By David Yon
GWTC named the Chenoweth Award Winners at the fourth annual Pot Luck Bash and Open Mike Social. For the first time the race was a true prediction run and the runners earned their place by most accurately predicting their time instead of by their order of finish. Kiff Mendoza pulled off an amazing feat as he nailed his predicted time of 26:40 exactly, running 26:40 to capture the individual title. Sarah Docter-Williams was second running one second faster, 25:32, than she predicted, 25:33. Reid Vannoy was fastest absolute time running the four mile course in 24:59 seconds. Complete results here.
The Famous “Toma” awards went to the teams with the smallest total time differential. The SSRJK’s consisting of Reid Vannoy, Sarah Docter-Williams, Kiff Mendoza, Jay Silvanima and Steve Barraco were just two minutes off their total predicted time. The Bill Fish were just behind missing the mark by 2:46 seconds as Bill McGuire, Karl Hempel, Hobson Fulmer, Brad Burns and Heidi Burns predicted well. Cash Money was the third place team as Gallagher Dempsey, Logan Wolcott, Casey Perkins, Ryan Deak and Bob Deak came within 4:30 of hitting the mark dead on.
The real stars of the night however were the Chenoweth Award nominees and winners. Four scholarships of $500 each went to the outstanding award winners. Gallagher Dempsey, Leon, won the male cross country award. His best time last year, 16:09, was a big improvement and made him one of the top area runners. Christy Cooper, Florida High, was the Female cross country runner with a best of 19:19. The male track award went to Craphonso Thorpe (Lincoln High) who burned up the 100 (10.62) and 200 meters (21.94) this year, finishing 2nd in the 4A 100 state championship. The girls winner was Zita Magloire of Chiles. Zita won the 800 meter state 1A title and had a personal best time in that event of 2:17. She also finished second in the 1600. Here best time there was 5:10. Other nominees were Krystal Baker, Evan Devoe, Joel Serna, Lakendra Cunningham, Kayla Lee and Omar Morgan. Lakendra Cunningham was a very close chose for the female track award. She is a ninth grader at Wakulla High School who ran 56.1 for the 400, 25.2 for the 200 and 12.1 for the 100 meter race. The event raised over $2300 for the Chenoweth Fund. You can read more about the Chenoweth Fund by here.
Special thanks also go to the musicians who entertained us so well during the night. Bill McGuire, Charles Futch and Jim Phillips were right on showing that the talent in GWTC is much more than just running. The event was well attended as a second wave showed up after the race to help eat some great food and drink and acknowledge the award winners. Finally, Toma Wilkerson and Jon Sewell donated a Trek 800 bike for a raffle. Joe Plescia was the lucky winner of the bike!