Open Athletes Qualifying Process

Open Athletes qualify for the team by competing at the Team Qualifying Races (In 2012 there are two one qualifying races, one for men, one for women).   The team will then head to Ponte di Legno, Italy to compete in the 28th Annual World Mountain Running Championships on September 2nd.

Team manager Nancy Hobbs, Colorado Springs, CO, team leader Richard Bolt, San Jose, CA, team manager for the juniors Paul Kirsch, Madison, NH, and women’s team manager Ellen Miller, Vail, CO will accompany the team to Italy.

Men’s Qualifying Race – Mount Washington Road Race

The men will qualify on Saturday June 16th at the Mount Washington Road Race, which serves as the 2012 USA Mountain Running Championships.  The top 6 Men who are USATF Members and US Citizens will qualify for the 2012 Mountain Running Team.   Mount Washington requires you to contact them before March 15th to bypass the lottery as an elite athlete.  Visit the contact page at the race website to learn more.

Women’s Qualifying Race – The Loon Mountain Race

The women will qualify on Sunday July 8th at the Loon Mountain Race in Lincoln, NH.  The top 4 women who are USATF Members and US Citizens will qualify for the 2012 Mountain Running Team.  Please visit the race website to learn more about this race.  The Loon race was founded in 2006 by Paul Kirsch, Dave Dunham and Richard Bolt, who were looking to design a European-style course for a mountain team qualifier.  It served as one of the qualifiers for the men in 2006.  The race is now entering it’s 8th year and is organized by Acidotic Racing, who took over the race from the White Mountain Milers this year.

Junior Mountain Team Qualifying Information

Junior team members should see the bottom of this page for complete info on how to qualify.  They are not required to compete at the Qualifier races although it is encouraged to help provide them with mountain running experience. To learn more about qualifying for the 2012 Junior Team, please contact Junior Team Manager Paul Kirsch at pkirsch2 at gmail.com. Deadline for submitting resumes is end of June.

The junior men’s team includes a maximum of four runners with the top three scoring. The junior women’s team is comprised of a maximum of three runners with the top two scoring. Junior team members are not required to compete at the Qualifier races although it is encouraged to help provide them with mountain running experience.

Junior runners should submit a running “resume” including personal bests and noteworthy performances. Junior men should have a 16:45 or better 5 km road or XC time and Junior women should have a time of 19:30 or better. Equivalent times from alternate race distances will be considered. In addition Junior’s must supply a letter of recommendation from a parent/guardian or coach. All runners must be current USATF members and US Citizens.

Age Requirements Junior athletes must be between the ages of 15 and 19 on December 31, 2012 to be eligible.

Learn more about the team

If you are an athlete who would like to learn more about the team, please contact one of the Team Representatives.

If you would like more information on hosting a future Mountain Team Qualifying Race, please contact the USATF MUT Championships Chair, Paul Kirsch.

Contact information:

Nancy Hobbs:  trlrunner at aol.com

Richard Bolt: richardabolt at gmail.com

Ellen Miller:  alpineellen at hotmail.com

Paul Kirsch:  pkirsch2 at gmail.com

USATF Mountain Runners of the Year – Open and Masters

USATF Trail Runners of the Year – Open and Masters

USATF Ultra Runners of the Year – Open and Masters

USATF Mountain/Ultra/Trail Contributor of the Year

The Mountain/Ultra/Trail running (MUT) council of long distance running will select the 2011 USATF Mountain Runners of the year and Ultra Runners of the Year  based on nominations received from interested athletes, coaches, and administrators involved in the sport. The following is the selection criteria for the 2011 USATF Mountain and Ultra Runners of the Year:

1)      Nominated athlete must show top results in U.S. mountain/trail competitions for 2011 (November 1, 2010 through October 1, 2011) – this will include mountain races (these may be on paved/gravel surfaces as long as there is significant elevation loss or gain) and trail races of varying lengths below the ultra distance. USATF ultra runners of the year results on trail and ultra road courses above the marathon distance in both national and international competition.

2)      The nomination window includes the period: Nov 1, 2010 through Oct 1, 2011

3)      Show top results in international competitions for 2011

4)      Be an ambassador for the sport – athlete promotes and supports mountain running

5)      Be a USATF member for 2011 – athlete MUST have a current USATF membership

6)      To be considered for the masters category, athlete must be a minimum of 40 years of age.

To nominate an athlete, send BY October 25, 2011, the following information to trlrunner@aol.com and dave.dunham@comcast.net .

Nominated athlete’s name, age or birth date (if you know it), athlete contact information, brief bio, reason for nomination in 2011. Anyone and everyone is welcome to nominate an athlete (or in the case of COY – an individual, company, etc.). An athlete may also nominate himself/herself.

Nominations received by October 25 will be considered in the selection process. After all nominations are compiled, the MUT council will vote (by October 30) for the mountain runner and ultra runners of the year from nominations received. The USATF Mountain Ultra and Trail Runners of the Year will be announced at or before the annual convention in St Louis in December. Should you have any questions about the procedure, please contact: Dave Dunham at dave.dunham@comcast.net

We also will accept nominations for contributor of the year for mountain, ultra, trail. Past Contributor of the Year recipients have been: American Ultra Running Association, Teva, La Sportiva, North Texas Trail Runners, the Mad City 100 km, the White Mountain Milers, Scott McCoubrey, Paul Kirsch, and Bob and Anita Teschek.

Max on the Podium at the World Championships in Albania

For the second time in three weeks, a member of the 2011 US Mountain Running Team has the honor of being named USATF Athlete of the Week.  Two weeks ago it was Kasie Enman and this week, it was Max King after his incredible double win at the USATF 50km Trail Championships followed by the XTERRA Trail Championships the next day.

Read the whole USATF release here

At the XTERRA race, King bested a field of top national and international runners with a time of 1:17:59 on the 21km mountain course in Ogden, UT.

XTERRA Results

http://stevetaylor7.blogspot.com/2011/09/andrew-benford-selected-to-usa-team-for.html

Best of luck to Max this weekend from all of us here at usmrt.com! You can follow the 50km race right here on our twitter feed and Facebook page where Mountain Team Leader Richard Bolt will be providing live updates from the event.

You can check out the photos by clicking on the photo of Kasie Enman on the right:

Max King and Kasie Enman Crowned World Champions in Tirana, Albania

Tirana, Albania – September 11 – The USA set the bar at the 27^th World Mountain Running Championships held today, September 11, in Tirana, Albania, showcased by the gold-medal performances of Huntingdon, Vermont’s Kasie Enman and Bend, Oregon’s Max King.

“In my nine years as team leader, I’ve never been more proud of our athletes than I am today,” said Richard Bolt, “Kasie and Max’s performances blew me away. They made winning a World Championship look easy.”

“This is the first time I have represented the U.S. in a World Mountain Running Championship,” said Enman, “I’m very excited. I did not expect to win.”

With her victory Enman becomes the first senior woman from the U.S. to earn an individual gold medal. She led the senior women to a fourth place finish. Her time was 40:39 over the 8.59 kilometer course. She was followed by Megan Lund in 12^th place with a time of 43:56, Michele Suszek in 21^st place with a time of 44:48, and Brandy Erholtz in 26^th place with a time of 45:56.

“It’s an historic day for our women,” said women’s team manager Ellen Miller, “Kasie’s victory honors the past 17 years of U.S. women’s mountain running.”

For King, this was his second consecutive appearance at the World Mountain Running Championships, and he bettered last year’s 16^th place performance with a decisive victory today. “I’m tired, but I feel very good,” said King, “This is my first individual medal (last year’s senior men’s team took the silver), and I’m proud to have it in an up/down year especially in Albania.”

King’s gold medal becomes only the second gold for a U.S. male. Jay Johnson, owner of Fleet Feet Sports in Boulder, Colorado, previously won gold for Team USA in 1989 and since that time, Johnson has been an ardent supporter of Team USA.

About his gold medal performance King said, “It was a good course for me having both the hard technical uphill and the fast and somewhat technical downhill. I had no idea I was in the lead until I crossed the finish line. The Ugandan runner was 30 seconds ahead of me at the top of the third climb and I passed him with about 800 meters to go. I didn’t think that he was the one I was trying to catch, I thought it was a lapped runner.”

King led the men’s team to a fourth place finish with his time of 52:06 over the 12.7 kilometer course. He was followed by teammates Joseph Gray in eleventh place with a time of 55:33, Ryan Woods in 49^th place in 1:01:51, Matt Byrne in 51^st place in 1:01:58, Tommy Manning in 79^th place in 1:08:10, and Jared Scott in 96^th place in 1:20:21.

“It was strong team finish, but we were obviously disappointed that we didn’t finish in the medals,” said King.

Prior to the senior races, the junior men and women competed. In the junior men’s 8.59 kilometer race, University of Richmond sophomore Ryan Lee posted an impressive 11^th place finish. He was followed by fellow Spyder Billy Fayette in 28^th place and Oliver Bear Don’t Walk IV in 54^th place. The junior men finished tenth.

The junior women raced 4.49 kilometers. Krisztina Dearborn, a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University, finished in 24^th place followed by Johns Hopkins sophomore Lara Shegoski in 29^th place, and University of Richmond freshman Clare Moretz in 30^th place.

“I’m tremendously proud of the efforts of our junior athletes today,” said Paul Kirsch, manager of the junior team, “They raced against the best in the world and held their own. I’m grateful to their college coaches who realize the tremendous opportunity this gives a collegiate athlete to race on a world stage.”

To learn more about the U.S. Mountain Running Team, visit us at www.usmrt.com or www.usatf.org. Follow the team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/usatfmut, or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/usmrt. The official race website for the 2011 WMRC is /www.wmrc2011.al.

Front of TShirt

We’ve received such positive feedback from our team members on this year’s commemorative shirts that we also wanted to give supporters of our team a chance to buy them.  100% of the proceeds of the sale of these shirts will go to help fund the US Mountain Running Team.  Only $19.99 including shipping (free shipping included only in the US- contact Paul Kirsch about costs of shipping outside the USA).

To order a shirt, contact Junior Team Manager Paul Kirsch at pkirsch2@gmail.com and he’ll provide you with all of the ordering details.

Thanks to all of you for your support of Team USA!

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