The Matchstick 5k/10k run Friday Night at the Blue Tip Festival in Wadsworth showed off the running skills of the Ashland Elite Running Club.
In the men’s overall 5K race, 24-year old Jacob Sussman from Ashland Elite finished in first place with a time of 15:50 over the 3.1 mile course that went through the streets of Wadsworth. Finishing in second place was 23-year old Josh Davis, also of Ashland Elite. His time was 16:14 for the 5k.
Sussman said “it was an easy running course, but it was a lot harder than it looked”. Sussman said the key to his victory was “to get off to a quick start. Me and Josh (teammate Josh Davis) were able to push ahead of everyone else”. Sussman is a volunteer coach at the University of Ashland.
In the women’s overall 5k race, 20-year old Sarah Burger of Wadsworth finished in first place. Her time was 18:25.4.
In the men’s overall 10K race, a familiar name to Wadsworth running fans came in first place. 25-year old Matt McConnell finished the 6.2 mile course in first place. Matt is the girls’ cross country coach at Wadsworth High School. Matt’s time was 35:19.3. Matt finished almost 5 minutes in front of the second place finisher.
In the women’s overall 10k race, the winner was 16-year Annamarie DiGiacobbe of Medina. Her time was 41:19.9
There were over 400 runners who took part in the Matchstick races. Nearly 320 participated in the 5K race and just about 100 ran in the 10K race.
Winning her age group (55-59) in the 5k race was Wadsworth Mayor Robin Laubaugh. Congratulations Mayor.
