Steagall Leads ASICS GTC-ELITE Sweep at Michelin Memorial 5K

Austin Steagall, Zach Mains, Victory Pataky and Eddie Garcia

On an atypical cooler late August morning for Greenville, SC, Austin Steagall led three of his teammates to a sweep of the first four places at the 11th Annual Edouard Michelin Memorial 5K. Steagall raced over the rolling hills with his teammates before sprinting to the lead just after the 3-mile mark of the 3.1-mile (5K) certified course. His finishing time of 14:44 was only two seconds shy of his "event" record, run on a slightly different route (that included the same hills). It was Steagall's third consecutive victory in this event and the fifth consecutive year an ASICS GTC-ELITE athlete has been the overall winner. 

Steagall was closely followed by Eddie Garcia, the former SEC 10,000-meter champion, who was leading at 3 miles. The former Florida Gator ran 14:48 for second. In third place was their new teammate, Victor Pataky, with a time of 15:06 in his first race since relocating to Greenville this month. Zach Mains completed the 1-4 sweep with a time of 15:37. 

Garcia & Steagall at 3-mile mark.

GTC-ELITE was established in 2012 and produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles. The post-collegiate, Olympic development program is sponsored by ASICS, the 46-year-old Greenville Track Club, ScanSource, Joy Real Estate,   generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery products, FinalSurge (on-line training log), The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, NormaTec Recovery Boots, Cocoa Elite recovery products and Synergy Performance (mental performance).  The club is a proud member of both the Road Runners Club of America and the USATF. ​