2008 GERWC Banquet – A Grand Affair on Super Saturday 

                                                                                     By Lou Slaces, running reporter 

             Over 100 club members and guests turned out February 2, 2008 for the GERWC annual Banquet at the Ivy Room in the SWIRCA center to celebrate Evansville ambulation in 2007. 

       As always, one of the focal points of the banquet is to recognize the younger runners and walkers in the community. In this case, the students at North High School provided much of that inspiration because both the boys and girls cross teams were selected for their outstanding years.  The North girls returned only three girls from the preceding year, but with the addition of some underclassmen and two transfers, they came on strong to win the City, SIAC Conference, Sectional and Regional meets and finished 10th at Semi-state.  Coach Lonnie Wilson notes the great chemistry of the group, and the fact that the top seven will all be back for next year.  So there will be much potential for Abby Farr, Alisha Kuhlenhoelter, Danielle Mutz, Lacey Orth, Amanda Soloman, Seanna Sennff, and Erin Taylor to see the State Cross country venue from a participant’s level next year.  The North Boys team was dominated by senior leadership this year, and experienced similar success to the girls.  Andrew Akin, Wes Camp, Justin Gross, Will Hargett, Dalton Hayhurst, Devin Hayhurst and Steve Hurt won city, SIAC and sectional meets, finished 2nd in the regional and 12th at Semi-state.  Given that both the boys and girls teams performed at such a high level, the club felt that Coach Wilson should be recognized as coach of the year for the 2007.  

            High School outstanding individual runners were introduced, and Coach Wilson told us about how Lacey Orth has had to deal with some personal tragedy in the loss of her mother this year that was both the driving force for and made more extraordinary-- her accomplishments. This season she was champion of many races including the city, SIAC, Sectional, Regional and finished 14th at the State meet.  Coach Dylan Barnes praised Memorial’s Owen Gogarty not only for his intense running commitment, but also for his tree climbing ability! He won all the major meets this year through the Regional and was a state finals participant as well.    

            While UE Cross Country Coach Don Walters seemed to quickly lose interest, we next moved to the club’s awards for our older members who participated in the GERWC Grand Prix in 2007.  The brainchild of Chad Hartmann and Graham Paxton, the inaugural year of the event consisted of 10 races in which runners were awarded points for their age group finishes. The total of all the points in each of the ten races was tallied, and the top three in ten year age categories who had the highest points during the year received some wonderful awards – framed documents listing each of their individual race times for the year.   This event—which is open to GERWC members only, so get those memberships in by April 15, 2008—is a great way to keep you going all year long.  In honor of keeping this short, please see our web page for a complete listing of the winners.  As for myself, Ol Lou found out that he hadn’t done so well in his age group this year, in part because he finished quite far back in the pack in many races and also because he had a tendency to wear his number on his back, thus making it pretty much impossible for the finish line people to record his finish.  I plan on training harder this year, and working on remembering to wear my number on the front in 2008. 

            For those new to this website, Ray Rayl was a founder of this club, and a person of wonderful integrity, character, and energy who did much to bring running, walking and racewalking to this community.  An outstanding runner in his youth, and a fearsome competitor with remarkable times well into his later years, the club has established two scholarships in his name to honor those runners who exhibit his flair for combining outstanding running results with high character.  In 2008 we have selected two young people for these $500.00 scholarship who will make Ray proud.  The are Ryan Witters, formerly of Memorial High School and by the end of this semester the number 2 runner for the University of Evansville.  While in high school, Ryan was first team all conference in cross country and track and participated in swimming where he was academic all conference (So watch out you tri-athletes out there, you are about to finish a notch lower than you hoped!)  Coach Walters has told us he is an exceptionally hard worker, dependable, honest and courteous and will be a team leader in the coming years at UE. Our other winner, Jaime Oberg is a Central High School graduate who was named an academic all city performer in track and cross-country.  A member of the National Honor Society, student council, and as a mentor to freshman, Jaime is also active in her church youth group.  Her coaches describe her as a dependable, hard worker who has a wonderful mental attitude to be around.  The GERWC is proud to be able to honor such fine young people. 

             The 2007 GERWC Volunteer of the year selected by the Board is a person who has been the driving force in the club for many years, and this year completed his third term at the Presidential helm – Gordon Benfield.  Gordon has spent countless hours leading club meetings, organizing races, and acting as the “go to” person for other organizations in the community who want to sponsor runs and walks.  He has coached many runners, keeps messages flowing to his group about places and times to run, and has formed and almost single handedly administered the Summer track Program at Central High School—just to name a few of his accomplishments.  Most of us who know him doubt seriously that he can have a full time job and do all the other things that he does, but he in fact does that at Solarbron.  The club owes a big debt of gratitude to Gordon for keeping us going in many years in the past, and especially in 2007.  

            The Ray Rayl Award – for all the same reasons as our scholarships—is given to those who --not just in one year, but also through a long period of years --have contributed to running and walking in Evansville.  This year, a team of recipients was selected – specifically Bob Christmas, Jim Effinger, Bob Lauderdale and Ray Pritchett.  These four have made up the group that assists the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation in timing and manning the finish chutes at all the middle and high school cross country and track meets.  These folks generously donate their time 2 or more times per week from March through May and again in August through October every year to get these meets timed and results in place.  This team – which started with Ray Rayl – has been in place for many years now, and there simply are no more dedicated people than these 4.  They truly deserve the award for many years of service.    

            By the way, given that the day after our banquet was “Super Bowl Sunday” and the Tuesday after our banquet is “Super Tuesday” in the political vernacular of 2008, it seemed only right that the club vote for President and decide who would win the Super Bowl.  At this writing, the club members 48 votes for the Patriots and 40 votes for the Giants (with a few abstentions and one vote for the Boston Red Sox) foreshadowed the closeness of the game, although it appears that runners are not good judges of football prowess since the Giants actually won.  On the political front, Barack Obama garnered 51 votes, as the person GERWC members want to receive the Democratic nomination, with Hillary Clinton picking up 16 votes.  In a statistic that reveals a tendency to overtrain at the expense of keeping up with current events, 14 of our members thought John Edwards should get the nomination, even though he had dropped out of the race.  On the Elephant side, John McCain garnered 44 votes to Mitt Romney’s 24, Mike Huckabee’s 14 and Ron Paul’s 6.  And in the final election results, John McCain has been picked as our President, by 22 members, 16 for Obama, 14 for Romney, 11 for Clinton, 8 for Huckabee, again—sadly—4 for Edwards and 3 for Paul.  It must be mentioned that Gordon Benfield, Don Nichols and Chris Thomas also gathered support, tying George Washington and George Bush with one vote each.  Let’s not let that goes to anyone’s head tho.  

            Particularly, Chris Thomas’s head.  Our new Club President, who has been known to run in full Leprechaun and Baby New Year Regalia, concluded the banquet program with his campaign promise to make the club more fun in 2008!  And if anyone can make it fun, it has got to be Chris.  So join up for 2008 – it should be a great year with new friends, a new Grand Prix challenge, and some new chances to give back to the running community here in Greater Evansville.  Old Lou will look forward to seeing you on the roads, and again at next year’s banquet.