Unseeded doubles teams conquer Jason Isaacs Memorial tourney

Upsets eventually hit the Jason Isaacs Memorial Junior Doubles Championship hard over the weekend.

In both the boys’ and girls’ 18-year-old divisions, an unseeded team knocked off the top three seeds in successive matches to win the tournament title at Blairwood Tennis and Fitness Club.

Unseeded Floyd Central High School teammates Joseph Boesing and Craig Kirchgessner - who are veterans of two Indiana state finals - finished their run to the boys’ title with a 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (7) win over the No. 1 tandem of South Oldham’s Eric Quigley and Trinity’s Robert Stedman on Sunday.

Quigley is both the defending Kentucky high school state champion in singles and the reigning USTA Kentucky Junior Player of the Year.

No less impressive were Shannon Hartmann and Brooke Helms, an unseeded pair that downed No. 1-seeded Christian Academy stars Lindsey and Emily Mallory 2-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (12) on Sunday. The Mallory sisters reached the Kentucky high school doubles final last year.

Order prevailed elsewhere, as all but one of the top seeds in the other six divisions won: Maks Gold and Daniel Mark (boys’ 16s); Brett Johnson and Grant Roberts (boys’ 14s); Paul Eager and Hunter Mills (boys’ 12s); Kelsey Fulkerson and Caroline Kerrick (girls’ 16s); Lauren Doll and Samantha Maddox (girls’ 14s); and Mackenzie Eichengreen and Hannah Newstadt (girls’ 12s).

Full results for the tournament, which drew 232 participants, can be found here.

Bishop wins Run to the Sun

Aaron Bishop beat more than 700 runners and walkers to the finish line at Fourth Street Live! to win the 25th Annual Downtown YMCA Run to the Sun in Louisville on Saturday.

Bishop, a 28-year-old Louisville resident, completed the four-mile course in 20:39.74 to easily outdistance the rest of the field.

Louisville’s Scott Holzknechty, 27, was second in 21:23.90, and Brandenburg 13-year-old Sean Breeds was third in 22:23.95.

Louisville’s Lynn Riedling, 45, was the top female with a time of 26:09.40. Shepherdsville’s Roberta Meyer, 42, was second in 27:16.17, and Crestwood 11-year-old Kami Orrender was third in 27:31.84.

Full results can be found here.

Jason Isaacs Memorial update

There were no major upsets in the 18-year-old divisions during the opening rounds of the Jason Isaacs Memorial Junior Tennis Championships, which began Friday.

The five seeded pairs in the boys’ division - including the No. 1 duo of Eric Quigley, the defending Kentucky high school singles state champion from South Oldham, and Trinity standout Robert Stedman - all advanced to today’s quarterfinals.

So, too, did the four seeded pairs in the girls’ division, including the No. 1 tandem of Lindsey and Emily Mallory, the Christian Academy sisters who reached the high school state doubles final last year.

There are three other age groups - 12s, 14s and 16s - for boys and girls in the tournament, which is centered at Blairwood Tennis and Fitness Club. There were 232 entrants overall, according to tournament director Larry Kline.

All of the semifinals and finals will be played Sunday.

Results and further tournament information can be found here.

Grossman still Lovin' the Hills

Now that the wait is over, it’s clear that we should have known all along.

Four days after Louisville’s Lovin’ the Hills ended Saturday evening at Jefferson Memorial Forest, the results finally have been revealed to the rest of us. And who else but Eric Grossman won the event’s marquee 50-kilometer race.

The 37-year-old Emory, Va., resident established his reputation as a premier ultrarunner while living in Louisville and actually founded this 50K trail run in 2004. After directing the 2005 race, he moved with his family to the mountainous southwest corner of Virginia (he now teaches at Emory & Henry College) and let the Cherokee Road Runners have the Lovin’.

Reached via e-mail this week, Grossman admitted that he had not even intended to return for the race. He wanted to run in the Holiday Lake 50K near Lynchburg, Va., the previous weekend instead. But he got sick and had to skip it.

So he contacted CRR member Brenda Gutmann, one of the new directors of the Lovin’ the Hills, and added his familiar name to the 50K field.

To no one’s surprise, Grossman’s homecoming was a triumphant one. He finished the race in a brisk 4:49:42, well ahead of Terre Haute, Ind., resident Thomas Dever (5:05:45) and the other 79 runners. Bloomington, Ind., resident Melissa Beaver was the top female with a time of 5:29:52.

“I had a great time,” Grossman said. “I enjoyed seeing folks that had been involved with the run since I started it two years ago. It was much easier to run in it than it was to direct it. I’m grateful to the Cherokee Road Runners – specifically Brenda Gutmann and Joan Wood, who took over the run.”

In the new 15-mile race, Bloomington, Ind, resident Scott Robertson finished first overall in 1:58:50 and Oxford, Ohio, resident Shizuko Watanabe, who was third overall in 2:20:14, took first among the women.

