Sarah Ogle finished her competitive running season in style Saturday- as the overall female winner of the Ogden 5K.

Ogle, a native of St. Albans, W.Va., crossed the finish line after touring the rain-soaked streets of Wheeling in 18:15, finishing ninth overall out of a 197-runner field.

The 23-year-old former Malone College track and soccer standout bested second-place finisher Amy Beatty, 26, of Beavercreek, Ohio by 27 seconds. Beatty crossed the finish line at 18:42 and finished 12th overall.

Coming in third was Maria Spinnler, 43, of Hagerstown, Md. with a time of 19:54. Fourth and fifth place were captured by 52-year-old Patti Dillon of New London, Conn. with a time of 20:09 and 29-year-old Jeannette Boyd of Union City, Pa. with a time of 20:13, respectively.

It was Ogle's first time running the Ogden 5K, and only her second time running a road race in Wheeling.

Her first experience touring the city's streets came on Friday night when she won the female division of the Ogden Mile with a blistering time of 4:32.60, a time good enough for fourth place overall in the highly competitive event.

For Ogle, the 5K was her last competitive running event until she hits the roads again in the fall.

"I've been training for a while and I set myself up a season with different meets and races," she explained. "This was the last one that was included.

"Now, hopefully, I'll take a couple of weeks off and then start training for cross country, which I've never run before."

Most of Ogle's recent races have been college meets where she runs unattached, such as the Jesse Owens Track Classic earlier this month. In that meet, Ogle finished third in the mile run with a time of 4:57.89.

Ogle specialized primarily in the 800 and 1,500 at Malone. She has run only one other 5K competitively.

"I've always run the shorter stuff but I'm wanting to get a little bit more into the type of distances that I ran in this race," she explained, noting that she finished her only other 5K race in a time of 18:38.
"I really enjoy running and want to be as competitive as possible. I don't think I have enough speed necessarily to be really competitive in the 800, the 1,500 and the mile.

"I'm hoping I can be even more competitive at the 5K level."

When asked if she liked the race and the Wheeling course, Ogle said she certainly did - except for one detail.

"Everything except the start," she laughed.

The 5K had to be restarted after about a half-mile when race organizers realized runners had taken a wrong turn and were no longer on the planned course.

"But overall it was great," Ogle continued. "I didn't mind the rain or anything and I really enjoyed it.

"I liked that the course was different in level - there were hills, downhills and several turns. It made the course really interesting."

Ogle said she didn't get much separation from second-place finisher Beatty until she made the turn off Chapline Street onto 14th Street and could see the finish line at the bottom of the hill.

"We were running most of the time together, but when I saw the finish, I tried to make my kick because I realized we didn't have that much farther to go," Ogle said.

Ogle also said that she'd like to participate in the Ogden race weekend again.

"I really enjoyed myself," she said, "and I hope to be back in the future."