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  • Dustin Mettler comes into the final quarter-mile stretch of the Mayor’s 5K Road Race on Saturday in Velma. Mettler won with a time of 16 minutes, 3 seconds. Greg Crews/The Duncan Banner

    Dustin Mettler

  • Tara Davies, left, and Sammy Kreiger come into the home stretch of the race Saturday. Davies had the fastest time among women (23:33), while Davies was a close second with a time of 23:38. Greg Crews/The Duncan Banner

    Tara Davies and Sammy Kreiger
July 14, 2012

Mettler cruises to another 5K title

Greg Crews The Duncan Banner

VELMA — Dustin Mettler crossed the finish line, took a few deep breaths and quickly took on the appearance of a man who had just wrapped up his morning stroll.

Nothing about Mettler’s casual attitude let on that he had just bested a field of 124 runners by more than a minute and a half.

The Duncan High School graduate was on a different level than everyone else Saturday, crossing the finish line of the Mayor’s 5K Road Race in 16 minutes and 3 seconds, finishing 1:35 ahead of the next best runner.

For Mettler, who just wrapped up his senior cross country season at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, it was yet another 5K title, after winning the Founder’s Day 5K in Duncan on June 23, with a time of 16:24.

Including the 1-mile fun run/walk, the event had around 200 participants and raised in the neighborhood of $1,500-$2,000 for the Velma-Alma High School cross country program.

“I think (it went) good. I’ve had lots of help and organization was good as far as our workers doing a good job of keeping everything going,” said race organizer and Velma-Alma cross country coach Jerry Loveall, who won the men’s 40-49-year-old division with a time of 23:19. “We started this last year, and I had no idea what the response would be and we had about 150 people total last year, and this year we are close to 200 ... so, I’m real pleased with that.”

Most of Loveall’s current crop of cross country runners took part in the race, as well as a handful of his former runners.

Zach Johnson, a 35-year-old former Velma-Alma High School cross country runner, posted a time of 17:38 to finish second overall.

Tara Davies of Duncan was the overall top finisher on the women’s side, crossing the line in 23:33, edging Sammy Kreiger by five seconds.

Donny Sutton, 55, and Skeeter Hogue, 66, gave the young guys a run for their money as both earned spots in the top 10. Sutton ran a time of 20:47 to place sixth, while Hogue was ninth with a time of 22:02.

Velma’s Russ Butler was the youngest runner in the top 10. The 13-year-old finished eighth with a time of 21:30.

Duncan’s Ty Hobbs, 15, shaved more than 2 minutes off his time in the Founder’s Day 5K, where he finished eighth overall, crossing the finish line in 19:05 to earn fourth place.

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