Kostarellis, Coppi, Berube top-10; Boyce wins masters title at USATF Mountain Running Championships

NIAGARA RESULTS SCOREBOARD

The 2022 USATF Mountain Running Championships were held on Saturday (02-Jul) at Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, NY; 300 miles north of New York City.  Whiteface Mountain was the site of the Alpine Skiing events at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Games and is the and is home to the biggest vertical drop (3000 feet) of any ski area in the Northeast U.S.  The race distance was 6.4 miles with the course ascending over 3000 feet in just 2.8 miles and then descending the mountain over the final 3.6 miles; including two 250 foot climbs. 

The race served as the qualifying event for the 2022 World Mountain and Running Championships in Chiang Mai,Thailand November 6.  The top three finishers earned automatic Team USA spots for the world championships.

Twelve (12) athletes from USATF Niagara were among the 79 competitors in the USATF championships.  
 
In the men's race six (6) Niagara athletes finished in the top-20 and EJ Boyce won a national masters title.
 
Leading the locals across the line was Mason Coppi, 24, in fourth place.  He stopped the clock at 1:14:18 and is the first alternate for the world championships should one of the top three elect not to compete in Thailand.
Also nabbing a top-10 finish was Lee Berube, 31, (Syracuse, Syracuse TC) in seventh place in a time of 1:17:56. Berube's Syracuse TC teammates AJ Beers, 25, of Manlius and Jared Burdick, 26, of Fayetteville, finished 11th and 15th, respectively; running 1:20:56 and 1:25:08.

Bergen Elite teammates EJ Boyce, 41, of Dansville and Adam Pacheck, 30, of Syracuse finished 17th and 20th, respectively running 1:28:13 and 1:29:39. Boyce's performance topped all of the other masters 40-44 division athletes and earned him his first USATF national title. In the masters 45-49 division Gregg Piechota, 45, of Allegany placed third running 2:04:58.
 
In the women's competition, Annamaria Kostarellis, 22, (Rochester; Bergen Elite), a recent graduate of the University of New Mexico, nabbed a top-10 finish as she placed ninth in a time of 1:44:37.  Emily Lane, 23, finished 20th running 2:07:54.

The complete Niagara results scoreboard can be found here.