Collegiate Running Association Quarter Marathon Trail Championships are Saturday, June 13

Race will be held as part of the inaugural Indiana Urban Wilderness Run

June 10, 2015 - Indianapolis, IN - The Collegiate Running Association’s first National Championship event in Trail Running is taking place this Saturday, June 13, 2015, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Quarter Marathon (10.55K) Championships will be held as part of the inaugural Indiana Urban Wilderness Run, and will be open to both the general public and college students. The race will award a $6,000 prize purse to the top five male and female college students.

Top entries on the men’s side for the inaugural Trail Championships include three of the top four finishers from the CRA 10k Road Race Championships held in March, including Joe Gray (Colorado Springs, CO),

Benjamin Snodgrass (Binghamton, NY), and Will Christian (Norfolk, VA). One of the

most versatile distance runners in the US, Gray has won 9 National Championships

and been a force on the roads, mountains, and trails for the last decade. Gray is

undoubtedly one of the top trail runners in the country and has represented Team

USA 17 times in his career.

Leading the entries on the women’s side is Bethany Sachtleben (Manassas, VA), a recent graduate and Cross Country and Track & Field standout for George Mason University. While at GMU, Sachtleben won numerous Atlantic-10 Championships and qualified for the first round of the NCAA Championships on the Track in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Challenging Sachtleben will be likely be Samantha Jo Bluske (Toledo, OH), an assistant Cross Country and Track & Field coach at Toledo, where she is also pursuing a graduate degree. Bluske has seen success from the mile to the marathon in recent years, and sports personal bests of 16:19 for 5k and 34:16 for 10k.

“We are very excited about our elite field for our first-ever Trail Championships” said CRA co-founder Jon Molz. “On the men’s side, we have three former CRA prize money winners making long trips to our race which we truly appreciate, and on the women’s side we have a few first-time CRA participants that we are thrilled will join us. These are great men and women that have a dedication to both running and education, and those are two things the CRA is passionate about.”

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