Clelan, McCubbin Dominate Dancer Dash

      Rick Clelan of Frederick and Tina McCubbin celebrated

Christmas early by handily winning the Dancer Dash 10K on

December 15 and getting first grabs at the goody bag provided

by Bob and Shirley Leatherman.

      Running to the front immediately on a cool but sunny

day, Clelan, who long ago ran for Penn State, reached the

one mile mark in 5:50, a half-minute ahead of Gary St. Onge,

who seems to have recovered from his participation in last

month's JFK 50 Miler.  Trailing St. Onge by twenty seconds

at that point were Matt Masemore, Lee Myers, and Jim Beacham. 

      By the two mile mark Clelan's lead was forty-five seconds,

with St. Onge another forty-five seconds ahead of Masemore and

Myers.  On the return portion of the rolling out-and-back course,

Clelan expanded his lead to a minute and a half with two miles

to go, eventually winning by nearly two minutes.  St. Onge

finished second as the first masters runner, two and a half minutes

ahead of Masemore, who separated himself from Myers after the

turnaround.  Joe Loveland, who qualified for the Boston Marathon

on the basis of his performance at the North Central Trail

Marathon two weeks ago, finished strongly to capture fifth.

      McCubbin not only won the women's division by over three

minutes but ran third overall, in a field of twenty-three, for most

of the race, with splits of 6:40 at one mile, 13:40 at two miles,

and 29:40 with two miles to go.  Kathy Michelson from Frederick

ran a solid second the whole race, finishing eighth overall.  Sonia

Wimert, Beth Weisenborn, and Michele Calahan also finished in the

top five.

      Loan lady Mindy Bacon finished sixth as the first masters runner,

and Chris Reese used her famed sprint speed to finish ninth as the

first senior runner.

      The next race will be the Winfield Mile, to be held at 12:00 noon

on Wednesday, January 1.  Race director Alan Pobletts, 410-549-1873,

is planning a post-Christmas attack on a local Wal-Mart for prizes.

Registration and parking will be at South Carroll High School.  Since

the race is point-to-point, running to the starting line is a good 

warm-up.

Leaving from the high school more than five minutes before noon is a

good idea.