Katherine Stettler
Ed Housel
2007 Runners of the Year

The six race directors of the Western New York Ultra Series have unanimously selected two recipients of the 2007 Western New York Ultra Series Runner of the Year.  Our intent was to select a single runner for the honor.  In previous years, this task has been easy as a single runner dominated (e.g., 2006 when Becky Harman was the overall winner of three races).  This year, reflecting the growth of ultrarunning in Western New York, there were many runners with notable performances (see the list of additional runners considered below).  After considerable deliberation, the race directors concluded that the accomplishments of two runners rose above the rest and both deserved the designation as Runners of the Year.

Katherine Stettler
Stettler won by winning or tying for first woman in all three races she started this year.  At the BPAC Six Hour Endurance Run Stettler and  Becky Harman ran together for the entire race and tied for fourth place overall with 41.75 miles.  Stettler's seventh overall finish in 4:34:00 at the Green Lakes Endurance Runs 50K was particularly noteworthy... she ran negative splits over four laps of a deceptively difficult course and running the fastest last lap of all 67 finishers in the 50K to chase down the early open woman leader. 

For her third race, Stettler returned to the roads with the CanLake50 50K (32.6 miles).  The near record heat on race day made the event more challenging than expected yet Stettler finished second overall in 5:16:35 for a new women's record and the fourth best time run over the course.  With her three wins, Stettler joins Todd Baum (2004) and Becky Harman (2006) as the only runners to ever score a maximum 300 points in the series.  

Ed Housel
Housel was "Mr. Consistency"... with high-scoring finishes in five of six possible events.  His lowest point scoring races were the BPAC Six Hour where he still finished second overall & second master with 42.25 miles for 93.51 points and the CanLake50 50 Mile where he finished third overall and second master in 7:27:06 for 94.11 points. 

Housel's lowest category finish was at the Highland Forest 1 2 3 where he was third master and third overall in 4:40:16, less than nine minutes behind the race winner and good for 96.97 points.  His lowest overall finish was fourth overall in 4:15:25 at the very competitive Finger Lakes 50K.  But, as the three runners ahead were all open runners, Housel was first master and scored a full 100 points.   Housel notched another category win for 100 points at the Mendon Trail Runs 50K with his third overall 4:29:50 finish.

Stettler and Harman will receive, from Fleet Feet Sports Rochester, a custom-embroidered technical jacket in celebration of their accomplishments.

Patrick Hamel - under 4 hours at the Finger Lakes 50K, only 20 seconds off the Ranier Koch course record at Mendon 50K. These are believed to be the fastest ever non-winning times at these races.  If Hamel had run a third race in the series, he would have been the runaway winner in Open Men.

Brian Murray - two overall wins (45 miles at BPAC and 4:31 at Highland Forest) ahead of Housel. But, finished well behind Housel in the heat at the CanLake50 50 Mile.  If Murray had started and won in a fourth race, he could have taken the Masters category.