2026 Highlights
GreenvilleTrack Club-ELITE athletes competed in the following locations during 2026:
|
|
|
JANUARY
- Greenville Track Club-ELITE athletes won both the women's and men's mile events at the Clemson Invitational on Saturday afternoon. Camille Egbula led from the start and covered the 1609-meter distance in 4:50.42. Soon after she crossed the finish line the men started their race. After trading the lead over the final 800 meters, Patrick Lyell caught teammate Ryan Drew in the final 15-meters and won with a time of 4:06.76. Drew was only .06 seconds back in 4:06.82.
- Noah Fisher bested teammate Jason Weitzel's GTC-ELITE club road 5K record of 14:12 by finishing only two seconds behind James Quattlebaum with an outstanding time of 14:09 at the Greenville Journal Run Downtown. Fisher was the first of four consecutive finishes for GTC-ELITE as teammates Ryan Drew, Weitzel and Olympian Eduardo Garcia followed in third, fourth and fifth places. Drew actually equalled the former event record with his time of 14:12. Weitzel ran a fine 14:20 in his first race since running 2:11:44 for 9th place in the USATF Marathon Championships at Sacramento, CA six weeks ago, on December 8th. Garcia was running his first race since the 2024 Paris Olympic Marathon, after recovering from two hip surgeries (right and left) following the Olympics. He was pleased with his time of 15:08 as has only been training for a short period. The race attracted the top four in the South Carolina Road Race Rankings as Quattlebaum is currently first with Drew, Weitzel and Fisher ranked second, third and fourth, respectively.
- Ryan Drew (4:04.62) and Patrick Lyell (4:04.65) placed 11th and 12th in a combined field of over 40 at Clemson's Bob Pollock Invitational. Both improved by just over two seconds from their races at Clemson three weeks ago.
- Patrick Lyell ran a personal best of 4:03.62 to place third in Clemson's Tiger Paw Invitational. He improved on his 4:03.93 previous best and was a full second faster than his performance here two weeks ago. This was also a new GTC-ELITE program record for the indoor mile.
- Ryan Drew returned to his alma mater at Liberty Univeristy in Lynchburg, VA in an attempt to defend his one mile title in the Darius Dixon Memorial meet. After being in second place and in contention through 1209 meters (just over six laps of the 200-meter oval, he faded over the final lap to place fourth with a time of 4:05.90. Former East Tennessee State Univeristy standout Jason Bowers won in 4:00.89.
- Noah Fisher placed 13th in the USATF Half Marathon Championships in the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon. In only his second attempt at the distance he dropped 40 seconds from his debut with a time of 1:03:41. His 5K splits on this hilly and challenging course were 14:43, 29:47 (10K), 45:00 (15K) and 1:00:35 (20K). That is the third best half marathon performance in GTC-ELITE program history. Teammates Jack Mastandrea and Jason Weitzel finished in 19th and 20th place, with times of 1:05:22 and 1:05:23, respectively.
- Ryan Drew ran 19:05 to win the Oskar Blues Four Miler on Saturday morning at the Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard, NC. His teammates Patrick Lyell and Eduardo Garcia placed 2nd and 4th with times of 19:22 and 19:56, respectively.
- Ryan Drew and Patrick Lyell opened their outdoor track season by placing third and fourth in the men's 1500-meters in the 49er Classic at Charlotte University on Friday afternoon. Drew ran 3:49.7 and Lyell 3:50.29. They competed in the first of seven 1500m heats that included almost 100 athletes, with the temperature at 70 degrees and gusting winds up to 20 mph. Lyell led at the 300m with Drew right behind, before Drew took the led in the second lap. They were still first and second with 400 meters remaining, but were out-kicked on the homestretch. Drew's final 800m was 1:59.71 and Lyell clocked 2:00.08.
