The two most talented young runners from Williamsburg, Jamestown High grad Caroline Bauer and Lafayette High grad Derek Holdsworth, are rarely seen actually running or racing these days in the Williamsburg area.
Last week’s running column featured 2022 Jamestown grad Bauer, after she easily won the women’s division of the July 4 Yorktown Independence Day 8K. Despite running just a “workout,” Bauer, after completing her freshman year at the University of Florida, ran an impressive time of 29:37 for the 4.97-mile distance, the only sub-30:00 road time for 8K this year by women from Hampton Roads. Several (Bethany Spector and Sabrina Little) have been in the low 30s, but Bauer is the only one below that benchmark.
The other talented runner, Holdsworth, was seen not in person, but on TV, competing in the finals of the 800 meters at the USATF National Track and Field Championships July 6-9 in Eugene, Ore. The top three finishers in each event qualified for the World Track and Field Championships, scheduled for Aug. 19-27 in Budapest, Hungary.
The 800 meters had three rounds. The heats were on Thursday. Holdsworth emailed, “I wouldn’t say I was nervous because I had been there before and was confident I could make it out of each round.” He was in a heat with 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy and 2022 NCAA indoor champion Brandon Miller, but made it through as an automatic qualifier (top three in each heat) with a season best time of 1:46.74. The semifinals were on Friday. Holdsworth emailed, “The race went out uncharacteristically slow and I was in last until 600 meters, still time to move up but it was now or never. I confidently moved out wide and passed 3 athletes, outleaning one at the line.” But he was fourth in 1:47.53, and emailed, “I was immediately frustrated realizing I wouldn’t be a time qualifier or an automatic qualifier.” But heat winner Wes Ferguson was disqualified for running outside of his lane twice at the start, so Holdsworth made the final after all. The final was on Sunday, and he went through 400 meters in 52 seconds, but was sixth in the eight-runner final in 1:47.61.
Holdsworth ran a half dozen tune-up 800-meter races this spring, with a best of 1:46.96 at the Oregon Nike outdoor nationals, good for second place. His lifetime PR is 1:45.37 from 2022. He plans at least two more summer track races, July 22 and Aug. 4. He emailed, “I did make the Team USA pool so I might have some meets in other countries as long as my passport issue is resolved and I am selected.” His 400-meter PR is still the 48.30 he ran at Lafayette, although he did have a 46.7 relay split.
Holdsworth works with agent Chris Layne of Total Sports. “Total Sports helps enter me in meets and is searching for an ideal situation for me to gain sponsorship. I currently run for Bell Lap Elite but it is not a shoe contract deal. I think I could run around 1:43.75 if everything goes according to plan and I run the perfect race. I’d love to consistently run under 1:45 on any given day.”
Holdsworth currently lives and trains in Seattle, but is planning on grad school online for sports management this fall at Texas A&M University. Holdsworth texted “Thank you to everyone who has supported me. Also a special thanks to my coach Mike Johnson.”
A journalistic disclaimer here. After the Peninsula Track Club’s Riverwatch on the Piankatank 5K last November, I participated in a 50-50 lottery where the final two (of 250 total to start) shared $5,000 in cash winnings. I had promised in the remote chance that I won, to donate half that amount to Holdsworth’s training and racing expenses (as he did not have a shoe contract), and the other half to a family with high medical expenses due to a premature daughter. I was thrilled to win, and donated $1,250 to Holdsworth.
Also last weekend was the final race in the three-race Trailzilla series, starting with two Tuesday evenings (June 6 and June 20) at Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton. The finale, the JoeZilla 5 Miler, held last Saturday morning, is in memory of long-time PTC president Joe Harney, the most beloved member ever of the PTC. The last PTC race Harney attended was the Trailzilla 5 Miler in July 2017, shortly before his death of congestive heart failure at age 79. Harney would have turned 85 on July 10. He was PTC president from 2003 to 2017.
