UTICA — John Korir was the big winner again, repeating as the 15-kilometer champion Sunday, July 13, at Utica’s Boilermaker Road Race.
While Korir repeated his victory in the men’s division, 2024 winners Grace Loibach Nowawuma and Joshua Cassidy placed second in the women’s and wheelchair 15K events, trailing Veronica Loleo and Miguel Jimenez Vergara.
Earlier on a warm, humid morning, Brandon Moran and Juliet Hull, a New Hartford native with strong ties to area running, won the male and female 5K divisions.
Third 15K repeat in eight years
Korir, a 28-year-old from Kenya, joins Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer Mekonnen (2022 and 2023), last year’s runner-up, and Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay (2018 and 2019) as back-to-back winners after the men’s division had gone without one since John Korir Kipsang in 2003 and 2004.
Ridouane Harroufi from Morocco won in 2009 and 2011 but finished fourth in 2010.
Korir finished within one minute of his winning time from last year – 42:44 vs. 42:11 – and ran 24 seconds ahead of runner-up Hillary Kipkoech, another Kenyan. Abbabiya Simbassa, Wesley Kiptoo and Patrick Kiprop, winner of last week’s Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, rounded out the top five finishers, with Charles Hicks from Eugene, Oregon, sixth as the first American-born finisher in 43:39.
Sam Morse from Syracuse placed 20th overall, seven spots behind Joseph Whelan from Webster and three behind Thomas Appenheimer from Buffalo, the top finisher running from upstate bases. Stephen Paddock (33rd), an Ilion native now living in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jordan Hoffman (35th) and Nicolas Ferretti (39th) of Rome, and Jack Gibson (38th) of Herkimer, were all among the first 50 finishers, as was 2021 champion Stephen Rathbun, originally from greater Syracuse and now living in New Jersey.
Another close finish for women
Loleo won the women’s race in 49:36, finishing three seconds ahead of fellow Kenyan Nowawuna who won in a photo finish last year. They finished 23rd and 24th overall, separated by just a few steps.
Edna Kiplagat ran third among the women and 26th overall in 50:06, 2:40 faster than her time 20 years ago when she had her first top 100 overall finish as a 25-year-old in 2005.
Rachael Chebet and Jessie Cardin, the first US-born runner, ran back-to-back to complete the female top five. Cardin, based in Lake Orion, Michigan, is a Boilermaker veteran with family in the Utica area; she said she looks forward to seeing them along the course near the Utica University turn from Burrstone Road onto Champlin Avenue.
“I love this race; I don’t know why,” she said. “It’s kind of a weird distance.”
First time winners crowned for 5K
Moran and Hull won the male and female 5K divisions and both are familiar with the race.
Moran, a 27-year-old from Somerville, Massachusetts, ran the course in 16:06 and finished 49 seconds ahead of his closest challenger, Ian Rauber of Homer. Moran was introduced to the Boilermaker while running in college at St. Lawrence University, and ran Sunday with several college teammates who competed at both distances.
Having previously run the longer race, Moran credited “a little bit of luck” for his win in his first time running the 5K.
Sawyer Sweet, a 17-year-old from Utica, ran fourth in 18:09, finishing between James Taafel and Vincent Derocco, a pair of runners from Virginia.
Christopher Carbone of Barneveld finished seventh and Eric White of New Hartford was ninth.
Hull finished 10th overall with a time of 19:08, more than one minute faster than female runner-up Ashley Rathbun, the 2023 5K winner and wife of Stephen Rathbun. Hull’s parents, Brett and Ellen Hull, coach track and cross country at Hamilton College, and the 27-year-old Juliet Hull “grew up running (the Boilermaker).”
Hull has run both distances, and was competing for the first time since she last ran the 15K three years ago.
“I prefer the 5K,” she said. “I feel like I can race better. It’s a little shorter when it’s hot like this, and it’s three miles rather than 9.3.”
Gianna Giruzzi of Clayville followed Rathbun across the finish line with local teen-agers next among the women – Kaelyn E. Simpson of Utica, Cassandra Furness of Whitesboro, Alex French of New Hartford, Tatiyana I. Fosu and Jasmin M. Gonzalez-Rivera of Utica, and Kylie A. Murray of Whitesboro.
Tight finish for wheelchair racers
Vergara from Chula Vista, California, broke away from the Canadian Cassidy and Utica’s Hermin Garic to win the wheelchair race in 34:50.
The top three finishers crossed the line within one minute.
Hoda Elshorbagy was the top female finisher in 10th place overall with her time of 41:45.
Juan Pablo Lenero Ochoa, this year’s Sitrin Wheelchair Challenge entry from Guadalajara, Mexico, completed the course in 1:42:44 using a standard wheelchair, beating his target time of 2:15 to earn a custom-built racing chair.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Korir repeats as 15K Boilermaker winner; New Hartford native wins women’s 5K
Reporting by Jon Rathbun, Herkimer Times Telegram / Observer-Dispatch
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