The 2025 USATF Masters National Grand Prix Individual Championships are in the books. The season kicked off with the December 2024 Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA, continuing through the 2025 championships, starting in January - USATF Cross Country Championships in Lubbock TX; February - 5 km Championships in Atlanta; April – 10 Km Championships in Dedham MA; June – 4 Mile Championships in Peoria IL & 1 Mile Championships in Indianapolis IN; October – 5 Km Championships in Atlanta GA; November – 5 Km Masters Cross Country Championships in San Francisco CA. Athletes could also earn points toward the Individual Grand Prix from their best Non Stadia event (Cross Country or 10K) at the WMA Indoor Championships in Gainesville FL, in mid- March. Note: The Club Cross championships were conducted over a muddy course on a raw, windy day. The course for the 5 km Championships had to be rerouted shortly before the date of the race, due to circumstances outside of the race's control; the course wound up being long.
Effort at the 2024 USATF Masters 10 km Championships at the James Joyce Ramble in Dedham MA Photo Credit: Michael Scott
The Grand Prix Awards Ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2026, in Tallahassee FL as part of the World Athletics Cross Country Weekend.
Note: Athletes and Teams earned up to 100 points at each championship they competed in. The best five scores are added up; the top score possible is 500 points. Only those who compete in at least three events are eligible for an award.
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
WOMEN
40-44 Champion: Lauren Davis 225 points. 91 competitors; 1 serious contender. Davis had her best finish at third place in Indianapolis at the 1 Mile 6:13.8. But she added crucial points in April at the 10 Km in Dedham 47:03 and at the final championship of the year in San Francisco 22:56. Nine other athletes had two events but never got the third one necessary to be eligible for an award. This was Davis's first year competing in the Grand Prix. 45-49 Champion: Dana Hayden 385 pts. 72 competitors; 5 serious contenders. Hayden started scoring in March, picking up 95 points for being the second fastest W45 American in the 10K at WMA 39:42. Three months later she claimed 2nd at the W45 Road Mile Championships 5:24.4 and did the same at the 5K Championships in Atlanta 19:39. Hayden finished things off in style by taking the 5 Km KC win in San Francisco 19:05. Hayden was only 15 points ahead of Lordi (See below) with two events to go. Hayden finished well ahead of her rival in those two final events to clinch the GP win!
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| Dana Hayden Claims the W45 Silver Medal at the 2025 USATF Masters 5 Km Championships hosted by the Atlanta Track Club in Atlanta GA Photo Credit: Pam Fales |
2nd Place: Vanessa Lordi 305 pts. Lordi's high points were a third place in Peoria and a 4th place in Indianapolis. She scored in three other events to claim the second-place finish in the GP.
3rd Place: Alicia Martinez 265 pts. Martinez finished 3rd in Indianapolis, 4th in Peoria and was the third fastest US 45-49 women's finisher in the 10K Road Race at WMA.
50-54 Champion: Abby Dean 470 pts. 67 competitors; 4 serious contenders. Dean got things off to a great start with a 100-point win at the XC Championships in Lubbock, over 6 kilometers 26:01. Dean was the second fastest W50 American in the 10K Road Race at Gainesville 39:55 and added a fourth place at the 10 Km in Dedham 41:12. A third-place finish in Atlanta 21:42 finished off her Grand Prix championship season. Dean ran well and ran often; she competed in more events than her closest rivals. This was Dean’s third W50 Championship in the last four years!
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| Abby Dean Digging Deep as She Finishes Off Her W50 Bronze Medal |
2nd Place: Hortencia Aliaga 280 pts. Aliaga finished second at Indianapolis and third at Dedham. At WMA, Aliaga was second American in the Cross Country competition over 8 Km, earning the silver medal.
3rd Place: Alexandra Newman 215 pts. Newman finished 2nd at Lubbock and sixth at Indianapolis. She scored in two additional events at Tacoma and Dedham.
