Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Twin brothers fare well in national
race in Chicago

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayetteville residents Jake and Matthew Lethbridge have followed the footsteps of their brother Zach into running. Zach is one of the top runners on the Our Lady of Mercy cross country team and is also a member of the Southside Pioneers. His brothers, eighth graders at Our Lady of Victory in Tyrone and also members of the Pioneers, are making their mark in track and their footsteps can be heard by many who follow the sport.

Jake won the AAU Georgia Championship in early November, while Matthew placed third. The brothers then ran in the USATF Championship, a 4K race at Al Bishop Park in Marietta. Jake placed second in that race with a time of 14:21 and Matt placed third with a time of 14:24. Their finishes qualified them to race in the Region 3 meet in Spartanburg, SC. There they would race against the top runners in their age group (13-14) from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Jake placed fourth in that race with a time of 14:04 and Matt followed in ninth place with a time of 14:41. Since they both placed in the top 20 in the region, they qualified to race in the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships , a race Dec. 11 in Schaumburg, Ill., outside of Chicago.

It had rained the night before the race and the course was fairly muddy. There had been snow flurries and the temperature was 33 degrees with a wind chill of 18. Racing against the top 325 boys in the nation in the Youth Boys division, ages 13-14, Jake placed 73rd with a time of 14:22 and Matt placed 141st with a time of 14:50.

Matt’s finish was quite remarkable when one considers he ran over two miles with only one shoe on. The pack was so tight near the beginning of the race that a number of runners stepped on the back of his shoe, knocking it off. He attempted to put it back on while running but saw that he was losing places at a rapid rate.

“He threw me the shoe and ran the rest of the race like that,” said the boys’ father, Mark. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The boys had a great time running in such a big race.

“They absolutely loved it,” said Mark. “They said it was the neatest sporting event they had ever done.”

After the race Matt told his father, “Dad, it wasn’t about running. It was about surviving.”

The boys end the year knowing that they ran against some of the best runners in the country and performed well. They will run with the Pioneers again next season and also plan on running with Our Lady of Mercy in the fall. They, like a number of their friends, are hooked on running and will be exciting to watch in the coming years.