We’ve officially finished our Desert Runner Trail Series with the completion of the Mesquite Canyon Trail Runs on March 7th. This was the 10th year for some of these races and a nice little milestone for Aravaipa Running and how far we’ve come. We again saw the most participants throughout the series and we just can’t thank you all enough for your continued support. It really is a pleasure to be a small part of your race experience! We’re constantly looking for ways to improve this series and will continue to do just that.
We added the Hummingbird Pass to the Spring series that flutters around the 5K distance, we have two kid’s fun runs held on either side of the valley, added a 50 mile distance to the Elephant Mountain race and have a 50 mile course that’ll take runners through the Goldfields and Hawes Trail system at the Pass Mountain Trail Runs this November too.
As you all know, a lot can happen over the course of the six months beginning in October. Pulling from your three best races keeps things interesting and opens up the top spots to a lot more runners then you may see on a typical race day.
Here are a few fun facts updated for our 2019-20 DRT Series (I’m a baseball fan and enjoy stats so feel free to skip over these and head straight to the results):
Hummingbird Series
- New in the Spring of 2020! As we slowly added in more short and mid-distance races to the series, we brought on a fifth series pass that sits right in that 5K range over the four races.
- 150 different women completed a race in this series. 99 men completed at least one Hummingbird Series race.
- We had 4 different winners for each of the Spring races on both the men and women’s podium.
- Kristine Valen led the way as she won the inaugural San Tan Scramble 5K and finished strong at Mesquite to seal the win.
- Rick Kerr, at 65 years young, took the men’s side with three strong races!
- In fact, two of the top three men & four of the top five were over 60 years old including Timothy Bagby at the beautiful age of 78! That’s just awesome.
Quail Series
- 302 different women completed a race. 250 men completed at least one race.
- We saw Rick Clement run six of the seven races and Charles Miller toed the line in five of seven. More on both of these men below.
- In last year’s series we saw 7 different winners for both the men and women in the Quail Series. However, this year Charles Miller & Brandon Southall both won two races each while the ladies spread it round with seven different winners.
- We had competitors ranging from 5 years old to 72 years old in the Quail Series! Now that’s impressive.
- Charles Miller wrapped up first place in the Quail Open Division with with five finishes in the top 3, while Jessica Perez had a strong finish at Mesquite to finish first for the ladies.
- Addison Wingo won the junior’s division for the third straight season. This time with a win at Pass Mountain too! Owen Dueck took home the men’s Junior’s Division, completing three races. Both Addison and Owen are 12 years old!
Roadrunner Series
- 343 different women completed a race. 336 men completed at least one race.
- Lee Moody, Andre Lee, & Ryan Hougendobler did all 7 races in the series!
- The entire Open Division for the men were in the “Master’s” classification of over 40 years of age.
- Yuval Zurai, a resident to New York City who flies out for the DRT races (yes, I’m serious), finished 6 races including 3 wins and never lower than third place! One heck of a season Yuval!
- Kiona Ogle ran the Fall DRT Series with us, finishing with a win at McDowell Mountian Frenzy. That proved to be enough as her score held off a strong push by Catriona Forrest who has now finished second in back to back years.
- In the 2018-19 series, 7 different winners crossed under the banner for the men & women. This year we saw Megan Kupres win two races with Yuval winning three, respectfully.
- Florence Pool, who, by the way is 79 years old, bumped up her distance from 2018 where she won the Grandmaster’s award in the Quail Series to take home the Grandmaster’s award in 2019 and now again in the 2020 Roadrunner Series again. Truly inspiring stuff Florence!
Owl Series
- 277 different women completed a race. 328 men completed at least one race.
- Alynn Davis finished all 7 races and Christina Coppola finished 6 this year, respectfully. Alynn also played a major role in course marking for us, putting in those miles!
- Once again, while there were 7 different winners for the men & women in the Owl series from 2018-19, this year we saw Jay Jump & Courtney Barnes each take home two victories.
- Dan Watson repeated his first place finish in the Open Division of the Owl Series (24K-35K), this time missing a perfect score of 3000 by just 8 points. Dan also bumped up to the 50K distance at Mesquite, finishing with a third place finish!
- Laura Reyburn secured the open division win for the ladies with a super strong Spring series including a win at San Tan Scramble!
- The entire Open Division for the women were once again in the “Master’s” classification of over 40 years of age.
Hawk Ultra Series
- 183 different women completed a race. 431 men completed at least one race.
- Jennifer Gustafson secured the win for the ladies with a strong showing at Mesquite Canyon. She’s also working our aid stations when she’s not running!
- Speaking of working with Aravaipa, Andy Clink took home the gold on the men’s side and he’s also one of our race timers when he’s not running!
- Once again, there were 7 different winners for the men while Michelle Hawk broke the streak by winning back to back 50K’s for the women in the Hawk Series.
- For the first time (at least since I’ve been doing this), we had runner place in the top 3 in two different distance categories. Dan Watson won the Owl Open Division and finished in second in the Master’s division for the Hawk Ultra Series. I’m impressed.
- While no runners completed all 7 ultras this year, Matthew Hinman rocked the full Spring series, finishing four 50K’s in just over 3 months.
In addition to overall awards, we will also have a masters category for runners 40 years of age or older. Returning in 2020 for the Quail & Roadrunner Series, we are awarding our top Grand Master’s Division runner for all you bad a** runners still getting after it into your 60’s and 70’s. A junior division overall winner will also be awarded for those of you hitting the trail scene under the age of 17!
