Last weekend, in what may be the most ambitious thing TRL has ever done, a sizeable fraction of the club descended on Tacoma for USATF’s Club Cross-Country National Championships. Forty-nine Lizards raced on nine teams, under conditions that reflected Pacific Northwest weather at its least cooperative. It was wet, chilly, and sometimes very windy—bad enough that it reduced all of the rental tents to twisted heaps of aluminum. Luckily, our tents could still be pitched, though they couldn’t be fully raised, forcing people to duck.
It was bad enough that there were times, watching, when I had trouble standing still. Not to mention the resulting mud, as 1400+ racers chewed it up on a total of about 4,000 laps. But the big headline wasn’t the weather. In the masters women’s race, it was TRL, because we did something, a knowledgeable observer tells me, that it is hard to imagine anyone else has ever done before in that most-competitive of masters age divisions.
Not only did our 40+ masters women (Chelsea Warren, Alison Crocker, Carre Heineck, Eva Vail, Kristin Shaw, Liana Bernard, Aubra Lewellen, Crystal Query, Juli Adelman, and Kim La Croix) successfully defended their title—something other teams have found hard to do because it means winning on opposite sides of the country—but they did something even more dramatic. They also took bronze—in an incredibly competitive field.
Bowerman was only 5 points behind, San Diego Track Club was a single point back from them, and Checkers, the Impalas, and the Janes were in hot pursuit, only 5 to 10 points further back—all clubs with histories of podium finishes. Officially, this is listed at Team Red Lizard A, taking gold, and Team Red Lizard B, taking bronze, but it was a single team of 10, united in a common goal.
The best reaction came from Tom Cotner, coach of Club Northwest, which took silver. When, after a long, chilly delay, the team results were finally posted, he dashed over to me to excitedly offer congratulations (which I am now passing on). We went for something audacious, and pulled it off. He was the first person to recognize what we’d accomplished, even before I’d had a chance to tell anyone on the team. He wasn’t the last.
We also had three other teams in that race:
The 50s women (Wendy Terris, Jen Seibel, and Julie Markley) were missing a runner due to an injury, but still managed a respectable 8 th in a very competitive field. In the process, they beat The Janes Elite Racing team, the Genesee Valley Harriers, and San Diego Track Club, all traditional masters powerhouses.
The 60s women (Betsy Miller, Joanna Harper, and Erin Beck), also depleted by an injury, finished 8th, albeit in a smaller field, while the 70s women (Jeannie Groesz, Suzanne Ray, and Pauline Kinneman), themselves dealing with an injury, still managed bronze, solidly beating their frequent rival, Atlanta Track Club, and coming within a point of silver. Luckily, all three teams were deep enough to have enough runners to still have full teams.
The big news in the 70s division was that Jeannie Groesz not only won the 75-79 age group by a whopping 4 minutes and 21 seconds, but won the age-graded competition by a decisive margin, scoring 87.72, more than a full point (1.07 points, to be precise) above a 61-year-old from Shore Athletic Club in New Jersey.
Other Lizard women narrowly missed the podium for individual awards. Chelsea Warren was 4th in the 40-44 division, with Alison Crocker one place behind her. Not surprisingly, given the team performance, a lot of other Lizards were in the top 15.
In the women’s 45-49 division, Crystal Query was 8 th , while in the 55-59 age group, Wendy Terris was 7 th . Betsy Miller and Joanna Harper were 5 th and 8 th , respectively, in the 65-69 division. Suzanne Ray and Pauline Kinneman were 6 th and 10 th in the 70-74 division.In the masters men’s race, TRL had only one complete team at 40+ (Jake Stout, Steven Short, Joshua Monda, Chris Shaeffer, Jonathan Osborne, Aaron Coe, jorn Begelman, Daniel Bartosz, and Michael Sherfinski). It took 6 th in a field of 24—their best finish ever. The top age-group finisher was Jake Stout, who was 14 th out of 83 in the 40-44 division. Garland Days ran alone on the 50+ team.
In the open women’s race, we were up against some major pro teams, such as Minnesota Distance Elite, Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, Brooks Beasts, and more. Our A team (Jessie Rubin, Ari Fisher, Emmy Lindsey, Christina Overbeck, Leah Brown, Sky Hall, Kellie Houser, and Julia Gullikson) was 25th, which probably put us not too far from mid-pack among the non-pro teams. There were only two clubs big enough to field B teams, us (Megan Taylor, Stephanie Ross, Sam Lassen, Hannah Smith, and Laura Nitti) and Club Northwest, so the B team’s goal was simply to run well and have fun.
In the men’s open race, we were also up against a who’s who of powerhouse teams so numerous that JBAC couldn’t finish any better than 14th. We (Alexander Matteson, Kaleb Keyserling, William (Rafe) Pilling, MacKevin Fey, Sandy Dittell, Ethan Holman, and Kolter Grigsby) took 44 th out of 51. We did win a tight battle with Sports Warriors Track Club, a Native American Club from Albuquerque, and the ever-tough Bellingham Distance Project, beating them by 1 and 2 points, respectively.
Best of all, nobody I know of got hurt, and a lot of people had fun, even if it was “type 2” fun—you know, the type in which the fun sets in after the race finishes and you get a chance to warm up.
Finally, if you raced, please give a hearty thank-you to your team captains. Thanks to them, we pulled this off without a single logistical screw-up. That might actually be a more amazing feat than the medals. Even when USATF suddenly changed key protocols, we managed to do what we needed to do, when and where we needed to do it. This would not have been possible without the captains: Sky Hall (women’s open), Alex Matteson and Sandy Dittell (men’s open), Carre Heineck (women’s 40+ and 50+), Steve Short (men’s masters), Joanna Harper (women’s 60+) and Jeannie Groesz (women’s 70+).
Next Up
For those wondering, at the technical meeting, USATF announced its upcoming schedule. There will be no club cross championship in 2025. Instead, it will be delayed until Sunday, January 11, 2026, when it will be held in Tallahassee, the day after World Cross occurs on the same course. So, you can spectate one day and race the next. Meanwhile, next up is the “other” USATF championship, confusingly called the “USATF Cross- Country Championships.” It has open and masters races, and a team competition. We have won multiple divisions of this in the past, and would be highly competitive in open and masters. It’s in Lubbock, Texas, on January 11, 2025. Airfare is remarkably cheap if you fly into Albuquerque or DFW and carpool. We already have a team in one division. Who else is interested? Phone, text, or email me if you are.