55-59 Champion: Amy McMahon 440 pts. 57 competitors; 3 serious contenders. The lynchpins of McMahon’s Grand Prix victory were her points for being the 2nd finishing W55 American at Cross Country in Gainesville 37:49 and her second place in the 4 Mile championship 28:43 in Peoria. McMahon finished fourth (of 20) at the highly competitive Club Cross championships in Tacoma, on a raw, windy day over a muddy 6 Km course 26:35 and added a second fourth place finish at Atlanta 21:29. She enjoyed a fifth-place finish at Indianapolis 5:58.8. Those results gave her the GP title. McMahon scored early and then often, building up a lead; she was never seriously threatened. This was McMahon's first serious commitment to competing in the Grand Prix since 2022 when she finished fourth in W50.
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| Amy McMahon light blue hat/blue checked singlet challenging Rebecca Kennedy #1184 in the Masters Women Race at the 2025 USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
2nd Place: Cassandra Crane 335 pts. Crane's best finishes were at WMA where she was second American at the 10K Road Race and in Peoria where she finished third. She added a 7th at Indy, a ninth at Dedham and a 17th (of 22) in the deep field at Tacoma.
3rd Place: Brenda Osovski 240 pts. Osovski was fourth American at WMA. She added a seventh place at Dedham and finished off her GP season with a fourth place at the 4-mile championships in Peoria.
60-64 Champion: Pamela Ricker 420 pts. 69 competitors; 5 serious contenders. Ricker missed the first three events. Once she got started in Dedham at the 10 km with a modest 8th place in a loaded field 48:24, she ripped off second place finishes at Peoria 29:08 and Atlanta 22:33. Add in a third at San Francisco 22:01 and a 6th place finish at Indy 6:26.9 for her winning GP total. When La Burt (see below) had to shut down her season due to a plantar fascia issue, that left an opening for her teammate, Ricker, to step up. Ricker took full advantage of the opportunity and ran well for the team. This seems to be Ricker's first Grand Prix season. Winning the Grand Prix on your first go round is pretty special!
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| Pamela Ricker Claims the W60 Silver Medal at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
2nd Place Suzanne La Burt 390 pts. La Burt won at Tacoma and Dedham. She collected another 100 points at WMA where, as first American, she won the silver medal in Cross Country. Her third place finish at Indianapolis turned out to be her last competition of the Grand Prix season.
3rd Place: Leslie Nowicki 350. Nowicki finished third at Peoria and fourth at Atlanta. Add in her 6th American finish at WMA Cross Country, her ninth at Indy and her 11th place at Dedham and you have her fine third place GP season. Nowicki has enjoyed a steady climb in her GP attainment. Eighth in W55 in 2022, she moved up to 7th W60 in 2023, and 5th last year. This was her first 'Top Three' GP season!
65-69 Champion: Suzanne Cordes 465 pts. 49 Competitors, 5 serious contenders. Cordes started strong with a win at Lubbock over 6 km of turf 32:56, and a Gold medal in the W65 8 Km Cross Country race at WMA 39:56. Her 2nd place finish at Peoria 29:21, 3rd place at Indy 6:22.7, and 5th at Dedham 49:08, contributed to a solid GP win! After running at Lubbock, Gainesville, Dedham, Peoria and Indianapolis, Cordes had amassed enough points that she could skip the final two events, knowing that no one could pass her. Cordes has competed at many Masters national Cross Country events, in years past, but less commonly on the roads. This year, Cordes added three road events and seized the GP win!
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| Suzanne Cordes Claims the W65 Silver Medal at the 2025 USATF 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
2nd Place Susan Stirrat 335 pts. Stirrat's best event was the 10K Road Race at the WMA Championships in Gainesville FL, where she was the fourth American to finish. Stirrat added sixth place finishes at both Peoria and Indianapolis, a tenth at Dedham and 12th (of 16) at Tacoma. This w2as a welcoome return to the GP podium. After winning the W65 GP in 2022 and 2023, Stirrat finished fourth last year.
3rd Place: Patrice Combs 300 pts. Combs won the 65-69 Championships at Dedham, Peoria, and Atlanta but did not compete otherwise. Combs won the W60 Grand Prix in 2019, Since then, Combs has been less involved with the National Championship circuit. 2025 represented a welcome return.
