Team USA nets five medals at World Mountain Running Championships

Story by WMRA Treasurer Nancy Hobbs. Photos by USA Team Leader Richard Bolt.

To say Team USA had an amazing day on the rugged trails of Premana, Italy, at the 33rd World Mountain Running Championships would be an understatement. With three team medals and two individual medals, there were many USA flags waving in the warm breezes of Northern Italy.

The day started with a bronze medal for USA’s Talon Hull who cranked out a time of 28:01 on the challenging 6.5-kilometer course, which boasted over 1800 vertical feet of climbing. Hull led the men to a sixth-place finish with teammates Joseph Simmons in 22nd place with a time of 30:11, Jackson Brill in 29th place in 30:55, and Nate Fedel with a time of 32:58. (The top three score for the team result.)

In the first year junior men and junior women ran the same distance, USA’s Lauren Gregory added a second bronze to the medal collection with a time of 33:33, and led her squad to a silver medal. Teammates Quinn McConnell finished in 11th with a time of 35:11, Soleil Gaylord finished in 16th position timed in 36:04, and Julia Jaschke finished in 38th with a time of 40:03.

Then it was time for the senior women to tackle the course, but this time, it was two laps on the 6.5-kilometer route, the same distance as the senior men would run. The depth of our US women earned the squad a gold medal with Allie McLaughlin finishing fifth with a time of 1:06:06, followed by Addie Bracy in eighth with a time of 1:07:46, Kasie Enman in 13th with a time of 1:09:11, and Caitlin Patterson in 23rd with a time of 1:12:14.

Gutsy running by the US senior men led the squad to a bronze-medal podium finish. With Uganda sweeping the top three positions and clenching the gold medal, it was a race for silver and gold. First across the line for Team USA was Joseph Gray with a fourth-place finish timed in 55:35. Patrick Smyth finished in eighth place with a time of 57:19, followed by Brett Hales in 22nd with a time of 59:30, and Andy Wacker in 30th place with a time of 1:00:52. The home team of Italy earned silver.