Gate City Striders

 The Team

Victory!!! After a many years of knocking on the door of the Mill Cities Championship, The Gate City Striders have officially broken it down by winning back to back MCR titles. This year’s race proved that last year’s win was no fluke and we’re a force to be reckoned with for a long time to come. Our club scored a record 106 points on race day and needed every single one of them to hold off a strong, 99-point challenge from The Winners Circle Running Club. As was the case last year, the race itself proved to be quite an adventure as, once again, relay weekend coincided with the first snowfall of the season. Only a couple of inches of snow fell but the conditions were enough to send runners sliding this way and that during the early stages of the race.

Rich Smith & Justin Soucy

Our club had a record 27 teams & 127 runners participate in this year’s relay and countless others who volunteered, cheered and otherwise helped us on to victory. Our Male Open Team of Alex Brown, Tim Mallard, Corey Hahnl, Rich Smith & Justin Soucy finished third overall, second in their division and scored 13 huge points for us. Next in line was our Male Masters Team of Randy Macneill, Joe Rogers, Mike Wright, Todd Callaghan & Brian Crane who finished sixth overall, first in their division and snagged 12 points!

Jeff Hunt & Steve Wolfe

Our next fastest squad was the Coed Open Team of Dan Ferreira, Amber Cullen, Kristen King, JP Lewicke & Mark Wimmer who finished ninth overall, first in their division and claimed the top prize of 14 points. The biggest haul of the day! The Coed Masters Team of Kevin McIntyre, Karen Pattelena, Tammy Gaffey, Jeff Hunt & Steve Wolfe also scored double-digit points with 12 on their way to a first place finish in their division!

Terry Prouty & Cathy Merra

Our phenomenal Female Open Team of Peggy Lai, Julie Hanover, Leslie Reap, Bonnie Richotte & Liz Hall also scored an even dozen points with their second place finish. And our fabulous Female Masters Team of Karen Long, Lori Lambert, Terry Prouty, Cathy Merra & Janice Platt won back to back titles (and 9 points) with their first place finish again this year!

Jim Hansen, Ken Snow & Mike Merra

Our Male Senior Team of John Dalton, Peter Davenport, Ken Snow, Mike Merra & Jim Hansen also scored 9 big points for the club on their way to a third place finish in their division.  Next on the scoring sheet was our Male Veteran Team of Milt Schumacher, Rick Stetson, Brad Johnson, John Lewicke & Trevor Ward who finished third in their division and picked up 8 points for their effort. Following right behind them was the Coed Senior Team of Mike Ward, Pam Hall, Barbara Joy, Richard Stockdale & Chuck Landry who cruised to a fourth place finish and picked up 6 points in the process. 

Fiona McDonnell, Andrea Pierce & Margaret Anderson

Next was our “Sunshine Starters”. Our Female Senior Team of Andrea Pierce, Margaret Anderson & Fiona McDonnell and our Female Veteran Team of Jane Levesque, Aline Kenney & Emily Strong. Combined these 6 gals scored 7 points total. While that may not seem like a lot, if you consider that it’s the exact amount of points in our margin of victory for he overall Team Championship, it made all the difference in the world! Finally, rounding out the scoring, was our Coed Veteran Team of Judi Moland, Denny Leblanc & Steve Moland and Our Male Ancient Team of Shu Minami, Jack Kick & Bill Spencer who picked up 2 points a piece. 

Complete race results and photos for all of our 27 teams who participated in this year’s Mill Cities Relay can be found on Coolrunning. And, photos by your fellow club members can be found in our updated GCS Photo Gallery here. 

Millie's Home

Thanks again to everyone who came out and ran in this great, season ending, club event with us this year! It really did take a total team effort to pull this one out and without the great support and sacrifice of each and every one of you we couldn’t have made it happen. I hope you all had as much fun as I did and you consider running with us again in 2010! The Gate City Striders are now the 2008 & 2009 Mill Cities Relay Team Champions. Is it too early to start thinking “Three-peat”?