Kovacik wins Turkey Trot
Approximately 2,000 participants gathered in the rear parking lot at Cape Coral Hospital Thanksgiving morning for the 30th Annual Turkey Trot 5k.
The individuals ranged from ages five to 84.
Along with getting some exercise, the runners took off with a goal of crossing the finish line, and perhaps in enough time to win an award.
Zach Kovacik, a 19-year-old Cape Coral resident, set the pace. He ran the 5k in 15 minutes, 58 seconds to place first overall.
Kovacik, a North Fort Myers High graduate, is a former state qualifier in high school cross country and track.
He is one of several individuals that earned awards at Thursday’s Turkey Trot. Awards were given to the male and female overall runner, male and female masters, male and female grand masters, male and female senior grand masters and various male and female age divisions.
In scoring the event, the Fort Myers Track Club introduced a new ChronoTrack Timing System this year, which allowed the club members to gather the results faster than the times each individual took during the 5k.
The ChronoTrack Timing System is a device that is placed on the participants shoe that looks like a roll of film. The chip timing is scanned to the individuals race number to record the final time once they cross the finish line.
It showed a time of 18:44 for Lisa Buohler, 40, of Lehigh. She took first in the female overall standings.
In the masters’ division, Guy Scheiwiller, 42, took first in the male competition with a time of 17:14. Laura Sophiea, 54, of Atlanta, was awarded the top female spot after clocking a time of 21:06.
The grandmaster male and female awards were given to Cape Coral resident Andreas Boehm, 51, and Jeannie Rice, 61, of Mentor, Ohio.
The Senior Grandmaster winners were Fort Myers residents Skip Mullaney, 70, and Astrid Soll, 64.
All the children who participated in the Tot Trot received a ribbon and T-shirt. Bagels from the Bagel Factory, bananas, grapes, orange juice, Gatorade and water were provided for all participants during the Turkey Trot event.
The funds that were collected from the Turkey Trot will go toward purchasing equipment for the new Weigner Taeni Center for Emergency Services at Cape Coral Hospital’s three new pediatric treatment rooms.
The Fort Myers Track Club has donated almost $20,000 for the new pediatric treatment rooms from last year’s event. The club has pledged to provide the hospital with $100,000.