Ryan Hill, Laura Thweatt Claim Wins at USATF Club Nationals

Published by Runner's World on December 14, 2014

More than 1,700 runners produced on Saturday the largest field ever in the 17-year history of the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships. The runners and crowd received a fitting conclusion, with the men’s open field coming down to a final sprint on the Lehigh University course in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

After a large group stayed near the front for most of the race, Bowerman Track Club’s Ryan Hill pulled away with his teammate German Hernandez and Hanson Brooks’ Jacob Riley after 8K of the 10K race. In the closing 200 meters, Hill unleashed a finishing kick that helped him cross the finish line first in 29:07.03. Riley followed two seconds back in 29:09.08, holding off Hernandez, who took third in 29:09.96. (Matt Tegenkamp, another notable Bowerman runner, finished ninth.)

The race played out how Hill said he thought it would, and he felt comfortable not pushing the pace until he needed to toward the end.

“I knew it would probably come down to the final 200 meters, and I had a good kick left,” Hill said. “I was sandbagging a little, which my teammates give me a hard time for, but I tell them it works—sometimes!”

In the women’s open 6K race, it was a familiar scene from 2013—just on a different course. For the second straight year, Laura Thweatt of the Boulder Track Club took top honors, leading pretty much from the start and finishing with a 10-second cushion in 19:14.41, ahead of Tara Erdmann (19:24.06) of Nike. Angela Bizzarri came in third in 19:33.72.