70-74 Champion: Cynthia Lucking 470 pts. 28 Competitors, 4 serious conten8ders. Lucking ran in the first six races of the 8-race circuit. She nailed wins at Lubbock 36:29 and Peoria 37:23 and finished second W70 American in the 10K Road Race at WMA 56:27 in Gainesville. A 3rd place finish in Dedham 56:50 and 5th in Indy 8:45.8 gave Lucking the points she needed for the GP win. Lucking got a lead early and kept adding to it only to have to shut down her competing with a stress fracture. With two races left, Lucking could add no more points. But she was up by 45 points at that point. If Myers (see below) could win the final two events, she would have passed Lucking. But that did not happen.
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| Cindy Lucking Claims the W70 Win at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
2nd Place: Helene Myers 435 pts. Myers finished second at Lubbock and Peoria. She added 4th place points from Atlanta and from being 4th American finisher at the WMA 10K Road Race. Any one of her three 6th place finishes, at Dedham, Indianapolis or San Francisco, made up the rest of her GP score for the silver medal.
3rd Place: Nora Cary 300 pts. Cary won the gold medal in both the 6 Km Cross Country and the 10 Km Road race at WMA. But only one of those counted. Cary won the two other championships she entered, Dedham and Atlanta. Cary broke seven American Records last year from the 5 Km to the Half marathon. But she only found time to compete in three national championships. Cary won the 2024 Grand Prix with a perfect 500 points.
75-79 Champion: Kathleen Allen 475 pts. 16 Competitors, two serious contenders. Allen anchored her GP win with gold medals at Dedham 1:03:06 and Peoria 41:06. She added 2nd place finishes at Indy 9:49.3 and Atlanta 33:03 after that. She already had fourth place points from Tacoma 42:09 in her pocket.
2nd Place: Andrea McCarter 345 pts. McCarter had a brief lead in the spring, the result of her 7th place at Club Cross and her being the third American finisher in 75-79 in the 10K Road Race at WMA. Once Allen got her string going, McCarter could not keep up. But she kept working. McCarter finished 2nd in Peoria and 3rd in Indy but Allen finished ahead of her in both.
80-84 No one had the required three events.
85-89 Champion: Joyce Hodges-Hite 500 pts. One Competitor. Hodges-Hite continues to reign supreme in this division. She entered and won the first five events of the season, including a gold medal in the 10 K Road Race at WMA in Gainesville 1:49:08. Her other wins came at Tacoma 1:12:46; Lubbock 1:14:28; Dedham 1:59:15; and Peoria 1:12:24. That gave her a perfect 500 points; Hodges-Hite also ran the 5K in Atlanta, for good measure. This was Hodges-Hite's third consecutive Grand Prix win!
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| Joyce Hodges-Hite Claims the W85 Title at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
MEN
40-44 Champion: Joseph Gray 400 pts. 161 competitors, 7 serious contenders. Gray, following a stellar Mountain Running career, as an Open athlete, which included an Individual World Championship, waltzed through the first part of the GP season. He won the first two Cross Country events in Tacoma 33:20, over 10 km, and Lubbock 25:31, over 8 km. Gray won the gold medal in both 8 km Cross Country 25:44 and the 10K Roads 31:06 at WMA Indoors Only one of them is counted for GP points and finished with a 10K win at Dedham. That gave him 400 points; it was enough for the GP win! Gray had run in two championships, winning both, in 2024; he was not eligible for an award. Had he entered one more event this year, it is likely he would have scored a perfect 500 points!
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| Joseph Gray Takes the Overall Win in the Masters Men 40+ Race at the 2024 USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
2nd Place: Bryan Hendricks 285 pts. It was a nearly impossible task to chase Gray for the win, but Hendricks gradually built up enough points to claim 2nd in the GP. Key points came from a 7th at Lubbock and finishing third M40 American at Gainesville. Top ten finishes at Indianapolis, 8th, and Atlanta, tenth, along with an 82nd (of 102) place at Tacoma, gave him his final total.
