Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Title: BUCKNELL BREAKS AWAY TO REACH THE COAST FIRST
Date: August 29, 1999

Summary: With a sub-5:00 pace on Leg 35, the defending elite champion wins one of the closest races in the history of the Hood to Coast


More than 17,000 runners and walkers laid thankful eyes on the Pacific Ocean on Saturday and celebrated their completion of the adventure known as the Hood to Coast Relay.


Jeff Morganti did more than look at the ocean, and did more than simply run in the 194.6-mile relay race.The 32-year-old electrical engineer broke open one of the closest races in the 18-year history of the event with a 4:55-mile pace on Leg 35 that pushed the Adidas-sponsored Bucknell Alumni Distance Team to its second consecutive elite men's championship.


At the end of Leg 34 -- about 10 miles from Seaside -- Bucknell led the Princeton Running Company by three seconds. That's when Morganti took over.


"I never looked back," said Morganti, still wet after cooling off in the ocean. "I've run that leg every time I've come out here so I know it pretty well."


By the time Morganti passed off 6.7 miles later, Princeton was no longer in sight. He had given his team a comfortable two-minute lead, which it held to the end.


Bucknell finished in a time of 17 hours, 2 minutes and 25 seconds. Princeton -- a team comprised of former college runners from St. Joseph's, Villanova, Penn State and Princeton -- came in at 17:04:46.


"It was tremendous," Bucknell team captain Ray Sullivan said. "This is why you come out here, to be in a race like this. It was as close as we've ever had."


The teams swapped the lead about eight times after leaving Timberline Lodge on Friday night and were virtually side by side during legs 30 through 35.


The race might have even been more dramatic, with four or five teams scrambling to reach the beach first, if not for a wrong turn off Pittsburg Road on Leg 19.


That's where three of the contending teams -- the Runnin' Woodies, the Michigan State Alumni Team and Chinook Winds Racing -- got sidetracked. They took a wrong turn onto Gensman Road and went more than two miles before they discovered their mistake.


"The race is an adventure," Hood To Coast founder Bob Foote said. "All teams have to realize they need to be self-reliant. We try to have a volunteer at as many turns as we have available for. But we can't have somebody at all of them."


Chinook Winds, of Seattle, was third in 17:22:22, followed by the Lactic Acid Droppers from Akron, Ohio, in 17:25.15. The Runnin' Woodies and Michigan State, were fifth and sixth, respectively.


The Heart Breakers of Portland won the elite women's race, beating the Black Toe Bandits of Issaquah, Wash., by 33 minutes.


The first trickle of finishers in the Portland to Coast walk and Portland to Coast High School Challenge was greeted on the coast by perfect running conditions -- cool with a gray canopy of low-lying clouds.


The sun didn't join the festivities until after 1 p.m., by which time the largest relay in the world had produced a river of runners, walkers and minivans that spilled into Seaside.


The sun-drenched beach party grew in size throughout the day to an estimated 65,000.


New starting times for the walkers, who began their 126-mile journey in Portland's East Delta Park, helped reduce the annual gridlock that has long been one of the race's unfortunate fixtures.


Note: A non-fatal shooting just before 10 p.m. Friday near the intersection of Southeast Bell Avenue and Southeast May Street in Milwaukie caused a minor disruption in the race. "A shooting unrelated to the Hood to Coast did occur, and we had to re-route for about one mile," said Linda Stirling, director of marketing and public relations for the relay.


You can reach Doug Binder at 503-221-8161 or by e-mail at dougbinder@news.oregonian.com