Photo courtesy of Jim Gurzenski

Season 38 kicked-off under pleasant December skies with first timer Chris Pelliccia winning the overall in his first go at it. The unattached 32 year-old took top honors in a respectable time of 18:42 and joins the SnowStorm Classic (SSC) all-time winners list (aka Hall Of Fame) with 144 others.

Western Mass Distance Project�s and all-time SSC Female win leader Dawn Roberts notches her 47th win at 22:18 in just her 108th race. That gives Dawn an incredible �Kill Percentage� of 45.3%!. This sounds like a great new stat for the website to me�

77 years young Harrier Lyn Walker established a new mark in an impressive 25:41. That would score a 91.04% on the 2015 WMA tables! For those not familiar with age grading this mark is considered world class meaning a time that would be competitive with the best in her peer group at international competitions or roughly on par with an open male runner 5k time around 14:15.

In the unofficial team competition, Empire One Running Club, lead by Matthew Killian, posted a convincing win over host club Greater Springfield Harriers. EORC top five runners posted an average time of 20:34 to GSH's 21:44

Thanks to all our volunteers: Peter Fratini, Craig Balderston, Brian Goddu, Jim Gurzenski, Peter Vangsness, Neal Lamberton, Doug Geurtin, Mary Guertin, Ken Clark, Peter Stasz, Iwona Boruch and Race Director Art Roberts. Apologies if I forget anyone...

                                             38th Annual Snowstorm Classic                                              
                                             Race# 480, Week 3 of 13 - 5km                                              
                                               Saturday December 16, 2017                                               
                                              Forest Park, Springfield, MA                                              
                              USATF Course Certifciations: 5km #MA12049JK, 10km #MA12048JK                              
                                                           -                                                            
                                         Hosted by Greater Springfield Harriers                                         
                          http://www.harriers.org/SnowStorm/index.html  [email protected]                          

Place            Name             Bib#  Div/Tot    Div   Ag               Club                Time    Pace   Points     
=====  =========================  ====  ========  =====  ==  ==============================  =======  =====  ======     
    1  Bryan Dec                   655      1/07  M0119  19                                    17:10   5:32    1000     
    2  James Kopcsay              1016      1/23  M2039  34                                    18:15   5:53     940     
    3  Jason Beaver                 83      2/07  M0119  16  EMPIRE ONE RUNNING CLUB           18:35   5:59     923     
    4  Chris Pelliccia             325      2/23  M2039  32                                    18:57   6:06     905