For Release: IMMEDIATELY

MORRISTOWN, TN – Walters State hosted the inaugural WSCC Half Marathon on Saturday at their home course.

The event was smaller than anticipated due to COVID-19 restrictions but still had 19 entries. In the future, Walters State hopes to have more entries and different races for all ages.

"We wanted to hold a half marathon for our cross-country team, which will be competing in the NJCAA half marathon, and for our community," said Dr. Tony Miksa, president of Walters State. "Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we intentionally kept the event small this year.

"We invited some competitive runners from our community to support our cross-country team in their first half marathon. I want to thank local runners Andee Swann, Shanda Warren, Jeff Whitaker, Rommel Sia and Jason Carey for coming out and supporting this event and our runners. Our goal is to open this event to our community next year and hopefully grow it for years to come."

Walters State freshman runner Ryan Sadlon (Morristown, TN) took home first place with a time of 1:29:52. Sadlon held off J.B. Pectol who finished in second place with a time of 1:30:13. Miksa finished in eighth place with a time of 1:36:35.

Swann was the first female finisher, taking home third place with a time of 1:32:14.

Other finishers from the Walters State cross country teams included sophomore Brian Kiplagai (1:33:28) in fourth place, freshman Seth Sauerbrei  (1:34:29) in fifth place and sophomore Andy Villigran (1:34:61) in sixth place on the men's side and Teresa Morales-Villegas (1:56:07), Karli Yarid (1:56:53) and Nadia Lopez (2:18:22) on the women's side.

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics