Van Orden, Faulkner Take First Place at Point Mugu

(Malibu, CA) - In a sold out field of 460 runners racing up and down the Santa Monica Mountains, Tim Van Orden, 41, from Bennington, VT and Malibu local Anissa Faulkner, 38, took Sunday's top spots at the XTERRA Point Mugu Trail Run.

Van Orden, founder of Runningraw.com, finished the 18km event with the fastest time of the day in1:09:32, two minutes ahead of runner-up Jon Clark, 35, of Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Faulkner crushed the competition in the 18km women's race as she crossed the line in 1:24:46, more than 10 minutes ahead of Marissa Kerby, 22, of Riverside.

The youngest competitor in the 18km event was Hunter Todd, 17, from Roseville, CA. Living with a congenital heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, Hunter was on a mission to qualify for the XTERRA Trail Running World Championship coming up on December 7 in Hawaii which he successfully accomplished with his time of 2:53:21. Although qualification is not necessary to compete, Hunter wanted to earn his spot and will be running to raise money for Kardiac Kids of Honolulu.

Benjamin Dewitt and Ashley McLaughlin won their respective races in the 11km event. Dewitt, 23 from Ventura, had a considerable lead finishing in 48:54, more than 7 minutes faster than Ryan Voyson, 33, also from Ventura. For the women, La Habra resident McLaughlin, 25, won with her time of 1:06:15, barely edging out Shaheen Aslam, from Huntington Beach, by just 5 seconds.

According to race director Brennan Lindner, this was a fantastic start to the 2008-09 XTERRA SoCal Trail Run Series. "It was an awesome day, and although it was a little warm at the top, the weather was great. Plus with no major injuries, it's what I call a great race."

Complete race results are attached and more information can be found online at www.xterratrailrun.com. Media interested in photos from this event should contact emily@xterraplanet.com.

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