From left, in the front row, are Randy McFarland, assistant coach Skip Vaughn , Erik DeBolt, team captain Brad Schroeder, AMC commander Gen. Dennis Via and his wife Linda, AMC Command Sgt. Maj. Ron Riling and coach Harry Hobbs. In the back row are Ro...
WASHINGTON -- Redstone Arsenal's Ten-Miler team did it again.
Team Redstone won the government division and the all comers division at Sunday's 28th annual Army Ten-Miler near the Pentagon. It was Redstone's sixth straight win in government and fourth straight in all comers.
"Well done, team," Gen. Dennis Via, commander of the Army Materiel Command, told the runners. "Enjoy your time here."
Redstone Two won the government division with a combined time of 3 hours and 50 minutes for its top four runners. Too Slow for APG was second with 3:55:34 and ATEC 2 placed third with 4:43:46 out of 30 teams.
Redstone One won the all comers division with 3:55:01, followed by Fort Lee AC Mil (3:57:23) and Operation Renewed Hope Foundation (4:09:27). Sixty teams competed in all comers.
Redstone Two runners included George Heeschen (56:05), Brad Schroeder (56:46), Tim Vinson (58:31), Erik DeBolt (58:39), Sgt. Maj. Corey Smallwood (1:19:32), coach Harry Hobbs (1:22:16) and Col. John Hamilton (1:44:54).
Redstone One runners included Brandon York (50:44), Rob Youngren (58:27), Tim Pitt (1:02:02), Rob Whitaker (1:03:49), Randy McFarland (1:06:12), Brett Wilks (1:07:11), Alex Gornik (1:07:57) and assistant coach Skip Vaughn (1:48).
"We appreciate all the support from AUSA, the Garrison and FMWR," Hobbs said. "Without their support, we could not have been able to be as successful as we have over the last couple of years. We didn't want to be complacent because of previous victories. So as a coach, I challenged the team to be better, challenged them to decrease their run times. And what we found out was we needed that motivation because we competed against more teams in each of the two divisions in which we run than we ever have in the past. We found out that we needed that extra push because of the close victories we were able to obtain in both of the categories we run in.
"Our goal is to continue our winning streaks in both divisions. We have made Army Ten-Miler history and we hope to continue keep making Ten-Miler history."
York, a mechanical engineer with Northrop Grumman, bettered his team-best 51:24 from last year's Ten-Miler. His 50:44 placed him 17th out of nearly 22,000 finishers. The 27-year-old from Tuscaloosa ran track and cross country for the University of Alabama-Huntsville in 2003-08.
"It's probably my best race ever, to be honest, as far as time and performance," York said. "I ran 40 seconds faster than last year. And I actually hit a negative split second half (with a 25:25 first five miles followed by a 25:19). If I come back next year, I'm going to try for 49."
Youngren, a computer scientist at Simulation Technologies Inc., had a successful comeback after not running in last year's race because of injury. "It's an incredible race, just all the crowd support," he said. "So I was happy, personal best. My first time racing this big race. Unfortunately I got out too fast so I had to back off. But it worked out."
At seven and a half miles, teammates Vinson and DeBolt caught up with him. Youngren, Vinson and DeBolt then ran together the rest of the way and finished within 12 seconds of each other.
"It doesn't get any better than that," said Vinson, deputy product manager for PM Air Warrior. "It was perfect teamwork. We pulled each other along."
Schroeder, who works in Joint Attack Munition Systems' systems engineering, serves as the team captain. "It turned out really well," he said. "I was excited."
Ten-Miler team member Joe Robenson missed the race because of illness. The overall winner was Tesfaye Senedeku-Alemyehu, a 28-year-old Ethiopian from Ellicott City, Md., in 47:48. The top female was Kerri Gallagher, 23, from Washington, in 56:09.
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For more photos of the race and the running teams, visit the Flickr gallery here.
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