Runners hit the trails at the ‘Cliffs’

The second annual Twisted Crawdad Trails Run at “The Cliffs” east of Chadron Saturday had three races for participants to enter, with the half marathon (13.1 miles) being won in the women’s division by CSC student Dani Buckley, 23, senior of Palmer, Alaska.

Buckley finished with a time of 2:03:07, less than six minutes behind the male leader, Nicolas Wright of Chadron. The half marathon had 25 runners, the 10k had nine, and the 5k had 36 runners, for a total of 70 runners. In the 5k, Brock Thumm of Watervielt, Michigan, finished with a time of 23:50 for the men, and Cheryl Abbeglen of Chadron finished with a time of 40:59 for the women. Bryan Feller of Gordon finished the 10k with a time of 49:27 for the men, and Hallie Cox of Rushville led the women in the 10k with a time of 1:21:29.

Originally, the event was to take place Saturday and Sunday, but due to the lack of participants for the bike trail ride on Sunday, only three races took place Saturday. The 50 mile race on Saturday was cancelled for the same reason. Due to the rain Wednesday, Sept. 10, the events had a late start Saturday and did not begin until 1 p.m.

Donna Ritzen, race coordinator, said that as a result of the rain delay four participants were unable to run.

“We plan on moving it to Sunday next year,” Ritzen said. “Last year, there were more participants on Sunday than there were on Saturday this year.”

The CSC Wrestling team volunteered to help with the races as well as participate in the run Saturday.