Sunday, April 10, 2011

Alumni racing news du jour


Great Marist Alumni racing news out of NYC today ...

On Staten Island, the 13th annual Scott's Race 5K featured the usual strong showing from Marist Alumni runners.

The photo above shows the happy men of the Marist Alumni Racing Team. From left: T-Dix (Tom Dixon), DJ (D.J. Paulson), Walsh (Matt Walsh) and Schab (Schab).

Walsh was the race winner, after a pair of top-3 finishes in recent years. His unofficial winning time -- delivered via text this afternoon -- was 16:15. Good stuff!

For those that are not aware: Scott's Race is held in honor of FDNY hero Scott LaPiedra, the father of Marist Running alum Scotty LaPiedra. Here is a description of the race history, taken right from the race flier:

"On July 4, 1998 Capt. Scott LaPiedra died from injuries sustained at a fifth-alarm fire in the East New York section of Brooklyn. In 1999, as a tribute to Capt. Scott LaPiedra, Scott's race was started and has experienced tremendous success over the past several years. This year's race will support the Thomas Elsasser FDNY Widows and Children's Fund and Staten Island Project Homefront proudly supports our troops. So come join us in celebrating Scott's memory and life with his family, friends and fellow firefighters."

Scotty La has followed in his dad's footsteps and is now a proud FDNY firefighter.

Also on Sunday, a ferry ride away over in Manhattan, Marist Running alums Girma Segni and Mike Rolek were top-10 finishers at the Scotland Run 10K in Central Park.

After years of being lead runner at Marist, Girm was fifth man (fifth man!) on the West Side team that took the top 5 spots and swept the team competition. Girm ran a very strong 30:48, showing he is getting back into fine form after an admittedly rough winter of training.

Meanwhile, Rolek had a solid but unspectacular day in finishing 10th overall in 31:11. Still, finishing 10th overall in a pretty stacked field is a good day's work in my book.

Nicely done, one and all!

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