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Winfield Mile, 1 January 2008.
Cretella, Stick Begin New Year With Wins at Winfield.

Victor Cretella moved from sixth last year to first this year, and Sherry Stick won for the eighth year in a row, as the WRRC year started with the Winfield Mile.

On a bright, sunny, and very windy day the field assembled at the end of Old Liberty Road in beautiful downtown Winfield. With four runners rolling out of the Honda Civic serving as a taxi for late arrivals, the starting field included sixty-two runners, one stroller, and four medium to large, furry, and very friendly dogs.

After race director Alan Pobletts was presented with his age group medal from the Labor Day 5K--a medal presentation almost four months after the race was held because the winners at the September race were announced late, and Alan doesn't do late very well--the runners were sent on their way down the hill, past the fire hall, and back to their cars at the South Carroll parking lot.

As the runners came into sight, Cretella and Taylor Smith, a junior at Liberty High School, were seen straining to finish ahead of each other. Cretella's finishing surge gained him the victory, five places and ten seconds better than last year. Finishing in a clump were Century High sophomore Trevor Etheridge, Adam Leathers, and Noah Wood, who finished about twenty seconds behind Smith.

John Way finished seventh overall as the first masters runner, with Eric Gyaki, who drives up every year from the Annapolis area to run this race, finishing as the top fifties runner, and Jack Klein finishing as the top sixties runner. Six year old Jordan Ryan finished at the top of the ten and under group, an improvement from his third place finish last year. Jordan was helped this year by a faster time and the fact that the two ten year old runners who finished ahead of him in this age group last year aren't in the ten and under age group this year.

As she has ever year since 2001, Sherry Stick started fast and finished strong to capture the female division. While she missed setting a female record by only a few seconds, the time it takes to manufacture a sneeze, she finished third overall, her best finish ever. Becky Rhodes captured second, eighth overall, with Century freshman Maura Linde, who finished second in the class IIA state cross-country meet in November, grabbing third, tenth overall. Katie and Rachel Griffith, Liberty High School graduates who are currently sophomores on the McDaniel College indoor track team, finished fourth and fifth.

Amy Morrow Funk finished as the sixth female and first masters runner, while Dee Nelson finished as the first sixty and over runner of either sex, and Chris Reese edged "rookie" Liuda Galinaitis in the fifties category. Brianna Chop finished first in the ten and under category.

While the number of strollers/baby joggers was reduced this year, the number of dogs, four, set a new record. Three of them were attached to Jon Hill, who finished fourteenth in a time of 6:29. Interestingly while he/they finished seven places higher than last year, when his group contained only two dogs, the time was eleven seconds slower. Any explanation for such results can not use wind as a reason, since it was a tail wind this year.