Redstone’s perennial champion team knew their challenges entering last weekend’s 39th annual Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C. There were 116 teams in the all-comers division and 19 teams in the government agency division. But last year’s winning time in government agency (4:29:54 for its top four finishers) was faster than the 2022 all-comers best (5:05:15).
Some 26,000 runners had registered by Saturday for the Sunday morning race. This was the Redstone team’s first trip back since 2019 before the pandemic and six of its 16 runners were new.
But the Redstone team persevered again by sweeping the all comers and government agency divisions. Brandon York finished fifth overall in 50:26.
Led by York, the government agency runners finished in 3:50:38 to beat the second place Corps of Engineers New York District (4:18:06). They included York, Ryan Seballos (57:00), Bailey Herfurth (1:00:39) and Javier Nishikawa (1:02:33).
The all-comers runners finished in 3:50:07 to beat second place Fort Detrick’s 4:50:31. They included Beck Mitchell (55:57), Kyler Bush (57:23), Will Rodgers (57:39) and Wesley Ormond (59:08).
“It was good. I tried to be competitive – tried to compete,” York said. “That was my number one thing today – just compete. I was actually leading the race. I led the race multiple times. I kind of got off (pace) at the end. I’m happy to be able to help the team again, another year.
“I was on pace for a sub-50 for eight miles. Just kind of fell apart but it is what it is. I think overall I’m really happy with the way I competed, number one. And then I remember having the thought multiple times today I’d be able to win the whole thing today. I felt confident I could win. I was still in contention for the win at mile seven. And then my legs started to give out and my lack of sleep caught up to me.”
York and his wife, Erin, have a 4-month-old son, Owen, so the new dad has not had much sleep for the past several months. York said Erin was “the real MVP” because he would not have been able to run like he ran without her.
“Owen, he’s a future Redstone Arsenal 10-mile star. You’ve got to remember that name – Owen York. It’s only right, he got some good genes,” he said.
From 2007-19, Redstone won 13 consecutive championships in government agency and 11 consecutive titles in all comers. But the streaks didn’t resume until this year because of the pandemic. Sunday’s wins make 26 eagle trophies in the long-distance running event’s 39-year history.
“We were pleasantly surprised that after completely retooling the team and raising our funds along with donations from the Thrift Shop and AUSA and from our team fundraiser, we were able to defray the cost to participate after a four-year hiatus,” Redstone’s coach Harry Hobbs said. “And we were fortunate enough to maintain our double division consecutive win streak. Even with all of these hurdles, we ran our best times in both divisions. We ran historic times for both teams. We ran PRs (personal records) for both teams today. It’s been an honor and a privilege to coach the team.”
Rounding out Redstone’s team were Matt Casiano, Quinton Watkins, Sean Allan and assistant coach Skip Vaughn in government agency; and Josh Cornett, Shaun Tompkins, Hobbs and Blaise Binns in all comers.
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