In women's 10K, winner dominates

Hyvan Ngetich had no idea how close her closest competitor was.

The 24-year-old from Kenya positioned herself near the front of the pack at the starting line and wasted no time setting a blazing pace as soon as the gun sounded in the Deseret News women's 10K race Friday.

"I came here to compete," she said. "So I made my move right at the start."

And a successful move it was.

Ngetich latched on to a group of runners in the men's race and never looked back, crossing the line 31 minutes and 30 seconds later to grab first place and the $1,500 prize accompanying her result.

"When I was pushing the pace, I did not realize that I was that fast. It was about pacing with the men," said Ngetich, who averaged a 5:04 mile over the 6.2 mile course taking her from Research Park at the University of Utah and ending at Liberty Park. Her effort was more than enough to pull away from the second-place finisher, former Weber State All-American and Olympic steeplechaser Lindsey Anderson.

"It was a tough course," Anderson said after checking in at 32:22. "After going downhill that long, and running that fast, even the flats feel hard."

Anderson said her time was a personal record and that came as a bit of a surprise considering the race is not her specialty and she is just a few weeks away from competing in the world track and field championships in Germany.

In addition to her $750 second-place prize, Anderson picked up a $500 bonus as the first Utah racer to hit the finish line.

"That was actually one of my goals," she said. "I wanted to be the first Utahn."

Caroline Rotich, at 32:28, was third overall. Salt Lake City's Kathryn Conner won the women's Masters division (40 and older) race with a time of 34:34.

But for Anderson, the high result proved to be a big boost to her mental training.

"This is exactly what I needed," said Anderson, a 24-year-old who grew up in Morgan. "It gives me confidence going into Berlin."

Anderson's pace of 5:13 over the run was a strong effort and placed her among even the top male finishers.

As she now fine-tunes her training for the steeplechase at the world championships, the former Wildcat hopes she's found the form that will carry her to another podium.

"I feel good right now," she said. "I've only got a couple more weeks before I go to Germany, so to run like this on a longer race gives me a nice energy."

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com