3rd Place: Chuck Terry 250. Fourth place finishes at Dedham and Peoria, along with a fifth in Atlanta gave Terry enough points for third place in the GP.
45-49 Champion: David Angell 430 pts. 118 Competitors, one serious contender. It was provident that Angell had gotten off to his usual strong start. He collected points for 12th (of 67) at Club Cross in Tacoma 37:24 and followed that with second place in Lubbock 28:41., Angell won the gold medal in the 10K Road Race 33:31 at the WMA championships. He finished things off with a third amid a stacked M45 field at Dedham 33:03, and first place at Peoria 20:42. The rest of his season ended with injury and rehab. But Angell's 430 points were more than enough! Eight other athletes scored in two events but none of them got the third event necessary for award eligibility. Angell won his third straight M45 Grand Prix!
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| David Angell Leads the Field Out on his Way to the Overall Win at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
50-54 Champion: Alan Black 270 pts. 148 Competitors, 4 serious contenders. Black has not been involved in the GP circuit for a while. Back in 2018, he claimed the overall title in the Masters Road Mile in Flint and finished fifth that year in the 45-49 GP. This year, Black started mid-season with a 2nd place at the 4-Mile in Peoria 22:57 and followed that with a silver medal at Atlanta 17:45. A crucial fifth place at San Francisco in the last race of the season, the 5 km Cross Country 17:31 put him on top!
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| Alan Black Races to an M50 Silver Medal at the 2025 USATF Masters 5 Km Championships hosted by the Atlanta Track Club in Atlanta GA Photo Credit: Paul McPherson |
2nd Place: Jason Newport 240 pts. Newport needed one more good result to challenge Black for the win. He finished second to Black in Peoria and followed that with a 5th in Indy and a 7th in Atlanta. That gave Newport the second place GP finish, a nice step up from his 4th place finish last year.
3rd Place: Brian Sydow 185 pts. Sydow turned in a nifty fifth place finish in the 5 km Championship in Atlanta. With two other solid performances in Dedham, tenth, and San Francisco, 12th. Along with his 39th (of 83) place in Tacoma, Sydow had earned enough points for a third-place finish in the GP! This was another welcome return. Sydow won the 2019 M45 Grand Prix with 485 points. But he had not been able to compete much since then.
55-59 Champion: Christopher Harris 470 pts. 125 Competitors, 11 serious contenders. The core of Harris’s win came in mid-season. He kicked off a strong two-month stretch with a gold medal in Dedham at 10K 35:21. Harris followed it with silver medals at Peoria 22:11 and Indianapolis 4:59.1. Add in his points from being third American in the 55-59 division of the 8 km Cross Country race in Gainesville and his bronze medal at the 5K in Atlanta 17:44, and Harris had the winning GP total! Harris competed in two events in 2023 and one in 2024. He increased his commitment this year and it paid off for both Harris and his team!
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| Christopher Harris Claims the M55 Bronze Medal at the 2025 USATF Masters 5 Km Championships hosted by the Atlanta Track Club in Atlanta GA Photo Credit: Pam Fales |
2nd Place: Scott Siriano 400 pts. Siriano was going for his third straight 55-59 GP crown. He started off strong with a second place finish at Lubbock and equal points from finishing as second American in the 55-59 division, earning a bronze medal overall, at the WMA 10K Road Race in Gainesville. Seventh place finishes at Dedham, Peoria and Indianapolis were not enough to keep pace with Harris but kept him ahead of all other contenders.
3rd Place: John McMahon 385 pts. McMahon competed in five events but one of those was Club Cross in Tacoma which typically has the deepest and most talented fields of the GP season. McMahon walked away with a very credible 11th place (of 65), but just fifty points. The core of McMahon's season was strong. He gained 90 points from a third-place finish in Peoria and added a fourth-place at Indianapolis and a fifth-place in Atlanta. Joining those scores with his points from his scoring as fifth American in the 8 km Cross Country, left him fifteen points shy of Siriano. This was the first year McMahon competed in enough GP events to qualify for an award; he made it a good one!
60-64 Champion: Mark Zamek 480 pts. 123 Competitors, 15 serious contenders. Zamek scored early and often. The core of his GP victory was his win in the 8 km Cross Country 30:45 at Lubbock and his Gold medal performance against international competition at the WMA 10K Road Race 36:14 in Gainesville. Zamek added 2nd place finishes at Peoria 23:14 and Indianapolis 5:13.5; he finished off his season with 3rd place in Atlanta 18:20. Zamek has been injured for so much of the last few years, this win is a tribute to his perseverance and ‘never say die’ attitude! Zamek loves to run and loves to compete! After finishing 2nd in the M55 GP in 2019, Zamek did not appear in the standings in 2022, finished sixth in the M60 GP in 2023, off of 4 appearances; and sixth last year from three appearances. It was a major achievement for Zamek to participate in six Grand Prix events.
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| Mark Zamek Surges Toward the Finish Line in his M60 Silver Medal Effort at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
2nd Place: Lester Dragstedt 400 Pts. The mainstay of his 60+ team, Dragstedt is a solid performer who shows up to compete. He followed his Top Fifteen (of 66) performance at Club Cross with a top four American finish at WMA in Gainesville. A fifth place at Dedham was followed by a bronze medal at Peoria. A 7th at Indianapolis and a sixth at Atlanta wound up his campaign. Dragstedt moved up from 5th in the M60 GP in 2023 to 2nd last year. This was his second straight 'Top Two' GP finish!
3rd Place: Nat Larson pts. 295. Many thought, last December, when Larson battled for the win at Tacoma and finished second, his injuries were perhaps behind him. But Larson suffered a ski accident over the winter and did not appear again at an event until Atlanta in October. He won that race and followed it with a win at the final event in San Francisco. This was a rare third place for larson. Every year from 2016 through 2024, excepting 2020 when there was no GP, Larson won his division as he advanced from 50-54 through to 60-64. Eight consecutive championships is an amazing accomplishment. A tribute to Larson's commitment to his team and the GP, it will likely stand a long time as a symbol of consistency and excellence!
65-69 Champion: Daniel King 495. 93 competitors, 11 serious contenders. King enjoyed an almost perfect GP season. He won the first four events he entered, at Tacoma 31:53 and Lubbock 31:30 on the Cross country turf he loves. King followed with road wins at Peoria 23:39 and Indianapolis 5:10.1. After turning his attention to the track season, King knew he needed one more LDR score. He finished 2nd at San Francisco . That gave him 495 points and a winning margin of just ten points, making this the most closely contested division! With his concentration on the cross country turf and the track, King had never entered as many as three Grand Prix events in any prior year. With his focus expanded this year, King won the GP top prize!
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| Dan King #1014 Leads a Pack of M60 Athletes On the Way to His M65 Win in the Masters Men 60+ Race at the 2024 USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
2nd Place: Roger Sayre 485 pts. Sayre started with a second-place finish at Lubbock and followed it with being first American and silver medalist overall at the WMA 8 km Cross Country race. A win at Dedham was followed by silver medal performances at Peoria and Atlanta. He finished just ten points shy of King's winning total! Sayre enjoyed the highest second place score in the Grand Prix and had the satisfaction of an excellent set of Championship races! Since turning 65, Sayre won the M65 GP in 2023 and 2024. His second place finish this year gives him three consecutive GP Top Three finishes.
3rd Place: Casey Hannan 405. Hannan began his season with a 7th place (of 40) at Club Cross in Tacoma. He followed that with his fourth American finish at the WMA 8 km Cross Country race. Fourth place finishes at Dedham and Indianapolis were topped off by a fifth-place finish in the 5 Km Championships in Atlanta. Hannan took good advantage of moving up to M65. In the last three years he finished 9th, 7th and 17th in the M60 GP.
