B.A.A Women Win, Men Place Third at the 113th Boston Marathon
4/20/2009
The months of preparation through snow, wind, rain and bitter cold, all paid off on Monday, April 20, 2009 as some 97 B.A.A. members completed the 113th Boston Marathon - many in personal best times.
Eric Blake was the first B.A.A. member across the line in 24th place. The defending Mt. Washington Champion ran 2:23:54 for a personal best despite the headwinds. In all, seven of the men would place in the top 100 of the 22,849 finishers: Mike Fisher, Louis Raffetto, Andrew Hill, Mark LaRosa and Jared Markowitz and Bernie Muller. Blake, Fisher, Rafetto, Hill, and LaRosa combined for a solid third place team finish in a competitive field.
Heidi Westerling, who won the New Bedford Half Marathon last month in a remarkable 1:11:35 led the B.A.A. women across the line. Westerling's 2:43:11 earned her 14th place in a strong women's field. She was the first of six women who would place in the top 100: Amy Gosztyla, Lara Johnson, Yiou Wang, Beth Coughlin, and Erin Heslin. All but Westerling ran personal bests. Gosztyla, Johnson and Wang combined to take the 2009 women's team title. Westerling entered after the team declarations and therefore was not eligible to score.
Three B.A.A. athletes had top-ten finishes in their age group: In the 70-74 year category, Harry Carter placed 5th with an impressive 3:48. Eileen Troy placed 7th in the 55-59 age group category and Pat Stumbras was 8th in the 50-54 age group. The cool headwinds proved to be no trouble for Stumbras as he had braved cold rain and headwinds at Twin Cities in the fall to place 3rd in the USATF Men's Masters National Marathon Championship. Bob Collins also turned-in a strong performance, placing 76th in the 45-49 age group. Collins and Troy showed their versatility as both are Masters Track Champions in the middle distances.
In all, the B.A.A. had an incredibly strong showing with 40% of the finishers placing in the top 5%. Of the 97 B.A.A. finishers, 41 ran 3:00 or better.
MEN’S RESULTS 24. Eric Blake 2:23:54 44. Mike Fisher 2:29:06 50. Louis Raffetto 2:30:09 51. Andrew Hill 2:30:13 76. Mark LaRosa 2:33:14 98. Jared Markowitz 2:34:45 99. Bernie Muller 2:34:50 120. Ben Schersten 2:36:42 135. Matthew Carter 2:37:41 161. Joshua Gordon 2:39:04 183. Michael Emanuel 2:40:12 196. Michael Brown Dowling 2:41:37 258. Michael McGrane 2:44:06 367. Jonathan Fortescue 2:47:42 417. Anthony Crudale 2:49:19 426. Christopher Benestad 2:49:27 430. John Barrett 2:49:30 472. Mark Bell 2:41:31 473. Patrick Stumbras 2:50:25 479. John Colavincenzo 2:50:31 489. David Nerrow 2:50:45 504. Jon Schoenberg 2:50:56 580. Kyle Bowers 2:52:10 652. Brian Foley 2:53:14 764. Joseph Robinson 2:54:46 784. Chris George 2:54:58 822. Paul Davies 2:53:26 836. Kevin Hill 2:55:32 859. Michael Vitelli 2:55:49 874. Wayne Chan 2:55:57 899. Brian Benestad 2:56:19 944. Erik Bartelson 2:56:49 1121. Robert Collins 2:58:20 1161. Sean Biggs 2:58:37 1360. Gary David 3:00:14 1375. Adam Sulkowski 3:00:23 1501. Peter DeCambre 3:01:37 1818. Craig Macfarlane 3:04:22 1885. John LaRosa 3:04:48 2121. Paul Morrison 3:06:24 2414. Stephen Miele 3:08:14 2425. Ron Moreau 3:08:19 2606. Erik Dill 3:09:20 2805. Michael Libenson 3:10:22 2845. James Ellis 3:10:35 3001. Bryan Dove 3:11:38 3043. John Stuart 3:11:52 3065. Harry Pino 3:11:59 3250. Jason Burke 3:13:04 3303. Gregory Lowe 3:13:20 3451. Teddy Fitzpatrick 3:14:08 3596. Jesse Bump 3:14:49 3666. David Consigli 3:15:15 3858. James Neville 3:16:05 3998. Joseph Kaiser 3:16:53 4507. Scott Nanfelt 3:19:19 4723. James Thompson 3:20:14 5600. Bruce Campbell 3:24:12 7166. Joseph Bator 3:29:34 8280. John Tolbert 3:33:30 8492. David Rein 3:34:11 9852. Thomas Estabrook 3:38:47 10702. Scott Lennox 3:41:30 11347. Anuj Khetarpal 3:43:46 12554. Harry Carter 3:48:01 12890. Joseph Edwards 3:49:12 16895. Jesus Estrada 4:06:49 18203. Michael Goolkasian 4:15:48 18921. Michael Davis 4:21:36 21000. Jerry Powers 4:46:52 22626. Mark Monti 5:44:27
