MANASSA—Alamosa High School Senior Chad Palmer and a Calvin College graduate Jessica Koster were this year’s overall winners during the 34th Annual Pioneer Days 5K held in Manassa on Saturday.

This year the race appeared to be even bigger than previous years as more than 420 runners took part in the race. The well organized race was not expecting this kind of turnout as you noticed runners who had makeshift bibs with their name on it as the registration table had ran out of numbers at 400.

Koster, a recent graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan entered the race a two-time defending champion as she won in 2008 with a time of 18:46 and she won last year’s race in 18:06.

Before the race, race organizer Ed Creery thanked the fans for their support in making this the biggest annual race in Southern Colorado. He recognized former race winners and reminded racers that the course record belonged to John Esquibel, who still ran on Saturday, who ran in a time of just 15 minutes flat – the course record.

As the race began this year the normal cannon that goes off to start the race decided not to wake up as early as the runners and the race had to start when Creery yelled “Go!”

As the runners made their way down the gravel road at the base of Manassa’s “M” Mountain around the two-mile spot, the cannon decided to wake up and blast off.

Palmer, a three-time state qualifier for the Alamosa Mean Moose cross country team, proved he was excited for the upcoming cross country season as he won the race in 17:57.

Adams State College’s new Assistant Sports Information Director Scott Kretzmann, who is normally a mountain race runner, was 25 seconds back as he finished in second place with a time of 18:25 in his first time running the race.

“This race is such a great deal, you get a well-organized race and a t-shirt for just ten bucks,” said Kretzmann after the race. “It’s just an awesome race.”

Koster was the first female runner through the chute as she finished the race in 18:41.

The next female runner was former Alamosa Mean Moose state champion Lindsey Sowards as she finished the race in 19:08. Sowards, now a college runner at BYU, ran her first race since November when she suffered a season-ending injury.

The third female runner was a member of last year’s Alamosa Mean Moose 4A State Championship team and freshman at Adams State College, Lauren Martin. With the effort, Martin finished in second place behind Sowards in the 16-19 year old age division.