Men’s Masters team takes 17th at USATF Club Nationals

Tallahassee, Florida — The Bull City Track Club Men’s Masters team showed up on one of cross country’s most notable stages on January 11, competing at the USATF Club National Championships on the same Apalachee Regional Park course that hosted the World Cross Country Championships just one day earlier.

The BCTC squad finished 17th overall in the Men’s Masters race, led by Jesse Rappole, who posted a 10K time of 35:46.3 to finish 35th overall in the competitive field.

Marc Jeuland (65th) crossed the line in 37:39.4, while grandmasters Paul Jones (144th), Tim Meigs (166th), and Ronnie Weed (183rd) rounded out the team’s scoring.

West Valley Track Club (San Francisco Bay Area) took home the Men’s Masters team title with a ridiculously low score of 30 points.

For BCTC’s competitors, running on a course proven worthy of hosting the world’s best cross country runners added an extra element of prestige to their national championship experience. Race organizers for Saturday’s World Championships competition added “race features” to help competitors get a sense of Florida, including a man-made “Rollercoaster” hill, a sand pit, a water pit, a mud pit, plus alligator logs to hurdle.

For the USATF Masters race, competitors were required to run up and over the rollercoaster hill, but other features were optional as runners could navigate around them.

“We survived!” said Ronnie Weed after the race. “No major injuries.” And if you’re a masters runner, you know that’s as much a victory as you can get.