Seven Jefferson County residents finished among the top five in several races during the 2022 Montana Governor’s Cup on Saturday.
While the marathon started off with a comfortable 54-degree temperature, the weather shifted to pouring rain, just in time for the half-marathon to begin. Regardless of the weather, two Clancy residents, Jonna Schwartz and Renae Parker, were able to persevere and claim the top two spots in the women’s half-marathon.
Schwartz, 38, took first place with a time of 1:31:12.07 and Parker, 17, finished in 1:34:22.02.
Parker, a senior who runs for the Jefferson High School cross country and track teams, ran the race alongside fellow teammate Dominick Hurlbert, 15, and cross country coach Karson Klass, 34, splashing each other in the puddles from that morning’s rainstorm. “We ran with our coach,” Parker said. “He made the race so fun.”
Hurlbert is more than just a teammate to Parker; he’s her hypeman, too. After completing the half-marathon, he was more than eager to inform The Monitor of Parker’s most recent state championship in the women’s 3200-meter race three weeks ago. Parker also placed in the 1,600-meter race at the Class B/C state tournament.
Hurlbert, now a sophomore at Jefferson High School, was unable to compete at the state competition due to an injury and was cleared for running only two weeks before the Governor’s Cup. Hurlbert finished in twelfth place with a time of 1:35:10.35. Klass followed in fourteenth with a time of 1:35:21.87.
Luke Mest, another Jefferson High School runner, participated in the Governor’s Cup 5K, placing fifth with a time of 18:53.11. Mest previously placed second in the 3,200-meter race and fifth in the 1,600-meter event at the school’s district meet. Mest will be a junior at Jefferson High School this fall.
Cameron Hooper, 34, of Jefferson City and Nicole Murray, 52, of Whitehall took third and second place in the men’s and women’s 10K races, respectively. Both finished the 6.2-mile stretch in less than 41 minutes. After running the 10K, Murray took 20 minutes to rest and reset before going on to claim first place in the women’s 5K in 19:52.47.
In the men’s half marathon, Michael Kaiser, 39, of Montana City took second with a time of 1:14:26.71.
A total of 73 Jefferson County residents participated in the various Governor’s Cup events.
While the Governor’s Cup’s individual events are most popular, runner’s also had the opportunity to participate in the marathon as a relay team. Twelve teams registered for this event.
The night before the race, four Helena athletes–who had never formally met each other–gathered for team dinner: Nick Mow, Briggs Alsbury, Odessa Zintz, and Brody Ramano. Although the four had trained individually leading up to the event, they had never run together; even so, the group–nicknamed “Team Photos”–went on to win the relay race in 2:48:37.14.
This year marked the forty-eighth anniversary of the Governor’s Cup, a race founded to “provide people with a fun and festive opportunity to celebrate the benefits of exercise and healthy lifestyle choices with their friends and neighbors,” according to the event website. The event also serves as the main fundraiser for The Caring Foundation of Montana, an organization dedicated to providing preventative health care services to low income Montanans.
Patrick Judge, the son of the Governor’s Cup’s founder, participated in the festivities for the first time since 2018. Judge, 52, placed sixth in the men’s 10K.
