By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
After finishing his inaugural stint as Mightymite race director, Rich Trail is ready for some rest.
A month would be nice, but he will take what he can get.
Trail, who also joined the Forrest City School District coaching staff this summer, will head coach one of the junior high football teams and one of the track teams.
Summer football drills are scheduled to begin Aug. 6.
That means the month-long rest may only be a few days.
Trail replaced Kenny Worley this year, who had coordinated the race for the past five years.
Trail didn't have time to test the waters, he was thrown into the annual race from the deep end of the pool, so to speak.
He treaded water up until Saturday morning, the day of the race.
"Everything went smoothly," Trail said. "We had some minor problems, but nothing that jeopardized the event."
Trail had a lot of good help. At least when push came to shove, he did.
Just a week or so before the race, Trail had issued a plea for volunteers to help in almost every area.
"We had plenty of good help and that is the reason why this event was successful once again," Trail said.
Saturday morning, help arrived for the 18th running of the annual triathlon.
Trail attributed the success of this year's Mightymite, not only to the volunteers, but also to a few changes initiated to help smooth the event.
For the first time, a professional timing crew was utilized and the awards ceremony was held almost immediately after the final runner crossed the finish line.
"In the past, the awards ceremony was held later in the afternoon," Trail said. "We had some good positive feedback from the runners by moving it up."
Of the 270 who entered the race, 243 runners finished the 16.4-mile course in just under two hours. The cut-off number this year was 400, but the entries fell short of that mark.
"The numbers have declined a little over the past couple of years, but I think that's just because there are so many more triathlons now than there was when the Mightymite started in 1984," Trail said.
There were also two first-time winners -- Erik Leamon of Conway (formerly of Wynne) won the male open division in a time of 59:58 while Lesley Brainard of Collierville, finished in just over an hour and six minutes to win the women's open division.
Trail said he will most likely stay on as director for another year, but for now, he is only thinking about relaxing.
"The Mightymite is one of those things that from the outside looking in, you don't realize how much work there is to getting it all together," Trail said. "But, it was a lot of work because I went into it having never been around it before and now with the first one under my belt, I don't think the future ones will be as stressful as the first. I've learned and I know what to expect."
Trail said he is still learning and listening to the triathletes who compete in the race year after year.
"I file away for future reference, everything the athletes tell me," Trail said. "Even Saturday, with the changes we made this year, several of the runners came to me with ideas and ways to improve the race in the future. There were no complaints, just constructive ideas. Even some of the volunteers had some ideas we may put into effect."
Right now, however, Trail just wants some rest.
1. Lesley Brainard, 30, Collierville 1:06:40
2. Anne Marie Sheldon, 29, NLR 1:08:24
3. Marda Kaiser, 27, Memphis 1:09:08
4. Joy Johnson, 24, Germantown 1:09:43
5. Krissa Thoreson, 27, North Little Rock 1:09:54
6. Lucia Colbert, 43, Cordova 1:10:18
7. Amy Daily, 29, Hot Springs 1:10:23
8. M. C. Jermann, 34, Memphis 1:10:38
9. Ginny Wood, 49, Cordova 1:12:00
10. Karen Harkins, 45, Germantown 1:13:25
11. Kara Hobart, 36, Clarksdale 1:14:59
12. Julie Davidzuk, 24, West Memphis 1:15:25
13. Victoria Johnson, 26, Bartlett 1:16:10
14.Anke Buckhold, 29, Cordova 1:16:13
15. Nanette Farris, 33, Memphis 1:16:44
16. Mary-Ellen Kelly, 33, Memphis 1:17:08
17. Andrea Walter, 29, Memphis 1:17:31
18. Cheryl Senter, 43, Cordova 1:17:47
19. Catherine Snyder, 42, Memphis 1:17:49
20. Jodi Johnson, 29, Cordova 1:18:26
21. Tonya Robinson, 36, Bartlett 1:19:59
22. Jeanine Watts, 40, Lamar, Miss. 1:20:07
23. Susan Struminger, 41, Cordova 1:20:09
24. Amy Garner, 41, Cordova 1:20:36
