Efurd twins sweep Eliminator Run
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Rogers seniors Courtney, left, and Cameron Efurd, below, won the Frisco Fest Eliminator 5 K Run on Saturday. It was Cameron Efurd’s first Eliminator win while his sister won it for the third time.
This time, Rogers High School brother and sister Cameron and Courtney Efurd made a clean sweep Saturday of the Frisco Fest Eliminator 5 K runs.
Both seniors are three-time All-State runners for their defending state championship Mountie and Lady Mountie teams.
The race was disrupted near the finish line by a freight train that rolled through the middle of the race.
Courtney Efurd, after missing last year's run because of illness, won this race for a third time.
Cameron Efurd, whose previous best finish here was third in 2007, won the race that's been dominated the past few years by former Mountie runner Aaron Hamilton.
Two-time Olympian and former Arkansas Razorback All-American Godfrey Siamusiye, 35, finished second.
"My goal was to win it," Cameron Efurd said. "I've lived here my whole life and this is a home race."
Efurd said he took the lead at the one-mile mark.
"I kept there to the finish," he said. "I worked it around the lake and felt pretty good. I gave it all I had on the hill."
Efurd said he's trained hard this summer. Courtney Efurd, listening in, said her brother is up at 5: 30 a.m. and out the door.
"I had to be at work at 7 so I had to get my runs in before I went," Cameron Efurd said. He tries to put in 50 miles a week.
"That's more than I've ever done," he said. "I'm hoping to be able to compete with some of the best in the nation this year."
Courtney Efurd beat last year's winner, Sherolyn Johnson, 40, by 24 seconds. Rachel Hardgrave, age 12, finished fourth behind Rogers Heritage's Dani David.
"There were a lot of fast girls other there," David said. "The seventh-grader (Hardgrave ) really pushed it. It was tough."
• • •
The race was halted briefly when a northbound Arkansas & Missouri Railroad train crossed East Walnut Street near the finish line.
Meet workers heard the train horn as it approached East Poplar, about two blocks south. Some meet officials ran to the east side of the tracks, moving orange barrels, stopping runners and moving spectators. Other officials dispersed spectators lingering around the tracks, where the finish chutes were set up.
More than 100 people were in the vicinity of the crossing, which has no gate.
Meet coordinator Howard Conley waved the 16-car, three-engine train to slow down as it approached Elm Street. His warnings went to no avail.
"This is the first time since we've had this race that a train has come through," he said.
About two dozen runners, halted between the tracks and South Arkansas Street, surged out from behind the train to the finish line. The race was about half over when the train arrived. About 200 runners compete annually in the race.
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