70-74 Champion: Rick Becker 500 pts. 86 Competitors, 12 serious contenders. Becker ran the table with a perfect 500 points! He ran at Tacoma over 8 Km of turf 33:48 and the same at Lubbock 32:22. Becker won gold medals in both the 6 km Cross Country race 26:03 and the 10 Km Road Race 40:39 at the WMA Championships in Gainesville. The best single scoring race of the athlete, at WMA, is used for GP points. Becker closed off his GP season with Atlanta 20:48 and San Francisco 21:35, winning the M70 gold medal at each! This was the first year Becker competed in enough GP events to qualify for an award. This year he did it in style! Not many enjoy 500-point wins!
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| Rick Becker Heads to the Final Stretch of His M70 Gold Medal Effort at the 2025 USATF Masters 5 Km Championships hosted by the Atlanta Track Club in Atlanta GA Photo Credit: Paul McPherson |
2nd Place James Linn 475. Linn battled Becker all the way for the M70 GP win! He finished third at Tacoma (of 43). He then enjoyed a string of fine races, claiming second at Dedham and Peoria. After racing to a win in Indianapolis, Linn was ahead of Becker, 380 to 300. In Atlanta, Linn stayed with Becker as long as he could but finished second to Becker's first place. Linn was still ahead of Becker in the GP, 475 to 400. If Becker could race in San Francisco and finish in 5th place or better, Linn would surrender the GP lead. As indicated above, Becker won the 5 Km Cross Country race in San Francisco. Linn had the satisfaction of battling for the win and enjoyed a set of excellent races along the way!
3rd Place: Jack Pottle 460 Pts. It is rare for an athlete to earn over 450 GP points and not be one of the top two in the division. But that was Pottle's fate this year. Pottle finished fifth at Tacoma (of 43) and then enjoyed a 2nd place finish at Lubbock. Pottle earned the silver medal in the 6 Km Cross Country race at the WMA Championships and followed that with a third at Dedham and a win at Peoria. With three races left Pottle was in the lead, 460 to 300 for Becker and 280 for Linn. But, as it turned out, Pottle was ending his season as Linn and Becker were firing theirs up. That was Pottle's last score in a 2025 GP event. Pottle got a taste of the GP in 2024 by racing at the Masters 5 Km Championships in Boulder. He turned things up a notch this year and delivered a Top Three finish in the GP.
75-79 Champion: Gary Ostwald 500 pts. 39 Competitors, 9 serious contenders. Just as in M70, this division was close and the winner needed close to 500 points to win. Ostwald was up to the task. He ran his total to 500 points with a win at the final event of the season! Ostwald ran at Tacoma, Gainesville, Peoria, Indianapolis and San Francisco and scored a full 100 points at each one. He won handily at Tacoma over 8 Km 38:27. He was first American at the WMA Championships 6 Km Cross Country race 28:15 and won the bronze medal against an international field. He then won at Peoria 27:50 and Indianapolis 6:21.4. At that point he was still behind in the M75 GP race. Ostwald needed one more good result. He got it in spades with his win at San Francisco, the 5 Km Cross Country race 22:46 that finished the season. This was his third consecutive GP win, but his first perfect 500 total.
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| Gary Ostwald Far Right #1085 Races Amidst M70 Athletes On His Way to the M75 Win at the 2024 USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
2nd Place: Jerry Learned 470 Pts. Learned had another highly productive Grand Prix tour. He scored 475 points, the same total he enjoyed in 2024. In some divisions that would be enough points for a win. But not in this one. Learned started things off with a 4th place finish (of 19) at Tacoma. Learned kicked it up a notch by finishing 2nd American at the WMA 6 Km Cross Country race and continued with a fourth-place finish at Dedham, which always has a very competitive field. Learned then claimed silver medals at each of the next three races, at Peoria, Indianapolis and Atlanta. He was on top of the leaderboard at that point, 75 points ahead. But the handwriting was on the wall. If he and Ostwald both ran in San Francisco, even a win for Learned would not give him the GP win. He needed to win at San Francisco and have Ostwald finish fourth or worse. Learned loves to compete and enjoys a challenge. His best was good enough for second. Ostwald took the win and the M75 GP championship.
