Cleveland Marathon 10K — F65-69: Nemeth leads a strong Ohio contingent through a breezy May morning

• Cheryl Nemeth wins the F65-69 age group in 58:05 (9:21/mi), the only finisher to break the hour mark.
• Runner-up Tammy Wilson-Rice finished just 1:10 back at 59:15 (9:32/mi) — the two front-runners ran a noticeably faster race than the rest of the field.
• Katherine Dixon edged Lori Ulaszewski for 4th, finishing in 1:12:16 versus 1:16:08 — a gap of nearly four minutes.
• All 14 women in the F65-69 field crossed the finish line, spanning a range from 58:05 to 1:52:03.

Cheryl Nemeth of Middleburg Heights made her intentions clear from the start, crossing in 58:05 at a 9:21/mi clip — a crisp effort given the 67°F, humid, and breezy conditions Cleveland served up on race day. She was the only woman in the F65-69 field to break an hour, a margin that made her victory decisive.

Right behind her, Tammy Wilson-Rice of Brookpark gave chase and earned a strong runner-up finish in 59:15 (9:32/mi). The 1:10 gap between first and second is real but tight in the context of a 10K, and Wilson-Rice's effort kept the top of the leaderboard genuinely competitive. Then came a significant drop-off: third-place Lynne Valencic of Lyndhurst crossed in 1:10:45 (11:23/mi), more than 11 minutes behind Nemeth and over a minute ahead of Katherine Dixon's 1:12:16 in fourth.

The middle of the pack saw a spirited cluster, with Lori Ulaszewski (1:16:08), Marianne Mitri (1:18:58), and Daphne Olree (1:19:14) separated by just over three minutes across 5th through 7th. Olree's 1:19:14 edged Mitri's 1:18:58 by only 16 seconds — the tightest battle of the day. Lisa Schroeder, making the trip from Rock Hill, SC, rounded out the top eight in 1:28:28.

The back half of the field brought its own stories of persistence. Wanda Brown of Streetsboro, the oldest finisher at 69, completed the course in 1:42:19, and Theresa Hutchins of Warrensville Heights closed out the group in 1:52:03. All 14 women finished — no small thing on a warm, windy morning in Cleveland.