Greenville Track Club-ELITE - a post-collegiate, Olympic-development program
11 USA Olympic Trials Qualifiers
established 2012
11 USA Olympic Trials Qualifiers
established 2012
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On an extremely humid (100%) and wet morning in Columbus, OH, ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Mark Leininger placed 15th in the 2017 USATF Half Marathon Championships. His finishing time was 1:07:13 and earned him $400 in a high caliber field. The championships were run in conjunction with the Ohio-Health Capital City Half Marathon and the field included defending champion Christo Landry and 2016 Olympian Leonard Korir. Korir edged former NCAA cross country champion Sam Chelanga for the victory as the two Kenyan native runners were clocked at 1:03:04. After passing the 2-mile mark in 9:39, Mark hit the 5-mile split at 24:47, which is 4:58 per mile pace, but slowed to 5:00 min pace over the next mile as the lead pack began to build a gap. He eventually ran solo as the top ten increased the pace. Leininger remained in almost the same position after being 14th at 5-miles, passing one and being passed by two other competitors. His time was well off his personal best of 1:04:26. "After seeing the weather conditions, we decided to run more for place than time since it is a USA Championship," explained his coach Mike Caldwell. "Although Mark is disappointed with the time, it was his best finish at a USA road championship." Leininger previously had placed 16th at the USA 10-Mile Championships last October. GTC-ELITE produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles and is sponsored by ASICS, the 45-year-old Greenville Track Club, Greenville Health System, ScanSource, Joy Real Estate, the Bare Minimum Track Club, generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Soleus Running Watches, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery, FinalSurge, The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, NormaTec Recovery Boots and CocoaElite recovery products.
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Steagall and Ruck Win 40th TD Bank Reedy River Run and RRCA South Carolina 10K Championships4/22/2017 ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE athletes Austin Steagall and Kimberly Ruck both ran to impressive victories in the 40th anniversary of the TD Bank Reedy River Run 10K in their current hometown of Greenville, SC. With their victories they are both the 2017 Road Runners Club of America South Carolina State 10K Champions.
On a beautiful spring morning Steagall ran conservatively with the lead pack during the first 4K as they led the "sold out" field of 1500 runners over the historically challenging course. He then went to the front for the winding trek through Cleveland Park and increased his margin over the mostly uphill final kilometer. Steagall finished with a time of 30:31 to earn $1000 and added an additional $200 for being the first South Carolina resident. He was followed by his teammate, Ryan Root, who ran a fine 30:48 to earn a total of $800 ($700 for second and $100 for second South Carolina resident). Ruck, who has finished third in this race twice and fifth once, finally won the biggest race in her hometown. Back in January, she had won The Greenville News Run Downtown 5K for the fourth time in five years. That was nice, but winning Reedy has been her goal for sometime. On a warmish morning, she took an early lead and was never really challenged as she finished with a time of 35:11. Ruck earned a total of $1200, like her teammate Steagall. Asheville, NC's Kate Schwartz ran 35:38 to edge ASICS GTC-ELITE's Dylan Hassett (35:39) by one second. Hassett, who won the 2016 race, was running her first race since December due to a nagging foot injury. Schwartz earned $700 for second, while Hassett won a combined total of $600 ($500 + $100 as second South Carolina resident). Hassett's teammates, Alison Parris was fourth in 36:17 ($400 + $50 = $450) and Kate Dodds was fifth at 37:06 ($300). GTC-ELITE produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles and is sponsored by ASICS, the 45-year-old Greenville Track Club, Greenville Health System, ScanSource, Joy Real Estate, the Bare Minimum Track Club, generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Soleus Running Watches, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery, FinalSurge, The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, and NormaTec Recovery Boots. ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Austin Steagall ran to victory in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase on Friday in the Tennessee Relays at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The 2016 NCAA Division II runner-up was running in only his fourth career attempt at the grueling event when he stepped on the starting line at the Tom Black Track. Under sunny skies, but with a blustering wind, Steagall broke into the lead immediately after the starter's gun sounded and covered the first lap in under 68 seconds. Each lap was actually longer than 400 meters due to the water jump located on the outside of the eighth lane. Although the extremely fast first two laps began to take their toll after 2,000 meters Austin's lead was never challenged as he won in 9:09.39 and had an eight-second margin of victory.
Stegall's teammate Mark Leininger came close to adding a win in the 5,000 meters later in the evening, but came up just less than a second short (.63 sec) as he placed second with a time of 14:23.31. Virginia Tech's Jack Joyce won with a time of 14:22.69. Leininger's teammate Ryan Root also competed and ran 14:49.13 for 21st place. ASICS GTC-ELITE's Kimberly Ruck and Alison Parris took the lead after the first lap and took turns leading the field in the women's 5,000. Ruck continued to lead until the 12th circuit, but was out-kicked over the final 300 meters by Ohio State's Christine Frederick who won in 16:42.89. Ruck finished second at 16:49.18 and Parris fourth in 16:51.34. GTC-ELITE produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles and is sponsored by ASICS, the 45-year-old Greenville Track Club, Greenville Health System, ScanSource, Joy Real Estate, the Bare Minimum Track Club, generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Soleus Running Watches, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery, FinalSurge, The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, and NormaTec Recovery Boots. |