Shay race features top runners

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Shay race features top runners

Shay race features top runners
Five runners finish blazing-fast mile in less than four minutes
By Chris Fiel
CHARLEVOIX – With the third running of the annual Ryan Shay Elite Mile on Saturday, the competition was expected to be fierce and it was. The runners making up the field more than delivered.
The event, which is run as a straight shot down Charlevoix’s Bridge Street as part of the Venetian Festival and held in honor of the late Central Lake and Notre Dame running star Ryan Shay, drew a huge crowd for the invitation-only event featuring some of the country’s top runners along with some top runners from Kenya.
Ohio State University six-time All-American Jeff See won the men’s division of the race as he finished in a lightning-fast race record time of 3:55.9, while former University of Michigan star Nicole Edwards won the female race in 4:34.9.
See, the first of five male finishers to break the four-minute mark, was followed by Liam Boylan-Pett of Columbia University in 3:56.4. Rob Novak, a Seton Hall graduate, was third in 3:56.5.
Kenya’s Richard Kandie was fourth in 3:57.9; while Felix Kiboiywo, an Auburn graduate, was fifth in 3:59.7. Boylan-Pett is a Bath High School alumnus.
Edwards, a former All-American at the University of Michigan who now runs for Saucony, not only had to worry about her competitors near the finish of Saturday’s race, but the pace cart as well. With about 300 meters to the finish, Edwards had to elude the cart when it suddenly veered to the left and into the path of the lead runner.
Nikeya Green of Wake Forest and a U.S. National qualifier in the 800 was second in 4:37.3; while Delilah Dicrescenzo, a Columbia University graduate, was third in 4:37.6.
Saturday’s race was a fitting memorial for Shay, who was one of the top distance runners in the world when he tragically died during an Olympics marathon time trail in New York City in 2007.
Shay, who graduated from Central Lake in 1997 after winning four consecutive Class D state cross country titles, was a nine-time All-American at Notre Dame and the first runner from Notre Dame to win an individual NCAA title.