Full results can be found here.

Frostbite 5K concludes series

Run in snowy and bitterly cold conditions at Cherokee Park this morning, with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, the Frostbite 5K was almost too aptly named.

But it could not have been too unpleasant for Andrew Danner, Jen Alessandro and the other 433 runners and walkers who finished the race, which concluded Fleet Feet Sports Louisville’s annual Polar Bear Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old Danner, who had placed second in both the Reindeer Romp 4K on Dec. 17 and the Snowman Shuffle 4 Mile on Jan. 21, finally took first today to claim the men's overall series title. He completed the five-kilometer course in 16:09.27 - a little more than three seconds ahead of Alan Tobin, 28, who placed second in 16:12.79. Justin Banks, 25, was third in 16:32.73.

Alessandro, 25, won the women’s series title with another first in her division and her highest overall finish (12th) in the three races, posting a time of 18:27.71. She also was the top female (16th overall) in the Reindeer Romp and was second (15th overall) in the Snowman Shuffle.

Katie Braekkan, 27, was second (17th overall) behind Alessandro in 19:15.63 and also finished second in the series standings. Kim Shore, 26, was third (19th overall) in 19:24.06.

Chuck Crowley, 47, and Francine Hagg, 44, won the men’s and women’s masters titles, respectively, and Lance Strange, 52, and Pam Kincaid, 54, won the men’s and women’s grandmasters titles, respectively.

Full results can be found here.

All of the races in the series were certified and sanctioned by USA Track and Field, and 978 people participated in at least one race.

USA Volleyball honors Kordes

Pick a year, any year.

In volleyball, one isn’t very different than another for Ron Kordes.

As Assumption High School’s coach, he has led the Rockets to 12 state titles in the last 14 years and four national titles in the last 10 years. As director of the Kentucky Indiana Volleyball Academy (KIVA), he has built one of the most successful junior club programs in the country. And along the way, he has sent an almost embarrassingly long list of players to Division I college programs.

But USA Volleyball has picked 2005 to recognize Kordes as its Developmental Coach of the Year, and it seems just as good as any to him.

“It’s not anything you wait for,” said Kordes, who already had been named PrepVolleyball.com’s National Coach of the Year. “If it never happens, it never happens. But if it does, it certainly is an honor.”

Before Assumption ran off 43 straight wins to claim a state title and PrepVolleyball.com’s national title, KIVA won more medals (6) than any other club in the country at the USA Junior Olympic Girls’ Volleyball Championships in July. That included a silver for the Kordes-coached 14-and-under team, which, one month earlier, had won gold at the AAU Junior National Girls’ Volleyball Championships for the third straight year. And eight seniors from Assumption and/or KIVA have signed with Division I schools, including All-American Christina Kaelin (Notre Dame).

So, yes, it was a good year for Ron Kordes - but just like most every other year.

The official USA Volleyball announcement can be found here.

Polar Bear Grand Prix update

The Polar Bear Grand Prix will conclude on Saturday with the Frostbite 5K at Cherokee Park, the site for all three races in the annual running series sponsored by Fleet Feet Sports Louisville.

Andrew Danner and Jen Alessandro are the leaders after the first two races, the Reindeer Romp 4K on Dec. 17 and the Snowman Shuffle 4 Mile on Jan. 21.

Danner finished second in both races and, with four points (the total is calculated by adding a runner’s overall rank in each race), has a 10-point lead on Tommie Kendall, who placed seventh twice.

Alessandro finished first among the women (16th overall) in the Reindeer Romp and took second (15th overall) behind Donna Palisca in the Snowman Shuffle, giving her 31 points and a comfortable 18-point lead over Katie Braekkan.

Don Wright and Francine Hagg lead the men and women, respectively, in the Masters division, and Jerry Orange and Pam Kincaid lead the men and women, respectively, in the Grandmasters division.

Full results and rankings can be found here. Further information about the series can be found here.

All of the races in the series are certified and sanctioned by USA Track and Field.

Max Performance Triathlon

Fifty hardy men and women braved the freezing temperatures and completed the debut race of the first annual Max Performance Triathlon Series at Clear Creek Park in Shelbyville, Ky, on Sunday.

Mike Stover and Erica Schuler were the overall winners in the Headfirst Performance Services event, which is the first of four scheduled races in the series sanctioned by USA Triathlon. The race included a three-kilometer run, a six-mile bike and a 400-yard swim (in the park’s indoor pool).

Stover, a 35-year-old Owenton, Ky., resident, posted the fastest overall time and beat 32 other men in 42 minutes, 30.8 seconds. He finished 0:47.9 ahead of 22-year-old Richmond, Ky., resident Tim Prewitt.

Schuler, a 31-year-old Morehead, Ky., resident, completed the course in 44:24.4 - more than four minutes ahead of 35-year-old Amy Clark of Mauckport, Ind. - in a field of 17 women.

Full results can be found here.

The next race in the series will be held Sunday, March 5.