- Greenville Track Club-ELITE announced the future addition of James Sullivan to the 13-year-old post-collegiate, Olympic-development program. James will be completing his post-graduate degree at his alma mater Central Connecticut State University in New Britain in August and will then relocate to Greenville, SC. He was a 7 x New England Conference champion in the distance events during his collegiate career and will look to add to his running career focusing on the longer distances from 10K to eventually the marathon.
- Jack Mastandrea ran a personal best of 28:55 to place 11th overall in the 49th running of the Cooper River Bridge Run 10K in Charleston, SC. It was also a road 10K GTC-ELITE record and he also earned $500 for his finishing place. His teammates and training partners Noah Fisher and Eduardo Garcia finished in 13th and 18th positions in the event which had over 38,000 participants. Fisher also ran a personal best with his time of 29:10. Garcia, a 2024 Paris Olympian who has resumed racing following double hip surgeries in 2024 and 2025, ran 30:17.
- Ryan Drew returned to Columbia, SC and won the Governor's Cup Main Street Mile on Friday evening (April 10). On a warm, 75-degrees, evening in the state's capitol city Drew covered the out-and-back route in 4:15.18 (rounded up to 4:16 per road race policy). His time easily won the event as the runner-up's time was 4:27. Ryan had placed second, losing by only one second, last year with a time of 4:09. He earned $500 for his victory.
- Ryan Drew ran a seasonal best of 3:43.71 for 1500 meters on Friday evening at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem, NC. Ryan was in fourth position after 300 meters, passed in 45:37 and remained in fourth at 700 meters with a split of 59.63 (1:45:00 cumulative). He moved into third place with a 59.88 through 1100 meters and closed the final 400m in 58:83 to place second in his heat.
- Noah Fisher and Eduardo Garcia placed second and third in the United Community 48th Reedy River Run in downtown Greenville, SC on Saturday. Fisher, running this event for the first time, ran the fastest time for a GTC-ELITE runner in this historic race as he finished with a time of 29:29. His training partner, Garcia, ran 30:47 for third. Fisher earned $400 for his placing, a $250 time bonus for running under 29:30 and $50 for being the second South Carolinian. That totaled $700. Garcia earned a total of $325 ($300 for 3rd and $25 more as third South Carolinian.
- Jack Mastandrea ran a personal best of 2:12:19 in the 130th B.A.A. Boston Marathon on Patriots Day. His time was one minute and 42 seconds faster than his previous best of 2:14:01, which is an improvement of almost four seconds per mile. He placed 35th in one of the deepest fields in this race's long history and was the 18th USA finisher. Jack's race plan was to be as conservative as possible in such a fast Pro Elite field and he was 58th at the first 5K checkpoint in 15:19. He had moved up to 48th by the 21.1K (halfway) split in 1:05:52. By 40K (2:05:08) he had moved into 36th. His race plan paid dividends as he ran the second half of the race, which included the infamous Heartbreak Hill in 1:06:27. He averaged 5:03 per mile for the full 26.2 miles. Jason Weitzel entered the race with a PB of 2:11:44 and ran with a group through 5K splits of 14:54, 30:20 (10K), 45:39 (15K), 1:01:16 (20K) before passing the halfway point in 1:04:40 (5:00 per mile pace). He was in 41st place at that point. That early effort seemed to take a toll as he slowed considerably after 30K and finished at 2:15:05. While well off his PB it still ranks third among his six marathons. He finished 44th overall.
- Patrick Lyell ran a personal best of 3:42.18 to place third in the 1500 meters at the Charlotte Invitational on Friday evening. His time bettered Ryan Drew's week-old club record of 3:43.71, run at the Wake Forest Invitation on April 17th.
- Eduardo Garcia ran 1:06:27 (just under 5:05 per mile) to place 11th in the 50th running of the Indiana University Health Mini Marathon in conjunction with the Indy 500 Festival. It was his first race over the 10K distance since returning to competition after hip surgery on both hips following the Paris Olympics.
