Freeman, Crawford Finish First at XTERRA Muddy Moose

New England hosted its first race of the 2009 XTERRA Trail Run Series on April 26 in Wolfeboro, NH. Over 200 runners from across the region flocked to Kingswood Regional High School to compete in one of two distances, the main 22-kilometer event alongside the 6km fun run.

Even after a short detour off course, 2006 Olympic cross country skier Justin Freeman, 32 of New Hampton, NH, still dominated the 22km run in 1:37:27. Following three minutes back was Dylan McGuffin, 21, from Northfield.

For the women, Stephanie Crawford of Portsmouth smoked her competition in 1:56:20, almost 9 minutes ahead of Kathryn Vollinger, 19, who traveled from East Hartford, CT to compete.

The competition for the 6km title turned out to be much closer as 16-year old hometown favorite Brendan Stackhouse turned in a time of 28:23, just a minute ahead of Jesse Lush from Ossipee. Katherine Pyskaty of Belmont, MA won the women’s race in 34:33, edging out Gorham, Maine’s Shauna Baxter by a mere 21 seconds.

According to race director Fergus Cullen, “People were looking for a good, hard, run in the woods, and that’s what we gave them. The weather was great, the event was pretty low key, and people were happy with that.”

Richard Burgunder from Astoria, NY, who has traveled the country competing in the XTERRA Trail Run Series during the past year, described the course as “insane, extreme, and totally hardcore. A lot of it was ankle or knee deep in mud, and those hills were serious. It was a very competitive race and a great venue overall.”

By finishing the half-marathon distance Xduro in less than 3 hours (2:07:21), Rich will receive special recognition when he competes at this year’s XTERRA Trail Running National Championship in Bend, OR on September 13, and again at the XTERRA Trail Running World Championship on December 6 on the spectacular Hawaiian island of Oahu. This year, no qualification is necessary for either of these championship races, but those who finish any of the XTERRA Xduros during the season in less than 3 hours will be honored.

Coming up in the 2009 XTERRA New England Trail Run Series
XTERRA Sugarbush Xduro Trail Run – 20km – Sugarbush, VT – 7/11/09
XTERRA STOAKED Trail Run – 16km – Hanover, NH – 8/8/09

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