Ossining resident Paul Mwangi captured the 25th Annual Queens Half-Marathon Saturday, covering the 13.1-mile course in 1:08.05 to win the crown for the second time in three years.
The 36-year-old Mwangi started the course, which began just outside of Herman A. MacNeil Park and snaked through the neighborhoods of College Point and Malba before finishing within the park itself, at a 5:14 clip for the first mile before breaking away in the second mile. Ozone Park’s Arsenio Ortiz finished a distant second, a position he held most of the way, in 1:09.34.
“I like the race because of the rolling hills,” Mwangi said. “Since the weather was cold and windy, the times weren’t that good.”
The first member of the host College Point Road Runners Track Club was 56-year-old Julio Aguirre, whose 1:22.38 earned him first place in the 55-59 age group and 55th place overall.
The first female to cross the finish line was Connecticut’s Allison Kerr, who broke the tape in 1:22.57.
The Hellgate Road Runners, led by Richard Chern’s 1:31.12, was the first male team from Queens to score, finishing 12th overall with 1,464 points.
Among the political figures on hand were City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside), state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), College Point Board of Trade President Fred Mazzarello and Mark McMillan, director of Constituent Affairs for Queens Borough president Helen Marshall.
“I saw this half-marathon grow into the huge event that it is,” said Avella, former president of the College Point Sports Association. “It’s a tribute to College Point and Leo Nicholas and the College Point Road Runners they are able to organize … and see it get bigger and bigger every year. They are to be congratulated for putting it together.”
Nicholas, a College Point resident, was one of the founders of the event and still holds his position of race director. More than 2,130 participants finished the race this year.
“Everything went very well,” Nicholas said. “We had good comments from the runners. People enjoyed it and we had a good day for running.”
The 13th Annual Skaggs-Walsh 5K was also held Saturday in College Point, with Williamsburg resident Joe Tumbarello finishing in first place with a time of 16:39, just two seconds in front of second-place Kelsie Louie.
Tumbarello, who made his debut in the race, took the lead at the two-mile mark and never trailed again.
Team wide, Len Palacios of Fresh Meadows finished fifth in 17:39 and helped lead Quantum Feet to the team title with 141 points.
Also scoring for Quantum Feet were Doug Barry, with 20:14 for 21st place overall; Michael Russons, who finished in 28th place at 20:46; Matt Farran, with 20:51 for 29th place; and Kevin Morrissey, with 23:29 for 58th place.
