Five Team USA Minnesota distance runners will be among the competitors at the USA 15K Championships in Jacksonville on Saturday. 2010 USA 15K champion Katie McGregor, Emily Brown, Meghan Peyton, Antonio Vega, and Matt Llano will compete in the event held in conjunction with the 35th annual Gate River Run.The race features a prize purse of $60,000 in individual money plus an “equalizer bonus” of $5,000. The top women start 7 minutes ahead of the rest of the field and the first person, female or male, to cross the finish line receives the bonus.
The largest 15K race in the country, the Gate River Run has been the site of the USA 15K Championships for 19 years and is part of the USA Running Circuit.
McGregor has a personal best in the 15K of 49:51. Along with her title in 2010, the University of Michigan grad was runner-up in both 2008 and 2009, and finished in sixth place last year. Most recently, McGregor was 11th at the U.S. Olympic Women’s Marathon Trials in January.
Brown has run 50:06 for 15K and placed third at the USA 15K in 2009, while Peyton has posted 51:18 for the distance and was fifth at Gate River in 2011.
On the men’s side, Vega has run 43:55 at the 15K Championships and finished third in 2010. While he was still at the University of Richmond in 2011, Llano ran 45:12 at the 15K.
The race also features a men’s and women’s team competition known as the TenBroeck Team Cup, which has a $20,000 purse for the top three overall female and male teams composed of three runners each.
Team USA Minnesota’s women’s team won in 2009 and 2011 and runer-up in 2010 and will be in contention this year for the win once again. The men’s team won in 2009 and was second in 2010.
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