Race Series - Final Standings

The inaugural season of the Rutherford County Race Series is in the books and it was a rousing success! We had nearly 600 people run or walk at least one of the races! The final race was Saturday with 150 running in the Elf Stampede.

Congratulations to everyone who participated and thank you to all those who volunteered their time to help put on each of the 10 events in the series.

We also thank our two sponsors, Rutherford Regional Health System and Puzzle Creek Outdoor Company which provided the resources necessary to offer prizes to the competitors.

The overall winner on the men's side was Jonathan Thacker of Spruce Pine. Tracy Ross of Rutherfordton was second and Collin Henson of Bostic was third. Because both Tracy and Collin are student-athletes, they could not accept cash or gear prizes. Fourth-place finisher, 9-year-old Gunner Hogston, is a future student-athlete also had to decline the prizes. Moving up to accept the cash and gear prizes were Geoffrey Hardin and Nathan Thacker.

On the women's side, Lauren Powell of Rutherfordton was overall winner. In second was Deana Gilliam of Forest City and in third was Mary Lu Elias of Campobello, SC.

Mary Lu, Collin and Gunner were the only runners to compete in all 10 events!

The prizes were $250 in cash and $250 in gear from Puzzle Creek for first place; $100 cash and $200 gear for second place and $50 cash and $50 in gear for third.

Next year's series will be bigger and better with more races and a wider range of prizes. The schedule will be announced in early 2012.