Demlie, Henkels lead King Turkey Day 10K

WORTHINGTON - With ideal weather conditions prevailing Saturday morning, a total of 320 runners - 144 women and 176 men - completed the 10,000 meters or 6.2 miles of the popular mid-September event known as the King Turkey Day 10K Road Race.
Starting and finishing along 10th Street, the majority of the long run circled Lake Okabena with the bulk of the runners covering the distance at times between 50 and 60 minutes.
Several athletes completed the run quite a bit faster than that, as the first 78 finishers bettered the 50-minute mark, including 10 who ran the distance in less than 40 minutes.
The race up front was close between 29-year-old Habtamu Demlie of Sioux Falls and 36-year-old Worthington native Toby Henkels, who now lives in Mankato.
Clipping each mile at 5:28 pace, Demlie utilized a fast start and a strong finishing kick to record a winning time of 33:55.13.
Henkels, who was an exceptional three-sport athlete (football, basketball and track) for the Trojans in the late 1990s before running both cross country and track for the University of Minnesota, caught up to Demlie midway through and the two ran together for more than three miles before the slender South Dakotan pulled away in the last two blocks.
“It was a great day to run,” said Demlie, who finished fourth last year. “I liked the weather, it was perfect, and it was good having Toby catch me and push me to run faster.”
Demlie started fast, opening up a 50-meter lead in the race’s first five blocks.
“I finally caught him at about the three-mile mark,” said Henkels, who finished a close second with his time of 34:02.70. “But, he had a better kick at the end.”
“It was kind of uphill,” Demlie said about the sprint to the finish line. “I just ran as fast I could those last two blocks.”
While Demlie and Henkels were well in front, the next three finishers were spaced out a bit more as Travis Boltjes (age 36, Sioux Falls, 35:06.32), Darren Larsen (30, Pine Island, 36:45.45) and Casey Swenson (30, Hills, 37:59.51) ran the course between 35 and 38 minutes.
Travis Schettler (33, Adrian, 38:12.44) was just 13 seconds behind Swenson and Jennifer Vande Vegte (38, Sioux Center, Iowa) finished seventh overall - 84 seconds later - with a winning women’s time of 39:26.33.
Jackson’s Mark Kocak, 54, ran an impressive time of 39:29.17, placing eighth overall and easily winning the men’s 50-59 age bracket.
A trio of Worthington High School cross country runners - 16-year-old Jacob Prunty (39:40.97), 13-year-old Adam Koller (39:42.03) and 15-year-old Jackson Bonnett (41:21.55) - were the next three finishers as they each had a quality over-distance workout.
A pair of Worthington 36-year-olds - Derrik Larson (41:29.08) and Gerardo Barreto (41:32.41) - were 12th and 13th, respectively, before Edgerton’s Brian Tschetter, 44, finished 14th with an age group (men’s 40-49) winning time of 41:57.78.
“That’s my best time ever,” said Tschetter, the cross country coach for the combination of Southwest Christian and Edgerton Public. “It’s 27 seconds better than I ran last year, which was my PR (personal record) until today.”
The second woman to cross was 60-year-old Andriette Wickstrom (Storm Lake, Iowa), who finished an amazing 21st overall with a new age-group (women’s 60-69) record time of 43:45.44.
Charissa Covey (34, Sioux Falls, 44:14.53) was the third women’s finisher (26th overall), while WHS senior Meredith Moore, the Trojans’ top girls’ cross country runner, ran the course in 45:12.52 and won her age group (women’s 15-19). Moore was 34th overall and fourth among all females.
Two places behind Moore was Fulda’s Wayne Drealan, 62, who has run in all 36 Turkey Day 10Ks, dating back to 1980. Drealan’s time of 45:40.07 was good for second in the men’s 60-69 age group - behind Gary Patton, 69, of Rock Rapids, Iowa. Patton was 22nd overall with a time of 44:00.34, averaging 7:05 per mile.
Steve Vlieger, 64, Mitchell, S.D. who - like Drealan - has not missed a single Turkey Day 10K wasn’t able to run nearly as fast as he has many times in the past. But, after recovering from a serious motorcycle accident in May of 2014, Vlieger was able to complete the course last fall - while walking much of the distance with family and friends.
This year, Vlieger ran the distance - by himself - and clocked a time of 56:02.13.
“It’s coming along fine,” said Vlieger, a Chandler native, about his continuing recovery. “It felt really good to run the whole way this year.”
Women’s age group winners included Moore, Claire Anderson (Minneapolis, 20-29, 48:57.32), Vande Vegte, Lisa Lundgren (Emmetsburg, Iowa, 40-49, 45:54.02), Becky Sorenson (Storden, 50-59, 50:29.77) and Wickstrom.
Koller (14 and under), Prunty (15-to-19), Demlie, Henkels, Tschetter, Kocak, Patton and Jim Andriga (Sanborn, Iowa, 70-79, 1:00.02.79) were the men’s age-group champions.
Worthington’s Fritz Korthals, 79, was Saturday’s oldest finisher (1:21.58.04), while 10-year-olds Pierce Hetland (Spirit Lake, Iowa) and Miles Fischer (Worthington) were the youngest, finishing together with respective times of 52:38.09 and 52:38.46.
Complete results are online at www.allsportcentral.com/results/results.cfm?EventID=595 .