- Patrick Lyell improved his 1500-meter personal best by .28 seconds as he dipped under 3:42.0 for the first time. His teammate, Ryan Drew ran his best 1500 as a post-collegiate with a time of 3:43.39. They placed 11th and 22nd in a huge field of over 100 competitors in the men's 1500 meters at the Duke Twilight Meet on the Duke University campus in Durham, NC. Lyell placed second in Section 7 of the nine 1500m heats and Drew was fifth in Section 6.
- Noah Fisher ran 1:15:20 to place seventh in the 2026 USATF 25K Road Championships. He was competing in the Amway River Bank Run, the largest 25K in the United States, which has been hosted in Grand Rapids, Michigan for many years.
Fisher ran fairly even splits and passed 13.1 miles (Half Marathon) in a quick 1:03:40, which was one-second faster than his personal best time for that distance. For the 25K (15.53 miles) he averaged 3:00 per kilometer and approximately 4:51 per mile to earn $500 in prize money. - Patrick Lyell and Ryan Drew placed third and fifth in the Webb Mile at the Down the Stretch Track Fest at George Mason University's track in Fairfax, VA. What was intended to be an assault on the Commonwealth of Virginia's fastest mile (3:53), turned into a tactical affair after an initial 409 meters covered in a rather pedestrian 1:01.04. And then the sky released a heavy dose of rain, which may have dampened the pace even more as the next 400 meters took 1:01.81 for the front running Irishman Charlie O'Donovan. The cumulative time at 809 meters was 2:02.85, which further dashed hopes for even a sub-four performance. Lyell made a strong push on the third lap and moved from ninth to second position, although his 400m split was only 1:02.54. His teammate, Drew, also moved up going from 8th to fourth on that circuit. With one lap remaining there were seven athletes between 3:06.24 and 3:06.9--a gap of only .66 of a second. Lyell surged and seemed to take the lead briefly heading into the final turn and completed the final 400m in 57.99. However, O'Donovan (57.46) and Empire Elite Track Club's William Cuthbertson (57.87) were slightly faster and placed first and second ahead of Lyell, who finished with a time of 4:04.34. Drew closed in 59.93 for a final time of 4:06.35.
- Patrick Lyell and Ryan Drew placed 8th and 9th in the Men's Pro 1500-meters at the Music City Track Carnival. The meet was conducted at Lee University in Cleveland, TN, on Saturday afternoon with a temperature at a warm 82 degrees for the 5:30 pm start. Their respective times of 3:42.68 and 3:44.18 earned them the second and third places among USA finishers in a very international field. Interestingly, Patrick broke his own Facility Record of 3:42.88, which he set on May 11, 2024. His time is equivalent to slightly under 4:00 minutes for the one-mile distance according to some conversion tables. Patrick's time is now third on the GTC-ELITE All-Time list just behind two of his previous marks. Drew now has seven of the top ten GTC-ELITE 1500m performances with today's performance ranking sixth. Both runners have been very consistent over their past three 1500m efforts, with Patrick's times having only a difference of .78 seconds (3:41.9 - 3:42.68) and Ryan's .79 seconds (3:43.39 - 3:44.18).
- The June South Carolina Road Race Rankings for men remained unchanged from the May rankings or the state's top ten men. Greenville's James Quattlebaum remains the leader and is followed by GTC-ELITE's Noah Fisher, Ryan Drew and Jason Weitzel to round out the top four. Their teammates Jack Mastandrea and Eduardo Garcia are sixth and seventh.
- Camille Egbula returned to the track and won the women's division of the One Mile Run at the South Carolina Open and Masters meet in Greenville with a time of 4:52.13.
- Ryan Drew returned to Simpsonville, SC to defend his title at the Sunrise Run 8K. After the very early 6:16 am start he toured the course in a new record of 23:50 to eclipse his year-old standard by four seconds. It was the fourth consecutive year that a GTC-ELITE runner had won with a new course record.
