The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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PHOTO GALLERY: 2012 Mankato Marathon

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October 22, 2012

Mound coach reaches goals in men's Half-Marathon

By Joe Tischler Special to The Free Press

MANKATO — Twenty-five-year-old Seth Brickley of Mound can always have training partners ready when he needs one. As an assistant coach with the Mound Westonka cross country and track teams, he can make it part of their practices.

The training paid off as Brickley won the Mankato Half-Marathon Sunday with a record time of 1:09:15,  besting last year’s winner, Peter Gilman of Rochester, by 37 seconds.

This was Brickley’s first time running in the Mankato event. He competed in the Twin Cities Half-Marathon a year ago and thought he would give this one a try.

Brickley wanted to face some good competition and he did. Becker’s Nicholas Jamnick, 23, finished second with a time of 1:10:28 and former Mankato West standout Chris Gruenhagen, 29, of Brookings, S.D., was third in 1:11:01. Gruenhagen coached his high school in Brookings to a third-place finish at the state meet the day before.

Andy Ashender, 25, of Grafton, Wis., ended up fourth in 1:13:11. Rounding out the top five was Blue Earth native Dan Ristau, 28, who came in at 1:20.07. Ristau is a former Minnesota State standout under head coach Mark Schuck.    

Brickley came down to run in Mankato with some goals in mind and was able to obtain every one of them.

“I wanted to be under 1:10 for the half, but my goal was to win,” said Brickley. “Early on I decided to take control; I didn’t want to sit back. I wanted to go for it. I went for it early on and I was able to hold it.”

The top Mankato area finishers were Mike Enfield of Madison Lake who placed 10th at 1:22:42 and North Mankato’s Keith Stenzel who came in 13th at 1:25:09.

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