There were no new record times, but a pair of familiar names were among top finishers in the 2024 Platte Valley Companies Monument Marathon this weekend.
Joe Wilson of Lingle, Wyoming topped the men’s full marathon in a time of 2:46:45, followed by Hosea Kiptoo of York, Nebraska and Scott Conry of Evergreen, Colorado.
Rebecca Peterson of Casper, Wyoming, finished with a time of 3:26:26 to take the women’s full title. For Peterson, it was back-to-back titles, and while she set the course record last year with a time that was about 20 minutes faster, this year she was running for two, as she ran Saturday’s course being 19 weeks pregnant. Taking second in the women’s full was Tonya Lafferty of Castle Rock, Colorado, followed by Karin Nelson of Dallas, Georgia
This year’s men’s half marathon champion was Clay Simpson of Lincoln with a time of 1:10:52, followed by Alejandro Garcia of Chappell and Nicholas Kizzire of Alliance. Shelly McDonald of Loveland, Colorado was the top women’s half champion in a time of 1:24:21, with second and third going to Amber Thielbar of Bar Nunn, Wyoming, and Terra Ochsner of Torrington.
One record that did fall was the number of registered runners as of race day, which WNCC Foundation Director and Race Coordinator Jennifer Reisig said reached 604. One of the standout statistics as it always has been was the runners coming from such a wide area, including a fairly large number of participants from Alabama. “Lots of little pockets of runners from all over. Runners hear about us when they’re at another race expo, they hear about us from word of mouth, they hear about us from friends. They Google ‘Nebraska marathon’, because they want to run all 50 states,” said Reisig. “So many of the runners I talked to yesterday (at the expo), they’re running 50 states whether it’s a full marathon or half marathon.” In all, 36 states and two foreign countries were represented among the participants.
Lukas Benzel of Gering was the top 5k men’s finisher with a time of 19:00, followed by Landon Walker of Fort Collins, Colorado and Nathaniel Suit of Alliance. Sara Avila of Mitchell took the top spot in the women’s 5k with a time of 20:14, followed by Sydney Settles of Mitchell, South Dakota, and Audrey Swann of Lakewood, Colorado.
The top team in the half-marathon relay was The Van Cleave Squad with a time of 1:35:36, followed by Lashley Auto Sales – Pimp My Stride, with each runner sporting a red sports car floatie around their waists as they ran. Third in the relay was Lighthouse Electric – We Will Rock You.
Reisig says she was pleased the event continues to be such a draw, not only generating funds for student scholarships but also boosting the area economically. “So much of what we have is grant funded through tourism in addition to our sponsors. And so the more we can bring people in, the more we get people spending locally, paying to stay in hotels, the more we can get grant money which just helps our WNCC students more.”
