Cleveland Marathon 5K — M70-74: Will Ross Runs Away With It

• Will Ross wins in 27:44 — an 8:56/mi pace that left the field of 18 in his wake, finishing more than four minutes clear of runner-up Richard Spademan (31:48).
• Tight battle at 3rd–4th: Robert Partezana (38:59) and Gary Zrimec (39:45) were separated by just 46 seconds across 3.1 miles.
• Widest spread in the group: From Ross's 27:44 to Dennis Fiorilli Sr.'s 1:09:57, the M70-74 field covered a range of over 42 minutes — every pace and every effort represented.
• Local flavor: The majority of the field hailed from Northeast Ohio, with outliers traveling from Smith Mountain, VA, Columbus, Moultonborough, NH, and beyond.

Will Ross, 70, made this one look straightforward. Running 8:56 per mile through Cleveland's humid, breezy morning — 67°F with 83% humidity and a 15 mph wind — he posted a 27:44 that no one in the M70-74 group could answer. Richard Spademan, 72, of Avon Lake, was a solid second at 31:48 (10:14/mi), but the gap between them was never really in doubt. These two were in a race of their own.

The real drama unfolded in the 3rd-through-8th range, where seven runners finished between 38:59 and 44:49. Robert Partezana (73, Hinckley) held off Gary Zrimec (74, Parma) for third, with 46 seconds deciding that podium spot at 38:59 to 39:45. Wesley Cowie (41:08), Ron Sr. Lesak (42:30), Lawrence Bach (44:00), and John Richardson (44:49) rounded out a tightly packed mid-field cluster — all six of those finishes falling within a six-minute window.

The back half of the field stretched across a wider range of finish times, with Mark Sullivan (50:41) leading that group through Robert J. Chura, Arthur Jarvis, Robert Rebman, George Readus, and Jerry Mayotte — the latter crossing in 58:20. Gary Dalessandro, Dave Sikorski, Peter Carfagna, and Dennis Fiorilli Sr. closed out the 18-man field, all finishing between 1:06:10 and 1:09:57, with just 47 seconds separating those final four. Eighteen men in their 70s, in a stiff wind and thick humidity — every single one of them earned their finish.