Gaff, Conn Victorious at 2024 USATF Masters 10 Mile Championships

The 47^th running of the HAP CareSource Crim 10 Miler hosted the 2024 USATF Masters Championships this on Saturday. After an unusually warm, humid summer over much of the East and Midwest, the Masters athletes dodged the weather bullet. Temperatures were in the upper 50’s at race time and the dewpoint well under 60 – ideal for the hilly course.

OVERALL: Joel Conn, who finished sixth in the open division of the Crim last year, kicked off his Masters career with a dominant win. Ahead by a minute over the first hilly five miles of the course, Conn sped to victory in 52:49. David Angell, gold medalist at the 2024 Masters 5 Km Championships, finished second in 54:09, followed by Matt Yacoub third in 57:03.

Hidi Gaff enjoyed her first win on the Masters circuit with a 1:02:32: A last-minute entrant, Natasha Yaremczuk, matched Gaff stride for stride over the first 10 Km, but Gaff was able to pull away for a 20-second victory margin. Jacqueline Cook, who finished fifth overall at the 2023 10 Mile Championships in Sacramento, started out more cautiously, but closed rapidly over the final miles, finishing just four seconds back from Yaremczuk.

AGE GRADING: The age grading score, the Performance Level Percentage (PLP), identifies the runners, across all age divisions, who had the best performance relative to the best times in the world. Nora Cary, 69, topped the charts; her net time of 1:11:00 earned a 100.26 PLP. Suzanne La Burt, 61, claimed silver from a sterling 1:05:23, while Lisa Veneziano, 59, raced to a 1:04:21 for 96.27. The top Age Grade for the Men’s race was 92.83% by Rick Becker, 69, who sped to a 1:03:15. He was followed by Steve Schmidt, 63, whose 1:01:49 enabled him to just edge Ken Youngers, 68, from a 1:04:59, for the Silver medal.

AGE DIVISION: National men’s champions were crowned in 40-44 Conn 45-49 Angell 50-54 Yacoub 55-59 John Fernandez 58:34 60-64 Jeff Bennett 1:01:09 65-69 Becker 1:03:16 70-74 Dennis Kurtis 1:11:40 75-79 Terry McCluskey 1:23:14 80-84 Don Owens 1:28:21. National women’s champions were crowned in 40-44 Gaff 45-49 Cooke 50-54 Wing 1:06:05 55-59 Veneziano 1:04:22 60-64 La Burt 1:05:24 65-69 Cary 1:11:01 70-74 Kari Chandler 1:20:55 75-79 Jo Anne Rowland 1:29:43 80-84.

TEAMS: Score equals the cumulative time of first three finishing athletes per team. The Shore AC won both the women 50+ team division and women 60+, in 3:52:32 and 3:55:08 respectively. Shore added team bronze medals in men 60+ and men 70+. The Atlanta Track Club claimed team gold in the men 60+ team division at 3:12:23 and a silver medal in women 60+.The Genesee Valley Harriers won Men 50+ in 3:3:31:06 and claimed bronze in women 60+, missing out on silver by just four seconds total. The Boulder Road Runners led the way in men 70+ with a 3:3:43:30.

This event kicked off the second half of the 2024 Masters National Grand Prix. Top Masters athletes head next to Highlands, New Jersey for the USATF Masters 12 Km Championships on September 15. They are being hosted by USATF NJ for the fourth time. Registration is here.