Repeat winners in Fourth race

by Tom Coombe

A very familiar face crossed the finish line first in Ely’s annual Independence Day race around the Trezona Trail.

Repeating victories in 2021 and 2022, Michael Schwinghamer was the overall winner at the Janet Gensler Memorial Four on the Fourth.

Schwinghamer, 23, completed the Tuesday morning race in 22:04.

The women’s race also was won by the defending champion.

Cailee Peterson, 23, was first among women and had a time of 25:26, about 10 seconds faster than her run a year ago.

The event doubles as a fundraiser for Ely’s high school track teams and attracted  208 participants, a big jump from the roughly 170 who took part in 2022.

Taking second place overall was Adrian Rausch, 15, in 23:34.

Rounding out the top-10 male finishers were:

• Christian Murray 29, 23:46;

• Hudson Kingston, 39, 24:31;

• Sam Gausman, 19, 24:35;

• Izaak Nosbisch, 24, 25:41;

• Trenton Monson, 30, 26:07;

• Chad Fuenffinger, 43, 26:31;

• Eli Olson, 16, 27:17;

• Carter Gunnarson, 15, 27:3.

Behind Peterson, the remaining top-10 women were:

• Sadie Saxton, 24, 27:36;

• Shelby Suhr, 21, 28:51;

• Becky Przybilla, 40, 30:42;

• Brittany Swarts, 39, 30:40;

• Mattie Lindsay, 13, 31:06;

• Teresa Saxton, 59, 31:40

• Sarah Harris, 44, 31:43;

• Kelsey Farkas, 24, 31:52;

• Nancy Miller-Levin, 59, 32:05.

In the kids’ one-mile race, Payson Larson won in  8:39, with James Townsend (9:01) and Owen Huotari (9:03) second and third, respectively among the boys.

The first girl to cross the finish line in the mile event was Elizabeth Langowski with a time of 9:27.  In second was Jocelyn Larson (10:04) while Emily Dunn (10:13) placed third.

The event is named after the late Janet Gensler, who was instrumental in starting the race several years ago.