Saturday’s race was on a revised course (downed trees on the original course forced the change) with three varying loops, each of which included a brutal section in the hot sun around the park’s lake. There were 73 finishers for the PTC Grand Prix event. The top three for the men were Jim Highsmith, 40, of Newport News (34:04), Jared Orgeron, 40, of Yorktown (36:00) and Kevin Klapproth, 19, of Carrollton (36:03). For the women, the top three were Katie Proffitt, 25, of Bellefonte, Pa. (37:45), Megan Schulze, 40, of Newport News (39:51) and Crystal Witte, 38, of Yorktown (40:28).
For the Trailzilla series, points were tallied for the first two races, preceding the finale, with low score best. For the men, the top four who ran both races were Warwick High runners Nate Cochran, 15, and Benjamin Perry, 16, of Newport News, followed by Steve Menzies, 59, of Williamsburg, and Ken Alberg, 62, of Suffolk. Based on that, it was expected that Cochran would win the men’s overall title, Menzies would win the age 40+ title, and Alberg would win the 50+ title. But as seems to happen every year, some of the expected series winners were not able to make the final race, and neither Cochran, Menzies or Alberg were at JoeZilla, so the series awards were wide open.
Perry went out fast but succumbed to the sun, heat and humidity, and ended up a subpar 15th overall (42:21) with an 8:32 mile pace, after averaging 5:58 per mile the first race (3.0 miles) and 6:29 per mile the second race (3.8 miles). Nevertheless he had built up enough of a points lead to beat Dex Moore, 36, of Norfolk who was fifth overall at Trailzilla (37:14).
In the absence of Menzies and Alberg, Douglas Marshall, 49, of Mathews edged Chris Laws, 47, of Yorktown for the 40+ series title. Laws was faster at JoeZilla (37:52 to 38:04), but Marshall had won the first two races. Similarly, without Menzies and Alberg, Walt Bruce, 61, of Yorktown won the 50+ title, running 44:44 at JoeZilla, and Eric Wiebke, 66, of Hampton won the 60+ title, running 48:23 at JoeZilla. Similar to Marshall beating Laws for the 40+ honors, Rick Platt, 72, of Williamsburg beat Ronald Kellum, 79, of Hampton at JoeZilla, but Kellum had won the first two races, so therefore won the 70+ series award.
The women’s Trailzilla series awards were much simpler. Megan Schulze won the first two races, and was second to Proffitt at JoeZilla, but Proffitt only ran the finale, so Schulze easily won the series award. She had also won the Trailzilla series in 2021. The women’s 40+ title went to Jaime Lawson, 41, of Hampton, and the 50+ title went to Jeanne Fiocca, 51, of Yorktown. There were no women who ran all three races in either the 60+ or 70+ categories, so those two series glass awards went to Imogene Leone, 8, of Newport News (women 19-and-under) and her mother Sarah Leone, 38, of Newport News (women 20-39).
The race walk series award winners were Rick Webb, 65, of Yorktown and Gilda Cortez, 67, of Yorktown.
Schulze started out in third, passed one woman after a half mile, then caught and briefly passed Proffitt around the one mile mark. Schulze texted, “She was chatting casually to another guy and I was struggling to breathe in the heat and humidity, so I knew she would probably beat me. She just seemed more fit. I’ve been running this series for years. I used to always run it with my Dad, but he doesn’t run much anymore. It used to always be a family event where my Mom and my kids would come watch, so it’s always been a favorite of mine.”
Although Proffitt’s listed address was Bellefonte, Pa., she’s actually staying in Suffolk now as a travel physical therapist, doing outpatient rehab. She ran cross country and track in high school (Owen J. Roberts in Pottstown, Pa., with a 5:41 mile and 12:06 two mile), and in college (Slippery Rock University, 19:51 for 5K, 23:19 for 6K cross country and one 43:10 10K). While in Hampton Roads, she plans more PTC and Colonial Road Runners races. She ran her first marathon last December (3:21:12), qualifying for Boston, and plans to run the Philadelphia Half Marathon this November, with a goal of bettering her last half marathon time of 1:35.
Rick Platt is president of Colonial Road Runners.
