Legends Preview… and a Bit of Nostalgia

This year’s Legends Run is shaping up to be special. Not only does it commemorate 20 continuous years of the event, it also promises to one of the most competitive ever.

I suggest the competitive nature of this race started in earnest about 10 years ago. That year a couple of high school juniors finished 1-2 less than a second apart. Solomon Bennett from Silverado edged Jeremy Sudbury from Shadow Ridge. The next year, 2007, Jeremy turned the tables on Solomon, beating him by nearly 30 seconds. The two titans squared off a third time in 2008, with Jeremy again finishing first and Solomon again runner-up. By now they were both in college and the finishing times were getting faster and faster. It was turning into the “fastest 5K in Vegas.”

Jeremy won again in both 2009 and 2010, but no Solomon, who took a hiatus both years. But this didn’t mean slower times, just the opposite. In 2010, Jeremy—now a senior at the University of Oklahoma and a college All American—ran 14:32.3, the fastest 5K in the 20 years of the event, on a true cross country course using the Wetland’s trails behind the Silver Bowl. It is, arguably, the fastest 5K ever run over an honest cross country course in Las Vegas.

The next year the course moved to Veteran’s Memorial Park in Boulder City and Jeremy Sudbury capped his running career by winning his fifth-consecutive Legends Run. His time of 15:17 was—and still is—the fastest time ever run over the course that hosted numerous NV high school state XC championships from 2000 to 2012. The second-place time of 15:40 in that race also broke the old course record of 16:05. Who did that? Yes, Jeremy’s old nemesis Solomon Bennett.

Jeremy “retired” after his 5-peat, but not Solomon, who came back in 2012 and won the race in a “slow” time of 16:03, nipping a ringer from Arizona by a couple of seconds. Finishing 3^rd that year was a guy you may have heard of: Nick Hartle. Nick would go on to win two state championships in cross, a bucket full of championships in track, and head off to UCLA. (Nick made the semi-finals of the 800 at the Olympic Trials this summer.) Nick will be present at this year’s race, by the way.  But I don’t think he is here to run, at least not as a serious competitor.

Back to who is a serious competitor this year.  Since he was second in 2011 and won in 2012, Solomon Bennett has run Legends every year: 3^rd in 2013, 2^nd in 2014, and 3^rd in 2015. He and his wife Alissa now live in Indiana. They are both entered in this year’s race. I doubt they are flying back to Las Vegas just to enjoy our August sunshine. Solomon wants another shot at that third Legends title.

So how good are Solomon’s chances of winning? It won’t be easy. This may be strongest men’s field since Jeremy Sudbury hung up his racing flats. Defending champion JJ Santana is running better than ever this year. He recently won the Summerlin Firecracker 5K, setting a new course record. 

And then there are the college runners, who will make up most of Coach G’s All Stars men’s team this year. Three who are likely to challenge are Martin Ponce, now running for Montana State and a Legend himself; Eric Klein, a senior at Creighton University who was 8^th overall last year; and the newest Legend, Colin Schaefer, who was an NXN finalist in 2015 and an incoming freshman at the University of Florida this fall. The other Legend from the Class of 2015, Austin Rogers, hasn’t been heard from, but he may yet show up and be among the leaders.

Which high school boys to watch? Bryce Odergard (Pahrump Valley), the top returning Legends finisher from 2015 still in high school, is entered. The top returning cross country runners from Sunrise and Sunset are Daniel Ziems (Palo Verde) and Lenny Rubi (Green Valley). Hopefully, they will be on the starting line of the Seeded race.  

What about the women’s race? Here too, the competition has gotten better the past ten years. And there is lots of nostalgia there as well. In fact, let’s go back to 2003. It was the 7^th Annual Legends Run, ran over a 5K course at Lorenzi Park. The girl who won that year was about to start her senior year at Clark H.S. It was to be the first of three Legends wins for Amanda Gramly, who also won in 2011 and 2013, both of these victories as Amanda Henriques. She is, in fact, the only triple winner among the ladies and surely one of the favorites this year. Amanda turns 30 a couple of days before the race. How time flies.

Another tidbit from the past. In 2007 the women’s race was won by Leah Leady, a high school runner from Foothill who became a two-time Legends winner when she also won the next year in 2008. That year, 2007, we also had a 3K race for the kids. And winning her age group—she was 9 at the time—was Kate Vanderstelt. Yep! The same Kate Vanderstelt who is being inducted this year as a Legend, Class of 2015.

Back to this year’s race. For serious challengers this year to Amanda, don’t count out last year’s winner, Erica Schramm.  Erica—the winner of two sub-3 (hour) marathons in the past 12 months—is more of a long distance runner, but she also is one of the toughest competitors on the planet. Last year Erica and her Red Rock Running Team teammates went 1-5 among the women, destroying the competition, which included some good college runners. Amanda didn’t run in 2015; she was pregnant with her and Dominic’s first child.

Next, consider Sydney Badger. Sydney won Legends in 2012 and 2014, while she was still in high school (Centennial grad 2014). Sydney didn’t run last year because she was tied up with cross country training at the University of Michigan. But Sydney is back in Las Vegas this summer, on break, and from what I hear, in great shape and ready to run.

So what you have among the leading contenders for the women’s title this year are the winners of the last five years: Amanda Henriques (2X), Sydney Badger (2X), and Erica Schramm, last year’s winner.

Does anyone else stand a chance? I don’t know of any other Legends still in college who can make the race this year. But don’t count out the best of the high school runners, including the defending state D-1 XC Champion and newest Legend, Karina Haymore. Also, both Alexis Gourrier, her teammate at Centennial, and Emma Wahlenmaier from Palo Verde, could be among the leaders. The top three returning high school cross country runners from the Sunrise Division are Mia Smith and Amy Amezcua from Green Valley and Raquel Chavez from Basic. If any or all of these six girls run, it will provide a preview of the upcoming high school cross country season.  

As for the team competition this year, Coach G’s All Star men’s and women’s team, both of them loaded with returning Legends and promising high school runners, will be the clear favorites.  The RRRC runners, newly labeled as the Red Rock Running Company Adidas Team, who won the Women’s Division in 2015 with a perfect score, are running this year as a Mixed Division team. That team will include JJ Santana, Dominic and Amanda Henriques, as well as Erica Schramm and Mercy Ray Sells. Mercy, who finished 4^th overall in 2015, more recently won the women’s division at the Summerlin Firecracker 5K in July. A formidable team no doubt.

The Legends Run has come a long ways since 1997 when 50 or so runners ran that inaugural race at Pueblo Park in Summerlin. I was trying to make a few bucks—from race entries—to help fund my Bonanza H.S. cross country teams, in addition to honoring the best XC runners of the 80’s and 90’s. In some ways, it seems like yesterday, but in other ways, not so. The years are catching up on me. Still, it’s been a fun ride.

(Phil Lawton, Race Director)