clarke, Jen Odenheimer (2:37), Mara Olson (2:38), Amy Schnittger (2:38), and Jeannette Mathieu (2:39) gave us a total of six women under 2:40 for 26.2, all personal bests over the last 4 year cycle, while Caitlin Chrisman (lifetime best of 2:38) returned to competitive postpartum form with a 2:48 at Chicago and Sarah Johnson ran a huge PR for 2:50 at CIM. At the Eugene Half Marathon, Napa Half Marathon, Monterey Half Marathon, Kaiser Half Marathon, Bay Bridge Half Marathon, Oakland Marathon Half Marathon, Star City Half Marathon, Clarksburg Half, Phoenixville Blobfest, Philadelphia Distance Run, and Project 13.1 in New York state, Jason Intravaia, Matt Leach, Matt Lenehan, Ben Rigby, Liam Conway, Holly Clarke, Izzi Gengaro, Ayla Granados, Kayla Knapp, Jen Odenheimer, Yuzki Oey, Mara Olson, Amy Schnittger, and Maya Weigel all earned top 10 finishes at one of more of these events, with Lenehan placing in 3 of these as well as earning half marathon wins in both Mumbai, India and Seoul, Korea. Rivaling Lenehan with long distance travel, Tom Tayeri ran the Tokyo, Boston, and Berlin Marathons with a best of 2:42 and earning an age group podium at Boston. He also took division wins at the Kaiser Half, Carlsbad and Surf City 5Ks, and was the fastest overall master (40+) at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Melinda DiNapoli won age group crowns at the Kaiser Half, Kiwanis Resolution Run 10K, and qualified for the 2024 Abbott World Marathon Majors Championships with her run at the Boston Marathon. Highlighting our multisport participation this year, Kevin Bishop won the Morro Bay Ironman 70.3 before going on to compete in the pro division of his first full Ironman in Switzerland.
Brianna Bourne dropped 10 seconds from her 1500m time in 2023.
PRs and progress on the track…
While Aneno lowered her 800m outdoor personal best multiple times to achieve her sub 2:00 goal, Miles Smith also chipped away at his indoor and outdoor mile times, dropping down to 4:01 for the indoor mile and 3:42 for the outdoor 1500, also running 1:48.9 to barely miss a lifetime best in the 800m. Smith also finished 8th in the prestigious Sir Walter Miler race this summer. While Knapp and Green hit 15:56 and 15:59 for 5000m on the track and Gengaro chopped 30 seconds from her 10,000m PR, Brianna Bourne and Faith Reynolds dropped huge chunks of time at 1500m. Sarah Gayer earned lifetime bests at the 800, 1500, mile, 3000, 2 mile, and 5000m distances during a lengthy and strong 2023 track season, and Carmen Mejia set a new indoor club best for 1000m. Sarah Johnson also completed the full “Trevor Halsted” this year, competing in every distance from 1500 to the marathon, and finishing with a huge breakthrough at CIM. Before injury curtailed her outdoor season, Ashley Lewis teamed with Aneno, Bourne, and Reynolds for a new 4x400m club best. With 2022 champ Donald Taggart pacing the first event, Jason Intravaia raced to 3rd and 1st in the two local Tracksmith Twilight 5000m events this summer, and Benedikt Bünz finished our 12 month track season with a 10,000m PR in Melbourne, Australia.
When not wearing running shoes, PDC raised over $6000 for Second Harvest Silicon Valley in our 4th annual Miles for Meals weeklong campaign. Our Backyard Benefit 2.0 featured Strava co-founder Mark Gainey and raised valuable funds to support the activities of the team. Mark your calendars for our 2024 event, scheduled for Thursday, May 2nd. Our featured guest will be New York Times bestselling author, former Stanford and professional athlete, entrepreneur, and advocate, Lauren Fleshman. We hope to see you there, and we hope you will be following PDC athletes in what promises to be a very exciting 2024!