Putney third at USATF Masters Half Marathon Championships in Syracuse

ADIRDONACK RESULTS SCOREBOARD

On Sunday (20-March) 13 athletes and one (1) team from USATF Adirondack competed in the USATF Masters Half Marathon Championships in Syracuse. The championships were hosted by the Syracuse Half Marathon and were the the fourth race in the 2022 USATF National Masters Grand Prix.  A total of 181 athletes from 24 states competed in the championships.

Athletes and teams finishing in the top three earned recognition at the awards ceremony following the competition.

The headline story for the Adirondack athletes was the third place finish in the men’s 55-59 division by David Putney.  Putney's time of 1:20:05 scored 86.58% on the age-grading tables.  That was the best of all of the Adirondack athletes and the eighth best of the 124 men that competed.  He was just 5 seconds behind the division's runner-up John McMahon of Williamsville, NY (USATF Niagara).  The division winner was Nat Larson of Massachusetts who ran 1:16:31.  Larson had the top men's age-graded performance of 92.24%.

Age-grading provides a measure of who had the best performance, adjusting for age, with 100% being equivalent to a World’s Best performance for that athlete’s age and sex.  Scores of 90% and over are considered world-class performances and scores in the 80-89% range are considered national-class performances.

In addition to Putney, Josh Merlis, 40, (ARE Racing Team) of Albany also scored over 80% as he stopped the clock at 1:14:59.  He finished eighth in the men's 40-44 division.  

The top Adirondack performance in the women's competition was turned in by Catherine Herne, 48, of New Palz.  She ran 1:40:10 to score 72.42%. 

The Willow Street AC finished fourth in the men's 40+ division with a cumulative team time of 4:04:46.  They were just 2 seconds shy of third place (Checkers AC) and an invitation to be recognized at the awards ceremony. The scoring athletes for the team were Joseph Sullivan (1:16:54), Jake Stookey (1:23:21), and Andrew Reed (1:24:31).

UPCOMING USATF MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE

• 2022 USATF Masters 10 Mile Championships 
  • ​Sacramento, CA  
  • April 3, 2022 
• 2022 USATF Masters 10 km Championships 
  • ​Dedham, MA 
  • April 24, 2022 
• 2022 USATF Masters 1 Mile Championships 
  • ​Rochester, NY  
  • May 21, 2022 
• 2022 USATF Masters 12 km Championships 
  • Highlands, NJ 
  • September 18, 2022 
• 2022 USATF Masters 5 km Cross Country Championships 
  • ​Boulder, CO
  • October 22, 2022 
• 2022 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships 
  • San Francisco, CA
  • December 10, 2022