Saturday, June 14, 2003 -- Eastpointe - Clarksburg, WV
WVIHF 5K (CARS #5) (iPO Event Id#: 5536)
Story and photos by EJ Linger

[Details] [Coverage]
[Overall Results] [Results by Class]
Pictures: [Set 1] [Set 2] [Set 3] [Set 4] [Set 5] [Set 6] [Set 7]
More Pics available at SamSantilliPhotography.com
Past Race Coverage: [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002]

WOW! What a race!

The start of a record setting race

On a hot and humid Saturday morning, both the men and women's records were broken at the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival (WVIHF) 5K race, the fifth race in the Clarksburg Area Race Series. Once again the Italian Heritage 5K is the WV USATF State Championship for West Virginia runners.

The WVIHF 5K race took place at Eastpointe in Clarksburg, West Virginia. This was a great race to run a fast time since the course was relatively flat for the first two miles with the third mile going downhill to the finish at Burger King in the shopping plaza. The race course was completely closed to traffic which made it safe for the 260 runners that came out.

A course with a fast finish

For the men's race, Zack Sabitino from Charleston broke the course record of 15:45 set last year by Jed Christianson with a time of 15:06. Coming in second place was Tyler Devault from Fairmont with a time of 15:58. And finishing in third place was Ron Weist of Clarksburg with a time of 16:27.

Zack and Tyler both ran for West Virginia University Cross Country and Track Teams. Unfortunately, WVU will not have these teams in the future. They both had great seasons at WVU this year. Zack ran 8:55 and Tyler ran 8:57 in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. They were ranked as some of the best freshman in the country this year for that event. Great job guys!!

Elbowing for camera time at the WVIHF 5K

As for the women's race, Heather Bury once again defended her state title with a record breaking time of 16:57. It eclipsed her previous course record of 17:31, set in 2000. Finishing fifth overall in the race is also very impressive.

Coming into second place was Karen Lockhart>-Gould with a time of 18:21. She, also, had another impressive finish coming in 11th place overall out of 260 runners. Rounding out the top three was Ashley Wilson of Bridgeport with a time of 20:05.

Special thanks to the race director Larry Cann and all the volunteers who helped with this GREAT RACE!!!