Milford High School Cross Country

In 2003, Ol' Bloomie ran a second faster and got 5th in my age group, but this year's 20:32 proved good enough for 18th overall and first in my age group in the 26th annual Buffalo Stampede 5K & 10K on Saturday. My wifey, Shelly ran her season best of 27:55 -- yeah!!!! Congrats to MHSCC alum Jessi Rivera who broke 22 to win her age group and hooray, hooray for former Miss DE and MHSCC alum Erin Williams who got in the 27s. Sticking with the Milford folks, Randy Fisher ran his best Stampede time in the low 25s while his son, Robert represented the MMSCCers with a solid low 24. MHSCCer Jackie Creasey -- paced by her pop, Bill -- blazed to a CAREER-best 23:25, just missing third in a very tough 14-under female age group, while her mamma, Julie, picked up a buffalo for a great race. And ... MHSCC alumni-mom, Kathy Kunkle, scored a buffalo in that veteran 50+ age group!! Cheers to the Wing Night guys, Matt Lindell (ex-Smyrna CCer and CR assistant coach) who took the 20-24 age group with a 6th-place finish, just behind ex-LFCCer Eric Payne in the low 18s. Meanwhile, Joe "Bubbles" Beman scored a third-place Buffalo in the tough masters category! Sallies grad Eric Zeberkawiez (check spelling) took the 5k overall with a 17:11, holding off surges from Dan, Dan the Running Man Pennington and CR grad Kyle Luke. 5K record-holder Steve Sinko blazed to the 10K win in 33:34. Special Sauce Insider saw the Tri-Sports Leaguers run extremely well: CR runners David Moore, Jesse Brooks, Chris Marker, Liz Paul (overall female 5K champ), Ashley Johnson, Jen Lee and Jonathan Abbott scored trophies and/or great performances, while numerous other local high schoolers, like Phillip Depenbusch, looked strong after great league workouts. Even CRCC coach Bell got out and challenged folks in the race walk!!! St. Thomas More, led by coach and CRCC alum Nick Boggs who got a 10K buffalo, saw the likes of Cindy Sui and Nick Stubbolo run well as did alum Sheena McIntire. In fact, tons of ex-Henlopen stars like Smyrna CC alum Joe Morman, who blazed by Bloom midway through but ran out of gas later in the race, made their appearances. The Walsh family, led by mamma Mary who scored a buffalo and daughter Katie who took a 10K buffalo represented Dover High well, while Jenna Kemmerle and her father, Steve, represented Polytech CC in the 5K -- finishing much better than Polytech CC coach Chris Kenton looked in the 10K -- his first race back on the road again. :) Overall, a big congrats goes out to everybody and anybody I missed, especially LFCC alum and coach Angie Brown, who won her age group five months pregnant!!! :)