25. Ashlee David, 14, Cordova 1:20:41
26 Lisa Burch, 42, Byhalia 1:20:43
27 Lisa Marie Longinot, 39, Little Rock 1:20:48
28 Emily Hartman, 33, Little Rock 1:21:02
29 Pam Green, 45, Memphis 1:21:54
30 Pamela Tate, 33, Cordova 1:22:43
1. Erik Leamon, 26, Conway 59:58
2. Dean Phillips, 26, Millington 1:00:22
3. Forrest Owens, 31, Memphis 1:00:40
4. Todd Hink, 31, Clinton 1:00:54
5. John Rohde, 41, Vilonia 1:01:52
6. Chris Petrancosta,16, Hot Springs 1:02:23
7. Darwin Davis, 31, Collierville 1:02:42
8. Robert Burditt, 30, Memphis 1:03:07
9. Timothy Brennan, 37, Memphis 1:03:09
10. Kevin Leathers, 36, Cordova 1:03:14
11. Bill Bizot, 35, Cordova 1:03:28
12. John Saxton, 29, Conway 1:04:32
13. Shane Ozment, 35, Little Rock 1:04:55
14. Roy Harkins, 43, Germantown 1:05:01
15. Sean Norton, 43, Alexandria 1:05:07
16. Allen Johnson, 35, Cordova 1:05:12
17. Timothy Linn, 15, Germantown 1:05:23
18. Jay Williams, 22, Memphis 1:06:15
19. Dan Applegate, 35, Memphis 1:06:31
20. Rickey Utley, 33, Conway 1:07:07
21. D. J. Pitts, 30, West Memphis 1:08:40
22. Andrew Walton, 38, Cordova 1:09:21
23. Jonathon Mosteller, 25, Memphis 1:09:42
24. Jamie Sanders, 35, Collierville 1:09:46
25. Kevin Golden, 34, Maumelle 1:09:50
26. Jeff Skinner, 47, Memphis 1:09:51
27. Richard Crenshaw, 43, Cordova 1:09:55
28. Mark Oliver, 35, Conway 1:10:09
29. Robert Gentry, 36, Helena 1:10:14
30. Jeff Goff, 41, Conway 1:10:17
Poison improved to 13-1 for the season with a 13-11 win over Sanyo Monday night in adult men's softball at the Sports Complex.
Elite Security stayed close with a 15-13 win over S.S.A. to improve to 12-2 for the year.
The league has four games left to be played. In other men's action from Monday, Patton & Taylor defeated Boar's Head 16-11, Miller Insurance run-ruled Food Giant 20-3 and Forrest City Young Guns edged Kerby's 16-15.
In women's play, the tie for first remained between the West Helena Odd Sox and Chism Concrete.
The Odd Sox put down Clark Appraisal 8-1 and Chism, which finished second Saturday at the women's district tournament, put down First National Bank 18-8.
Purple Haze defeated Super Center 17-0 in the final game of the night.
The women's league has one game left to play -- a rain out makeup game Thursday, July 26.
The Odd Sox will win the league title should they finish in a tie with Chism. The Odd Sox have defeated Chism two of the three times they have gone head-to-head this season.
Food Giant won 13 straight games after losing their first two games of the youth baseball season to claim the Bambino (9-10) League championship. The team, coached by Terry Laws, Matt Findley and Gary Jayroe, was comprised of team members: Rich Jayroe, Findley Scott Laws, Raymond Patillo, Justin Cook, Zach Hoskins, Chandler Sorrells, Cody Broussard, Daries Banks, Tevin Hughes, Jacob Hoskins and Blake Duch.
The Forrest City School District will hold physical examinations Wednesday, July 25, at 8 a.m., at Mustang Arena.
The physicals are for all male and female students, 7th-12th grades, who plan to participate in athletics during the 2001-02 school year.
The exams will be given again on Saturday, July 28, at 9 a.m., at the office of Dr. Curtis Patton.
* Palestine-Wheatley School District will hold athletic physicals on Thursday, Aug. 2, at 8 a.m. at the high school cafeteria.
The physicals are for all students who plan to participate in all boys and girls athletics during the upcoming school year as well as for cheerleading.
The Forrest City 12-year-old All-Stars defeated Hazen 9-4 Monday in the opening game of the Ms. Mac Classic at Des Arc.
Forrest City will play Little Rock Junior Deputy tonight at 6 p.m.
Torey Rogers and Larry Bean each scored two runs for Forrest City.
Kentrell Buchanan and Rylan Nimocks combined for the pitching duties.
Douglas Drake, Randy Miller and Matthew Vaccaro, all of Forrest City, recently attended the Joe Hollis Arkansas State University Indian Football camp. The trio played on the "Braves" team while at camp which went undefeated. All three will be eighth graders at Forrest City Junior High when school begins next month and all three are planning to play for the junior high football teams. Drake is the son of Bill and Lisa Drake; Miller is the son of Marty Miller and Penny Malone and Vaccaro is the son of Victor and Anne Claire Vaccaro.