Okello Repeats as 10K Champ

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Before leaving the Palisades Recreation Center with his first-place medal after last year’s Palisades-Will Rogers 10K, Tonny Okello vowed to return to defend his title in 2015.

On Saturday morning the 31-year-old Ugandan made good on his promise, winning in 32 minutes, 55 seconds to become only the fourth male in the race’s 38-year history to repeat and the first since Kevin Koeper won it back-to-back in 2005 and 2006.

Despite much cooler conditions, Okello finished over one-and-a-half minutes slower than he did last July, but was still 11 seconds ahead of UCLA graduate and triathlon coach Brady O’Bryan, the 2013 winner.

“He was a quarter of a mile ahead of me most of the race – I thought he was running the 5K,” Okello said. “I passed him going back up Sunset with about a mile to go. He was shocked that I caught him.”

Okello, who lives in Culver City and trains with the Santa Monica Track Club, took time off in February to recover from a knee problem and admitted he is not yet in top shape.

“I had to take it slow at first, then pick it up at the end,” he said. “I’m putting in mileage but I don’t have any speed right now. This is good preparation for the road races I have coming up.”

Okello plans to run the six-mile Wharf to Wharf in Santa Cruz on July 26. He came to America in 2004 after earning a track scholarship to the University of South Alabama, where he was a two-time All-American in both cross country and track. He clocked his best 10K time (27:55) at the Stanford Invitiational two years ago.

Okello first visited the Palisades in November 2013 when he was invited to run at Will Rogers State Historic Park during the filming of the movie “McFarland” starring Kevin Costner.

“This is a challenging race, a great enviroment and hopefully I’ll come back next year for a three-peat,” said the 31-year-old, who wants to beat the course record of 29:46 set by New Zealand’s Russell Edmonds in 1983.

The women’s 10K winner was 48-year-old Susanne McNeil Eng, who was elated to finally break the tape after coming close on several occasions.

“This is the first time I’ve won,” she said after running the 6.2 miles in 40:33. “I’m not sure if it’s a PR but I was second last year and third the year before that so it’s nice to finally win.”

McNeil Eng, who lives in West Los Angeles and trains with Track Club LA, was a high school gymnast and competed in Ironman triathlons for many years. She has run the Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston marathons and clocked a personal-best 2 hours, 55 minutes at the distance in Tokyo last year. The mother of two is gearing up for the Berlin Marathon in late September.

“I’m familiar with the course because we train for this in June with 15-mile runs to inspiration point and that helps a lot,” said McNeil Eng, who was the runner up in 41:16 last year. “We always have a good cheering section.”

Katie Dunsmuir, who had just graduated from Palisades High, established the women’s 10K record of 35:09 in 1983.

Fellow Pali High graduate Drake Johnston was encouraged to run the 5K this year by Dolphins coach Bob Macias and he wound up winning in 15:56.

“I’ve been helping out [coaching] at Pali a bit, running with the guys on the team and I ran this race last year (finishing fifth in 17:05), but besides that I haven’t run a 5K since high school,” said Johnston, who begins his junior year at Villanova in the fall. “In college I’ve mostly done cross country and steeplechase, which is only a 3K.”

Johnston, 20, lives in Santa Monica and was surprised to find himself amongst the leaders after the first mile.

“You always want to win, but I haven’t been doing any serious workouts,” he admitted. “I was just running for fun today but I was towards the front so I figured I might as well go for it. We went through the mile at 4:47, which is fast for where I’m at right now. I wasn’t aware where I was until the finish butt in retrospect I wish I’d pushed it a little more because I was only 11 seconds off my PR, so that would’ve been cool to do, but I wasn’t too concerned. I considered trying the 10K but I wasn’t up for running that far.”

Loyola High distance runner Charles Sherman came in second in 16:18, followed by 2000 winner Jeff Tomlinson (16:25) and eight-time winner Peter Gilmore (16:55), who set the course record  of 14:10 in 2003 (see story on page 7). It was another strong showing for Sherman, who was fourth last year and second in 2013.

Palisadian John Holcomb, who has run the race “about 20 times,” finished first in his age division in 19:32 – a 6:18 pace.

“I love the community aspect of the race,” the 61-year-old said while walking to the podium to receive his medal. “My best time was 16:48 when I was 48. So many of my friends still run, like Ted Mackie. It’s a great way to reconnect with people, no matter what kind of shape you’re in. Peter [Gilmore] is a father now and hopefully one day we’ll see his kids run.”

Local kickboxing champion Baxter Humby ran the 5K in 31:16 and boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, the Palisades’ former Honorary Mayor, finished in 46:47.

The women’s 5K winner was recent Loyola Marymount University graduate Grace Zamudio, whose time of 18:36 was the fastest by a female winner since Therese Fricke clocked 18:24 for her third first-place medal in 2011.

The 21-year-old from Newhall had a stellar prep career at Hart High and went on to run cross country and track at Glendale Community College, where she was named California Community College Athletic Association’s 2012-13 Female Athlete of the Year after winning nine straight cross country races, including the Western State Conference and Southern California championships. At Loyola Marymount she was a first team All-West Coast Conference selection in cross country and placed 17th overall at the NCAA West Region Championships. On the track she closed out her college career with a berth in the NCAA West preliminary meet.

Carly Johann of Culver City  came in second in 19:21 and defending champion Renee Delphin-Rodriguez of Santa Monica was third  in 19:44 despite running 13 seconds faster than her winning time last year.

Age-graded scoring, a system which allows individuals in a race to be “scored” against each other by comparing their finish times to an “ideal” or best time achievable for their age and gender, yielded  the following results:

In the 5K, Zamudio had the highest female score at 79.68 percent, followed by Palisadians Susan Fairbairn (who was first in the 50-54 age group in 21:45) at 79.45 and 12-year-old Jennifer Karlan, who  won her division in 20:46 for a score of 79.44 percent.

Holcomb posted the highest score among men with a national class 82.49 percent, followed by fellow Palisadian Ronald Graham  (79.92), who won the 55-59 age group in 19:41.

In the 10K, McNeil Eng produced a national class effort of 82.64. The highest score for a Palisades female was 73.52 by Lori Cudzil, who won the 35-39 age division in 42:16.

Okello’s winning time equated to a score of 81.30 percent. Men’s 55-59 division winner  James Halper, who clocked 44:12, had the highest score among local runners at 71.60 percent.