Meriter Health Services
Last night's 21st annual Meriter Nurses Run was a study in contrasts in terms of results, with wide margins of victory for the winners of the women's 5- and 10-kilometer races and tight finishes on the men's side at both distances.
In the 10K, men's winner Joe Binder clocked 33 minutes, 58 seconds on the classic loop around Lake Wingra to eke out a four-second victory over second-place Dallas White. Andy Hoenisch ran third at 36:58, followed by Christopher Foelker (37:28), Jim Berkelman (37:57) and 137 other male finishers.
With an impressive 35:46, Polly Benesch Hamner, a practicing nurse, dominated the women's 10K with a victory margin approaching seven minutes. Beth Schadd was second at 42:34, followed by Charlotte Reddeman (43:22), Julianne Kassander (45:04), Kristin Kaiser (46:23) and 147 other women's finishers.
In the 5K, Tina Pike ran away from a women's field numbering 267 finishers, breaking the tape in 19:49 for a buffer of more than two minutes over second-place Karen Walrafen (21:59). Amanda Pischke followed in third at 22:21, Erica Jones ran 22:45 for fourth and Mindi Giftos placed fifth at 22:49.
The men's 5K was even tighter up front than the men's 10K, with Joe Kurian finishing in 16 minutes flat -- a one-second win over runner-up Dan Sutton. Bill Gilmore was third at 18:47, followed by Mike Wong (19:42), Jim Marx (20:22) and 149 other men's 5K finishers.
A fixture on the local race calendar as a celebration of National Nurses Week, the Meriter Nurses Run is distinguished by its inclusion of separate divisions for male and female nurses at each distance.
On the male nurses' side at 10K, Michael Aschenbrenner crossed the line in first at 48:07, followed by Luke Markus (54:28) and Roger Kruk (1:02:28), comprising the entire men's field.
At 34, the field of female nurses was much larger. Following Hamner in this division were Kaiser, Kimberly Clark (48:42), Andrea Thoma (49:50) and Christine Schulz, rounding out the top five at 50:12.
At 5K, Walrafen and Jones topped a field of 61 female nurses, followed by Maria Vitale (25:08), Jaime Myers (26:22) and Alice McMahan, fifth in 26:47.
And leading the seven entries in the male nurses' division were Matthew Rothenheimer, first at 23:07, followed by Gerald Ennis (23:13), Barry Seifert (25:37), Rob Jones (27:03) and Grant McNall (27:33).
Congratulations all around.