Here are a couple things to remember with the Series standings:
-Points are allocated based upon your finish percentage time off the winner’s time.
-We score only your best 3 races in the whole series (of 7 races).
-If you ran 2 races in the Quail division and 3 in the Roadrunner division, they do NOT combine and will be listed in the results separately.
–(Pro-Tip) Mesquite Canyon results are out of 1,250 points rather than the standard 1,000 which can make a significant difference in jumping the rankings.
-If you are 40+ years of age and lead the Open Division, you will be awarded in the Open/Overall Division and your ranking within the Master’s or Grand Master’s Division will go to the next runner on the list.
The final point standings are currently on Ultrasignup can be found here:
Hummingbird Standings (Mini Series)
Quail Standings (Short Series)
Roadrunner Standings (Middle Series)
Owl Standings (Trail Series)
Hawk Standings (Ultra Series)
….DRUMROLL PLEASE……….
Hummingbird Series: 5Km – 8 Km
Women’s Hummingbird Series Open Division
- Kristine Valen (30)
- Amy Priestley (48)
- Kayla Griggs (31)
Women’s Hummingbird Series Master’s Division
- Susan Mason (53)
- Stacy McMahon (42)
- Patricia Carlin (55)
Women’s Hummingbird Grandmaster & Junior Division
- Desiree Goodson (66) 1. Ashlyn Davis (14)
Men’s Hummingbird Series Open Division
- Rick Kerr (65)
- Kyle Johnson (32)
- Peter Coury (66)
Men’s Hummingbird Series Master’s Division
- Kevin Morris (62)
- Timothy Bagby (78) (Ran all 4 races!)
- Randolph Meyer (53)
Men’s Hummingbird Grandmaster & Junior Divisions
- David Malone (66) 1. Sebastian Meyer (10)
—————————————————–
Quail Series: 5 Km – 1/2 Marathon
Women’s Quail Series Open Division
- Jessica Perez (44)
- Brooke Preston (39)
- Beth Garrow (44)
Women’s Quail Series Master’s Division
- Bianca Gardner (42)
- Samantha Horn (50)
- Cheri Myers (46)
Women’s Quail Series Grand Master’s & Junior’s Division
(overall winner only)
- Ann Miller (62) 1. Addison Wingo (12) (Win at Pass Mtn!)
————————————
Men’s Quail Series Open Division
- Charles Miller (36)
- Rick Clement (60)
- Brandon Southall (35)
Men’s Quail Series Master’s Division
- John Reiner (46)
- Tim Young (65)
- Joshua Walsh (46)
Men’s Quail Series Grand Master’s & Junior’s Division
(overall winner only)
- Bill Graves (77) 1. Owen Dueck (12)
_____________________________________________
Roadrunner Series: 10 Km – 22 Km Women’s Roadrunner Open Division
- Kiona Ogle (46)
- Catriona Forrest (36) (Second consecutive season!)
- Cynthia Monroe (46)
Women’s Roadrunner Master’s Division
- Karen Weller (62)
- Tammi Rauter (43)
- Holly Boyd (42)
Women’s Roadrunner Grand Master’s & Junior’s Division
(overall winner only)
- Florence Pool (79) 1. Tiaree Towler (17) (Win at San Tan!)
—————————————-
Men’s Roadrunner Open Division
- Yuval Zurai (47)
- Vasile Samartinean (44)
- Ryan Hougendobler (48)
Men’s Roadrunner Master’s Division
- Andre Lee (49) (Second consecutive season!)
- Jay Dittman (55)
- Mike Ramirez (54)
Men’s Roadrunner Grand Master’s Division
(overall winner only)
- Gary Arne (62) 1. Chase Woodall (9)
____________________________________________ ____
Owl Series: 24 Km – 35 Km
Women’s Owl Open Division
- Laura Reyburn (45)
- Heather Larson (46) (3rd place in the 2018-19 series too)
- Jen Coleman (43)
Women’s Owl Master’s Division
- Rebecca Vanderford (46)
- Christina Coppola (49)
- Alynn Davis (44)
Women’s Owl Grand Master’s Division & Junior Division
- Elizabeth Sponagle 1. N/A
————————————
Men’s Owl Open Division
- Dan Watson (44)
- Caleb Torres (46)
- Brian King (32)
Men’s Owl Master’s Division
- Alan Holzkopf (43)
- David Santiago (55)
- Christopher Bagby (40)
Men’s Owl Grand Master’s Division & Junior Division
- Daniel Gannon (60) 1. Jakob Dueck (15)
________________________________________________
Hawk Division: 50 Km – 52 Mile
Women’s Hawk Open Division
- Jennifer Gustafson (47)
- Jennifer Mathis (42)
- Bambi Pennycuff (42)
Women’s Hawk Master’s Division
- Sarah Garrigan (44)
- Terri Rashid (52)
- Michelle Hawk (52) (Two wins!)
Women’s Hawk Grand Master’s Division (60+ yrs of age)
- Sharon Underwood (64)
———————————–
Men’s Hawk Open Division
- Andy Clink (33)
- Jason Ballew (46)
- Ian Torrence (47)
Men’s Hawk Master’s Division
- Jim Pineau (45)
- Dan Watson (44)
- Eric Ebele (43)
Men’s Hawk Grand Master’s Division (60+yrs of age)
- Chris Haines (plus he ran the Coldwater 100 Miler!)
That’s all folks! Thanks to everyone for joining us this season!