3rd Place: Paul Carlin 390. As regular readers of this blog, know, I am writing about myself here. I will use the first person. I skipped the final event of the year in San Francisco to go on a bucket list trip to Macchu Pichu and the Galapagos Islands. I knew there were two athletes who would likely surge past me in the GP if they competed there. A week or so after I returned, one of my teammates congratulated me on my third-place GP finish. It was a classic example of the Woody Allen aphorism, "90% of Life is Showing Up!" Ironically, this 390-point total was lower than I had in 2023 and 2024 when I finished fourth in the division. I had three podium finishes in each of those years, none in this one. Go figure! I was fourth American in the WMA 10K Road Race and followed that with a 9th at Dedham, 4th place at Peoria and fifth place finishes at Indianapolis and Atlanta. I had thought of it as an okay year for my last year in the division. In terms of the Grand Prix, though, 2025 was my best year since 2017 when I won the 70-74 Grand Prix Championship by a whisker over Dave Glass, 475 to 465.
80-84 Champion: Przemyslaw Nowicki 485 Pts. 18 Competitors, 3 serious contenders. The core of his GP victory included the gold medal he won at Peoria 35:51 and his first American finish in the WMA 6 Km Cross Country race 40:24, fourth internationally. Nowicki’s second place finishes at Tacoma over 8 km 47:53, Dedham 55:09 and Indianapolis 7:36.8 provided the rest of his points. Nowicki moved up from his second place GP finish in 2024. Nowicki enjoyed his first MNGP Championship this year!
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| Przemek Nowicki Powers His Way to the M80 Silver Medal at the at the 2024 USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma WA Photo Credit: Michael Scott |
2nd Place: Morris Williams 370 Pts. Williams started the season in the 75-79 division, finishing 17th in that division at Tacoma. After moving up to 80-84, Williams finished 2nd American and sixth in international competition at the WMA 6 Km Cross Country race. He concluded his season with a fourth place at Peoria, a third place at Indianapolis and a fifth-place finish at Atlanta. This was, by far, Williams's best showing in recent years on the GP circuit.
3rd Place: Jack Frame 295 Pts. Frame was a new recruit to his team this year. He began the season at Dedham with an 80-84 win. He followed that with another victory at Indianapolis. He finished his first season with a second place at Atlanta behind the buzzsaw, Lynn Rathjen, the 80-84 American Record holder in the Road Mile at 6:16.9! It was an impressive set of races!
85-89 Champion: Roland Cormier 485 Pts. 11 Competitors, two serious contenders. The core of Cormier’s GP victory was three straight M85 gold medals in Dedham 1:34:29, Peoria 43:23 and Indianapolis 9:14.7. His second-place finish in Atlanta 35:40 at the end of the year, along with his third American finish at the WMA 6 Km XC race 40:36, provided the points to put him atop the leaderboard. This is Cormier’s second Grand Prix win in the last five years. After winning the GP title in 2021 and finishing 5th in 2022, Cormier was absent from the GP circuit the following two years. Cormier returned with a bang this year!
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| Roland Cormier white singlet, right Heads for the M85 Victory at the 2025 USATF Masters 4 Mile Championships Hosted by the Steamboat Classic in Peoria IL Photo Courtesy of Steamboat Classic |
2nd Place: David Turner 300 Pts. After finishing 2nd in the 80-84 GP in 2019, Turner's participation in the GP ebbed. From 2021 through 2024, Turner appeared at two events or fewer each season. That changed this year. Turner traveled from Atlanta to Tacoma WA to capture his first win of the season over 8 Km of turf. In March he stayed a bit closer to home, earning the bronze medal and finishing as first American at the WMA 6 Km X-C race in Gainesville FL. He closed off his campaign with his third win, this time over 5 Km on the home roads of Atlanta. It was good to see Turner's name on the Grand Prix leaderboard again.
Congratulations to these outstanding athletes for their excellent performances and commitment to competing at Masters National Championships! The competition contributes to the outstanding camaraderie athletes enjoy at the Championships!
Next post will be a review of the Grand Prix Club Championships.
Sources: USATF Events website and the Masters National Grand Prix webpage, my archives, Athlinks, Strava, Facebook, World Masters Athletics, and relevant race websites.
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