After two years of construction, the Klingle Valley Trail opened Saturday. The roughly .7-mile trail runs beneath Connecticut Avenue NW, between Courtland Street NW and ending at the bottom of Porter Street NW in Rock Creek Park. WAMU tells the 27-year story of the trail’s transformation from a water-damaged road.
Theodore Roosevelt Island will be closed for three weeks, until mid-July at least, while horticulturists examine the damage caused by the invasive Emerald Ash Borer.
Walter Johnson senior Abbey Green finished third in the 3,000 meter run at the USATF Junior Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, running 10:05.16. She’ll compete at the Pan American Junior Championships July 21 – 23 in Trujillo, Peru.
Chantilly graduate Brandon McGorty and Patriot graduate Rachel McArthur were both named Gatorade Player of the Year for outdoor track. They were the only local track athletes who compete in distance events to earn this honor. A week prior, they were featured on the podcast Pace the Nation.
• Lake Braddock won the girls distance medley relay at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. over the weekend. The team of Shannon Browning (3:35 for 1200 meters), Skyla Davidson (0:58 for 400 meters), Samantha Schwers (2:11 for 800 meters) and Kate Murphy (5:03 for 1600 meters) totaled 11:49.62 to win by more than seven seconds. They led a crew of D.C. area runners who totaled four top-three finishes in distance championships.
Boys
Two Mile
3.Ryan Lockett – Poolesville 9:21.79
Distance Medley Relay
3. Lake Braddock 10:20.53
4 x 1 mile relay
Loudoun Valley 17:42.03
• A number of running clubs are holding a sunset run for refugees Tuesday – World Refugee Day – starting at 7:30 p.m. at Penn Social. A roughly-5k loop will head to the Lincoln Memorial for a ~8:40 vigil. Find out more here
• Dyestat recounts 2015 Foot Locker Cross Country champion Wieni Kelati‘s year away from competitive running, during which she pursued her diploma at Heritage High School in Leesburg.
• The final tally by road racing trade group Running USA found that four D.C.-area races ranked among the 50 largest domestic road races in 2016:
12. Army Ten-Miler 24,008
24. Marine Corps Marathon 19,690
31. Cherry Blossom Ten Mile 16,009
33. Rock ‘n’ Roll D.C. Half Marathon 14,498
• On Wednesday evening June 14, a motorist drove north on the Metropolitan Branch Trail.
The Swamp Trail on Roosevelt Island will be closed for roughly three months while the impact of the Emerald Ash Borer is studied.
The Tysons Corner Potomac River Running will close and move to 111 Maple Ave. in Vienna this summer.
American University track and cross country coach Matt Centrowitz will end his career as the Eagles coach Sept. 1. He plans to promote his book Like Father, Like Son and help coach said son, Matthew.
After serving nearly a year in an interim role, Julie Culley has been named director of track and field and cross country at Georgetown University.
In anticipation of losing access to the Georgetown Branch Trail because of Purple Line construction, the Parks Half Marathon course will change this year. The race will start on Redland Road, near the railroad overpass, enter Needwood Park at Mile 2.1 and run the remainder of the race in the park, finishing on Beach Drive near Grosvenor Lane.
Six local runners qualified for the NCAA Division I track and field championships this weekend at the University of Oregon:
- Emma Keenan – Georgetown – 800 meters
- Joe White – Georgetown – 800 meters
- Jon Green – Georgetown – 10,000 meters
- Katy Kunc – Kentucky (Lake Braddock) – 3,000 meter steeplechase
- Scott Carpenter – Georgetown – 3,000 meter steeplechase
- Darren Fahy – Georgetown – 3,000 meter steeplechase
Several local runners won distance events at the Maryland track and field championships May 26-27:
3A
- Girls 3200m: Nandini Satsangi – Poolesville 11:07.01
- Girls 4x800m: Damascus – Samantha Kameka, Juliana Ancalmo, Alexis Whitehorn-Coriz, Heather Delaplaine 9:31.05
- Boys 1600m: Ryan Lockett – Poolesville, 4:23.70
- Boys 3200m: Lockett, 9:24.62, Andrew Lent – Poolesville 9:26:25
4A
- Girls 800m: Morgan Casey – Montgomery Blair 2:16.22
- Girls 3200m: Abigail Green – Walter Johnson 10:45.66
- Boys 3200m: Rohann Asfaw – Richard Montgomery 9:24.26
- Boys 4x800m: Northwest – Ngoy Jeriel Yamitshi, Elton Quansah, Jose Infante-Rosale, Chase Osborne 8:01.64
