USATF Mountain Circuit
Vermont's Morse & West Lead the Way

June 12, 2000
Dave Dunham 

Most of the 35 athletes who completed all three races in the USATF New England Mountain Running Circuit.   Photo: Dave Dunham

The fifth annual mountain circuit wrapped up yesterday as 137 runners muscled there way from Wilton NH to the summit of Pack Monadnock.  Eric Morse of Berlin VT continued his streak of mountain wins with an impressive run at Pack.  Eric tallied a perfect score of 300 points in the 3-race circuit.    Point totals are winner's time divided by your time to give a percentage, as such Morse merely needed to stay within sight of the other competitors in the circuit to maintain his lead. Morse showed his versatility by racing up Pack the day after placing 5th at the USATF NE 10k road championships.   This was Morse’s third USATF NE mountain circuit overall win, he previously took top honors in 1997 and 1999.  CMS teammate Dave Dunham also doubled back (3rd at the 10k) to take second at Pack and maintain his second place standing in the circuit.   Fergus Cullen kept his 3rd place spot in the overall standings with a gutsy performance, leading Pack for 8.5 miles before being reeled in.  Cullen still managed to run a 2-minute personal best.  In the 40+ age group, which had the largest number of competitors doing the three races (10) was won by Richard Stockdale of the Gate City striders with a 5 point victory over Bob Mulvaney.  Jack Donahue took the 50+ group over the Greater Lowell road runners Walt Kuklinski.  The 60+ was taken by John Pelton of the Western Massachusetts AC with an impressive 23 point victory over the Greater Derry TC’s Eldon Burkinshaw. On the women’s side, Suzy West of Putney VT won the circuit in commanding fashion with a seven-minute victory at Pack.  Gail Breslow of the Cambridge Sports Union took the 40+ win by one tenth of a point over the Gate City Striders Pamela Hall.  In the 50+ Heidy McGaffigan won in impressive fashion.  The 60+ division went uncontested. Thirty-five runners completed the three-race circuit thus earning mountain goat distinction and one of a kind T-shirts courtesy of Saucony. Thanks to USATF NE, Steve Vaitones, the directors of each of the races, Saucony, everyone who came out and ran, and all the people who helped out or gave constructive criticism.  Next year the circuit will feature a New England championship at Windblown Ski area!

Here are the point leaders and appearance leaders for the USATF NE Mountain circuit from 1996 - 2000
For the last 5 competitive years (96 to 2000), Roger Gosselin has competed in the most events.  The rest of the list follows: