BALLWIN, MO. – Rain earlier in the morning made for a soft and sometimes sloppy course at Castlewood State Park for the second race of the 2015 Spring Trail Run Series Presented by Columbia Sportswear. You wouldn’t know that judging by the performance Kwin Keuter put on.
Nearly 200 participants took to the 3.5 mile course with much more of a spring feel this week as temperatures stood in the mid 70s at the gun. The course reversed the descent from last week’s race and climbed to the top of the Mountain Ridge Connector instead of descending it. Once the runners joined the Grotpeter Trail at Reis Road, that was the last of the trail changes. They followed the roughly two miles remaining back down to the valley, across Kiefer Creek and to the finish line.
27-year-old Kwin Keuter beat the field by nearly two minutes with a final time of 21:08 for his first career win on the Off-Road Racing League circuit. Last week’s winner, Jack Wilkinson, 32, came in second at 23:04 followed by Roger Moore, 42, 20 seconds behind. Wilkinson, Moore and the fourth place finisher, Tyler Blazey, were the 1-2-3 placers last week. In the men’s masters (50 and over), Steven Worley, 54, moved from third last week to first this week in a time of 24:24, followed by last week’s winner Eric Buckley, 52, just eight seconds later and Darryl Holman, 54, just eight seconds after that came in third after a second place finish last week.
On the women’s side, Claire Beckmeyer, 31, added her second win of the series with a time of 24:56, missing out on a top 10 finish for the second straight week by just 16 seconds. Katie O’Brien, 25, and Jennifer Doyle, 34 took home second and third place, respectively in the women’s bracket for the second straight week. In the women’s masters (50 and over) Laura Williams, 54, took her first win of the year just two seconds ahead of last week’s second place runner, Cheryl Laux, 50 (34:16 & 34:18). Last week’s winner, Karen Spreitler followed in 34:59 for third.
The next race will be next Thursday, May 21. Advance Registration is still open for individual registrations for that race until Monday, May 18 at midnight. We hope to see you there! Course reveal will happen on Monday afternoon, May 18 around 2 pm right here at offroadracingleague.com.
Overall results can be found here. (Unofficial.)
Age Group results can be found here. (Unofficial.)
Race photo album can be found here.