Millennium Ladies Repeat As USATF-NE Grand Prix Champs

Monday, September 21, 2015

Millennium Running Women’s Team Comes From Behind To Repeat As USATF-NE Grand Prix Champions

Winning championships is hard.   Repeating as champions is even harder.    

On Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the Lone Gull 10k in Gloucester, MA the Millennium Running Women’s Team came from behind in the club standings to win their second consecutive USA Track & Field New England Grand Prix Series Championship.

The Millennium Running team made a big splash by winning the 2014 USATF-New England Grand Prix in their inaugural season as an official USATF club.  In doing so, the team became the first New Hampshire based running club to win the Grand Prix since the series was started in 1986.

Heading into the 7th and final race of the 2015 Grand Prix on Sunday morning in Gloucester, MA, the Millennium women trailed the Whirlaway Racing Team (Methuen, MA) by 2 points (64-62).  Based on the USATF-NE GP scoring, this deficit meant the Millennium ladies not only had to beat Whirlaway head-to-head, but had to have 1 other team finish between the two clubs in order to tie and 2 other clubs between them to secure a Grand Prix Series victory.

On Sunday at the Lone Gull 10k, the Millennium women were led by US Olympic Trials marathon qualifier, Laura Hagley (Hanover, NH) who finished as the 2nd place overall female with a time of 36 minutes and 2 seconds.   The scoring 5 of Hagley, Lorna Young (Lebanon, NH), Christine Shaw (Manchester, NH), Mary Klene (Manchester, NH) and Haley Lydstone (Manchester, NH) finished in first place overall as a team, earning 17 points, and had an impressive cumulative time of over 2-1/2 minute faster than Whirlaway.   The time differential allowed both Craft Concept (Somerville, MA) and the the famed Greater Boston Track Club to slide in for 2nd and 3rd place (earning 16 and 15 points, respectively), while Whirlaway finished in 4th place earning 15 points.  Results

Tallying up the points from all 7 of the Grand Prix events, Millennium Running successfully defended their 2014 title with a a slim 1-point victory in the final 2015 USATF-NE Grand Prix Standings:

1. Millennium Running (79 points)
2. Whirlaway Racing Team (78 points)
3. Greater Boston Track Club (73 points)
4. Craft Concept (67 points)
5. Boston Athletic Association (64 points)
6. Western Mass Distance Project (62 points)

“A come-from-behind team victory in the last race was an exciting way to end the season,”   said Jennifer Mortimer (Bedford, NH), the club manager and team captain.   “However, it is only possible because of a complete team effort we had at the other 6 races during the year.  Taryn Sleger, Emily Cousens, Denise Sandahl, Abbey Wood, Tammie Robie, and Deb Slason all played a huge role to earn every point – and it took every point to win!”

For more information, please send an email to contact@millenniumrunning.com

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About The Author

John Mortimer

John Mortimer is the owner and founder of Millennium Running. His extensive running background began in Londonderry, NH where he was a 12-time NH high school state champion. His running career took him to the University of Michigan where he became a 7-time NCAA All American and was honored as a member of the U of M Hall of Fame. John ran professional runner for Adidas and Reebok, and represented the United States on two occasions as member of Team USA. Before moving back to his home state of New Hampshire to start Millennium Running, John spent 10 years as a college coach at Harvard, Boston College and the University of Kentucky. He currently lives in Bedford, NH with his wife Jennifer and two sons, Jack and Liam.