YMCA Holds 23rd Annual Rye Derby

In one of the closest finishes in its 23 year history, Ethiopia’s defending champion Kumsa Megersa edged Uganda’s Harbert Ukuti by one second, racing the 5-mile course in 24:15 –an average of 4:51 per mile– to win the Rye Derby Sunday. The elite runners' division attracts world-class runners competing for more than $1,000 in prize money.

In the elite women’s 5-mile run, Kenya’s Salome Kosgei also won for the second consecutive year finishing in 28:51 and besting Ethiopia’s Muliye Gurmu by two seconds, with both runners averaging 5:47 and a fraction per mile.

The elite runners –male and female—ran in the same race with the first three runners in each category splitting the prize money: $650, $350 and $250 respectively.

Ethiopia’s Endale Abiyut and Sharon Lemberger of Stamford (Conn.) took the third place prize money in their respective race categories.

The top area finishers in the prestige five miler: Rye Brook’s Michael Bernstein and Rye’s Conor O’Driscoll running 28:19 and 28: 34 respectively, an average of 5:40 and 5:43 per mile respectively, with slightly more than one minute separating the win-and-place runners in the Rye category.

Rye’s leading ladies: Kristina Dorfman (who finished third overall last year) and Natalie Tanner, who ran the distance in 31:18 and 31:43 respectively.

Now going into its 23rd year, The Derby just keeps on growing, evolving from a small local race to a series of three different races that attract around 1,000 runners from all over the metropolitan area and beyond.

In fact, the Rye YMCA Derby has evolved to the point where it attracts world- class runners who have relocated to the New York area to either race for prize money or attend local colleges.

Megersa and Abiyut, both former members of Ethiopia's national cross country team, now live in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx and do most of their running in Central Park.

Okuti was an All-American cross-country runner at Iona College majoring in psychology and criminal justice. He now lives and works in the New Paltz area and runs for the Westchester Track Club.

To give local runners a better crack at winning a Derby event, the Rye YMCA added a special 5-K (3.2 mile ) run for the first time this year. Both the 5-milers and 5-K racers started out together opposite the Chase Bank on Purchase Street and split off in different directions at the Apawamis Country Club (at about the 2.3 mile mark), the elite runners turning left, the 5-K runners going right.

Both races finished in front of the Rye YMCA at 21 Locust Ave.

As the 5K runners came down the home stretch, Hastings-on-Hudson’s Michael Anderson, 49 –a former All Ivy League 10,000-meters champion at the University of Pennsylvania who now works for CitiGroup– hit the finish line first, clocking 17:40 while averaging 5:33 seconds per mile. 

Rye’s Mauricio Montiel, originally from Mexico, was the first Rye male finisher coming home in second place in 18:50 (5:54 per mile) followed by Rye runners such as Steven Garrett, Hayes Hopple and Mitchell Baruchvitz, finishing fifth, ninth and 12th respectively. 

Germany’s Astrid Steinen, now of New York City’s Central Park Track Club, won the distaff 5K, her first major victory ever. Outstanding Rye performances were turned in by such local runners Reza Vahabsadeh, Roshanna Rosenfield, Cynthia Kuster, Alimena Paul, Sarah Iles and Sara Hess.

New to the Derby this year was a computer system using electronic tags to assure accuracy in the order of finish as well as individual times. Also for the first time, Rye’s SoleRyeders, a local organization that raises funds for cancer research, fielded a team of more than 100 kid runners.

But the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

The Derby remains a major fund-raising community event celebrating the Y’s tradition of developing healthy mind/body/spirit and building communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, according to Y CEO Gregg Howells. The Derby fund-raiser goes towards providing Y-membership scholarships for needy area families, he said.

“It really brings the community together, and showcases Rye to runners from all over Westchester as well as to elite world -class runners,” said Rye Mayor Doug French, who started the race with a bullhorn that sent close to 500 racers off and running at the start of the elite 5-mile run.

Family stories filled the Derby back-story after the races were over.

Rich Savage, coach of Rye’s nationally-ranked girls soccer team– once ranked number one in America, ran the 5K race with his two sons (Richard, 10, and Sean, 7) along with his neighbor, Bill Miller, and his kids, William, 10, and Sean, 10. Rich’s wife, Marjuts, one of the Y’s outstanding aerobics instructors, rooted them home along with young Mark Miller, 6.

One of the most heart-warming family stories involved former Duke end Ed Ballard, 82, coming from Raleigh, N.C., to walk the 5-mile race with two walking sticks to celebrate the homecoming of his wife, the former Lee Jenkins, a long-time former Rye resident who turned 80 on race day. Alan Palestine, 72, finished second in the 70-79 category.

That event was celebrated by several members of the Ballard and Jenkins extended family, including Lisa McKiernan, one of the co-owners of the Pearl Management Group that includes Morgan’s Fish House, Ruby’s Oyster Bar & Bistro and The Rye Grill & Bar.

But everywhere you looked there was a heart-warming story. And every finisher was a hero. For complete race results, contact the Rye YMCA, 967-6363;  www.ryeymca.org or superracesystems.com.