- At the 50th anniversary of Grandma's Marathon which runs from Two Harbors to Duluth, MN. Noah Fisher made good use of that route along the edge of Lake Superior as he placed 13th in a deep field with a time of 2:15:17. That was well under the 2028 USA Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying standard of 2:16:00 and also earned Noah $700 as a time bonus. It was his debut at the marathon distance and he now joins teammates Jack Mastandrea (2:12:17) and Jason Weitzel (2:11:44), who had previously qualified, for the USA Olympic Marathon Trials to be conduced in late March of 2028 in St. Louis, MO.
- Jack Mastandrea ran a fine 1:03:54 to place fifth overall in the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, MN, and earned $800 in prize money. His teammates, Jason Weitzel and Eduardo Garcia placed 14th and 16th with respective times of 1:05:43 and 1:06:29.
- Eduardo Garcia placed 6th at the 2026 Pan American Athletics Championships 5,000m in Medellin, Columbia.
- Jack Mastandrea ran the first mile in 4:37 and then cruised to victory in the 16th running of the Red, White and Blue Shoes 5K with a winning time of 15:06. It was the seventh victory in this event by a GTC-ELITE athlete and fourth consecutive as Ryan Drew (2024 & 25) and Eduardo Garcia (2023) won in the previous three years. Mark Leininger won in 2016. On the women's side, Kimberly Ruck (now Mahoney) won in 2017 and Mackenzie Lowe in 2021.
- The top nine men remained unchanged in the July South Carolina Road Race Rankings. Greenville's James Quattlebaum remains the leader and is followed by GTC-ELITE's Noah Fisher, Ryan Drew and Jason Weitzel to round out the top four. Their teammates Jack Mastandrea and Eduardo Garcia are sixth and seventh.
- Jack Mastandrea and Jason Weitzel placed 7th and 10th, respectively, in the 2026 USATF 8K Championships at the Crazy 8s Road Race on Saturday night. Both runners had also placed in the top ten in the 2024 USATF 8K Championships when the event was previously conducted in Kingsport, TN. This year Mastandrea covered the figure-8 course in 23:50 and his seventh place earned $1,000 in award money. Weitzel ran 24:18 and earned $100 for tenth. Ryan Drew ran a new personal best of 3:51.6 to place second in the 18th Edition of the Ryan Shay Mile in Clarlevoix, Michigan. His time was a huge improvement from his 3:56.7 performance on the same course in 2025 and also broke the previous course record of 3:52.4 set by Nick Foster in 2024. Ryan earned $1500 for his placing. Patrick Lyell returned to the state of Michigan, where he graduated from Grand Valley State University, to run in his first road mile. He finished 13th with an all-surfaces mile personal best of 3:58.3.
- Ryan Drew ran a new personal best of 3:51.6 to place second in the 18th Edition of the Ryan Shay Mile in Clarlevoix, Michigan. His time was a huge improvement from his 3:56.7 performance on the same course in 2025 and also broke the previous course record of 3:52.4 set by Nick Foster in 2024. Ryan earned $1500 for his placing. Patrick Lyell returned to the state of Michigan, where he graduated from Grand Valley State University, to run in his first road mile. He finished 13th with an all-surfaces mile personal best of 3:58.3. Australian Jack Anstey won in the new course record of 3:50.2 as fourteen runners broke four minutes.
- Noah Fisher and Ryan Drew remained ranked second and third in the August edition of the South Carolina Road Race Rankings. Their teammates, Jack Mastandrea and Eduardo Garcia are ranked fifth and sixth. Greenville's James Quattlebaum continued to hold the top ranking.
- Jack Mastandrea repeated his victory from 2024 as he won the Edouard Michelin Memorial 5K with a time of 14:26 on Saturday morning. He was 13 seconds off his course record of 14:13 (2024) over the rolling hills near the Michelin campus. The weather at the start was 74-degrees with 92% humidity with a dew point of 71.5%. Jack was followed by his training partners and teammates with Jason Weitzel in second (14:40), Noah Fisher in third (14:49) and 2024 Paris Olympian Eduardo Garcia (15:09) in fourth. It was the third consecutive runner-up finish for Weitzel after winning with a course record of 14:15 in 2023.
