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Four fleet-footed fliers break 17 minutes at Dewey Beach Liquors 5K

Matt "Easy" Barresi wins in 15:44
Doug White, Bill Funk and Georgette O'Cone round the bend and head out for the Dewey Beach Liquors 5K. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Dave Frederick
July 17, 2015
Matt Barresi buries a fast field in 15:44. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Paul Montini was the masters winner. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Brandt Chi runs his first 5K of the season and wins his age group. BY DAVE FREDERICK
First woman Laura O'Hara finishes in 19:51. She leads John Blackford, left, and Thomas Hogan down the final stretch. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Karen Johnston, 51, was an age-group winner in 24:13. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Mike Firch and Rick Cross both finished in 26:09. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Jack Vassalotti wears a crab cap with Old Bay in the background. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Ashley Wiggins, a former George Washington University volleyball player, is now a lawyer. She has the greatest old hat on the circuit. BY DAVE FREDERICK
Jim Lyons, 81, is a legend of the sport. BY DAVE FREDERICK

Dewey Beach is not the town that never sleeps, but rather the town that sleeps in shifts.

Under steamy conditions and 75 degrees about 8 a.m., July 12, 312 runners sprinted past Dewey Beach Liquors and the Bottle & Cork for a fleet-footed 5K race that produced a breakaway pack of four, all of whom ran under 17 minutes on their return to The Cork.

Matt Barresi, 32, from Palmyra, Va., obliterated the field in 15:44.

Following him across the finish line were Dawson Bathgate, 17, in 16:40; Tyler Palenchak, 21, in 16:53; David O’Hara, 39, in 16:58; and Michael Lewis, 20, in 17:29.

There were 21 runners who broke the 20-minute mark. Martin Rodriguez, 33, from Selbyville, was the top Delaware finisher in 18:15.

The women’s leaderboard was topped by Laura O’Hara, 35, in 19:51, followed by Jeanne Knowles, 24, in 21:02; Kylee Kresge, 17, in 21:19; Caitlin Hogan, 26, in 22:51; and Lindsay Bishop, 29, in 22:31.

Barresi is a former American University track and cross country runner with a personal best of 14:37 in the 5K and 30:59 for the 10K. He laughed recalling he was third man on a very good cross country team that placed 20th at nationals.

“It’s the way it is in the sport of running," Easy Barresi said with a smile. “It’s all relative to what you are trying to achieve. Right now I’m training for the fall marathon season [he owns a 2:25 PR]. I’d like to get down under 2:20."

Barresi has a degree in health promotion management and is a fitness director in a retirement community in Charlottesville, Va.

Jimbo Lyons, 81, who drove 93 miles from Onley, Va., won his age group in 44:09. Lyons has been on the running scene since the beginning.

Bill McArthur, 75, of Lewes, a former Shippensburg professor, won his age group in 28:04.

Gene King, 72, from Lewes by way of Pittsburgh, continued his solid summer of racing by winning his age group in 25:22.

Jules Woodall, 67, a Seven Sisters Hall of Famer, won his age group in 25:57.

Brandt Chi, 50, of Rehoboth, ran his first 5K of the summer - he runs all the time - winning his age group in 19:16 just behind Paul Montini, 47, a former Father Judge High School Crusader, who won his age group in 19:06.

The next Races2Run event is the Buffalo Stampede 5K and 10K in Camden-Wyoming Saturday, July 18.

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