Cooperation made Ben Wheeler 5K big success
BucksLocalSports Editor
With $15,000 in net proceeds, it appears the Benjamin Wheeler Memorial 5K race was a huge success.
Nearly 800 souls braved snow, ice and bitter cold conditions to participate in the 5K race and 1-mile fun run Sunday, Dec. 30 at Council Rock North. One of the 20 students killed Dec. 14 inside Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School by gunman Adam Lanza, Wheeler was the son of Francine (Lobis) Wheeler, who graduated from Council Rock High School in 1985.
Organized by the Council Rock North girls cross country team coach Cliff Robbins, all proceeds from the 5K race and 1-mile fun run went to the Benjamin Wheeler Memorial Trust Fund.
With less than two weeks to organize the race, just how did Robbins do it? As he tells it, he had a lot of help and was given the green light at several critical junctures along the way.
TKH firVW FDPH IrRP CRSD Superintendent Mark Klein. Though he’s the coach and a former teacher in the district, Robbins says the approval to run the race was never assumed, not with First Night–Newtown activities scheduled at North the next day.
“Considering First Night was taking place the next day, it would have been easy [for Klein] to say ‘can you do this somewhere else?’” said Robbins. “The answer was ‘yes, go ahead; we’ll give you all the support you need.’” “That was major. “Right from the beginning, we had a lot of people who kept saying ‘yes’”
Assistance in assembling the event came from all sides, not the least of which was rendered by race co-director Vickie Hepp (Class of 2011) and Eric Stern, a former Bucks County Running Club president who was put Ln FKDrJH RI WrDIfiF.
Many groups and area businesses came through with aid and assistance, said Robbins, too many to mention here.
Of course, both the Rock North and South boys’ and girls’ teams were well-represented. North senior Ross :LOVRn wDV WKH firVW WR KLW the tape, crossing the line in 16:51. Lindsay Rheiner, a 2011 graduate who is now a sophomore at the Naval Academy, took the women’s title in 19:29. Julie Fricke, now a senior at Maryland, placed 11th.
The Rocks were not the only teams to compete in the race, however. Brothers Ryan and Mike Horgan, both graduates of Holy Ghost Prep, represented the Firebirds well with Ryan WDNLnJ VL[WK DnG 0LNH finishing 11th.
The Pennsbury girls had a bunch running in the race, too, said Robbins, with Falcon freshman runner Hannah Molloy taking the 21st slot.
While Ben’s mother Francine Wheeler (’85) was unable to attend the race (she was part of a ceremony for families of the victims at the Eagles-Giants game at MetLife Stadium), there were other family members who came including the 6-year-old’s uncle and Godfather Steve Lobis, a Morrisville resident and former student of Robbins who now teaches at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville.
Ben’s Godmother, Vickie (Norton) Pellicciotti (’85), not only came to the event, she ran in the 3.1-mile race, FrRVVLnJ WKH finLVK OLnH Ln less than 25 minutes. Another former student of Robbins, Pellicciotti, never ran for the Rock in high school, though she encouraged many an Indian athlete from the sidelines as a former North cheerleader.
Many families came out to run as a group. Nazareth Academy sophomore Veronica Wheeler (no relation), of Bristol, ran the race with her sister Bridget, her brother John, mom Karen DnG GDG -RKn. $OO wHrH finishers with Veronica placing 15th in 20:06. Brother John, a freshman at Holy Ghost, took 44th with a time of 22:29.
The race began and ended at the Council Rock North High School track and runners paid $20 to compete.
The only obstacle Robbins may have found somewKDW GLIfiFuOW WR KurGOH wDV provided by Mother Nature. The night before, a winter storm laid a couple of inches of snow on the Tyler Park course.
On race day when Robbins arrived at the crack of dawn to scout the wintry conditions, he found only a 3-foot path carved through the grounds alongside Newtown Middle School. The coach asked for and got CRSD employees to make the path eight foot wider – on both sides!
“I asked if we could make the path wider and I came back an hour later and it was done,” said Robbins. “Those were the kinds of things where, if you had met resistance, the race wouldn’t have happened.”
Though the race was well-received by many participants, Robbins says he’s not sure if it will become an annual event. The coach is going to speak with Ben’s parents and make a decision from there.
If the event is held again this year, there’s one thing Robbins knows he can’t count on and that’s the complete cooperation of the lower Bucks County community at large.
*** NOTES: Rheiner plays women’s lacrosse for Navy. In 2010, she captured the PIAA Class AAA State Cross Country Championship with a time of 18:42. Wilson placed seventh at the 2012 PIAA Class AAA boys cross country championships, helping the InGLDnV finLVK WKLrG DV D WHDP. Veronica Wheeler recently WRRN firVW SODFH Ln WKH LHKLJK Paul Short Run Girls White 5K race, an event for varsity runners held annually in Bethlehem.