Club Records, Road Breakthroughs Highlight Early 2022 Results
While several traditional road races started the year off for many, January began with some breakthroughs on the cross country course and the roads. Maya Weigel improved to 1:10 over the half marathon distance (previous PR 1:14) at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, followed by personal bests from Amy Schanz and Jeannette Mathieu at 1:16, and another solid performance of 63:29 for Matt Leach. Matt Lenehan narrowly missed 2024 Olympic Trials qualification with a 2:18 clocking, his third sub 2:20 marathon in two years.
Zach Swenson finished 23rd at the USATF Cross Country Championships and third among military team members to help Navy to win the military division of the national championship race. Steven Grolle, 28th in that race, has put together some solid points on the PAUSATF Road Grand Prix, earning third at the Redding 10 Miler and 13th at the SacTown 10. Another PA road Grand Prix veteran, Trevor Halsted, earned runner-up honors at the Kaiser San Francisco Half Marathon and a top 20 placing at SacTown, while also finishing 6th at the Napa Valley Marathon (Rafal Matuszczak was 5th in the half). Cody Goodwin has been making waves in the midwest with several top finishes in trail races and a new half marathon personal best, and Tom Tayeri continues his march among the top individuals in the 55+ age group as he was runner-up at USATF Masters 10 Mile Championships and the Boston Marathon, his 2:42 fourth fastest since 2001 among runners in his division.
On the women’s side, Jen Vucinich has notched runner-up finishes at the Kaiser Half Marathon 10K and the Napa Valley Marathon Half, while running third for the winning women’s team at the Oakland Marathon 10K, a squad comprised of the individually victorious Maya Weigel, fifth place Kayla Knapp, Vucinich, Caitlin Chrisman (also 5th at the Kaiser 10K), and Christine Hoffmann. The same squad, minus Vucinich and with Jeannette Mathieu, provided the core of the team that also took second in the SacTown 10 Mile. As that race also served at the USATF Masters 10 Mile Championship, Melinda DiNapoli scored 5th for the team in the Open division as she was sixth in the 50+ division in the championships. Dena Evans won the 45+ group at the Kaiser Half and took third in the division at the Masters 10 Mile Championships as well. Morgan Meade won the 5K at SacTown, after finishing third at the She is Beautiful 5K, where DiNapoli also was 4th in the 10K. 6th at Sactown, Knapp now has three top 10 PA Grand Prix performances as she earned third at the Race to the Row 8K (27:28), followed closely by Mathieu in fifth.
While Matt Lenehan was heading to the hills to win his first trail marathon in Lake Sonoma, outdoor track and field has begun to heat up. Miles Smith and Susan Aneno have been threatening the club records in the 800 before both finally breaking through at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, running 1:48 and 2:02 respectively. At the time Aneno’s performance ranked her 22nd in the world. Both have also enjoyed personal bests in the 1500 already this season. Matt Leach and Maya Weigel have posted strong openers in the 10,000m and 5000m respectively, while newcomers Tania Jarreau and Fabio Fornarelli have been carving up their personal bests multiple times at 1500 and 800m with Tania ranking third among French 800m women’s athletes and 5th among 1500m runners so far in 2022. Jarreau, Aneno, Annie Taylor and Carmen Mejia also teamed up for our first ever 4x400m team, third place at the Cardinal Classic. Sarah Johnson chopped 32 seconds in two weeks from her opening 5000m time, while Chris Olley, Steven Grolle, Trevor Halsted, and Benedikt Bünz, and Jason Intravaia have all put markers down at 1500 to 5000m with intention to progress as the season heads towards summer.
For complete results for this and previous years, please check our results page.