The Post-Searchlight

Tae Ross, who will be a senior with the Bainbridge High School Bearcats cross country team in the fall, and Mareike Haaren, a Thomasville High School junior, captured the men’s and women’s championships in Saturday’s 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) benefit run.

Ross’s overall winning time was 18 minutes, 53 seconds and Haaren’s women’s winning time was 23:16. She was sixth overall.
The 5,000-meter event was one of three Saturday runs at the Earle May Boat Basin. There was also a 10,000-meter (6.2-mile) run and a one-mile kids’ fun run. There were 101 runners in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events.

The runs were coordinated by Joe Miller to benefit a kidney transplant needed by his sister Jessie Marie Marlowe-Cobb.
The 10,000-meter overall winner was Daniel Graham of Bainbridge, with a time of 47:21. The women’s 10,000-meter winner was Davelyn Hines of Thomasville with a time of 54:30.

Special guests and ardent supporters of the runs were kidney transplant recipient Bobby Ray Durden, a retired county extension agent from Havana, Fla., and his family.

Durden said he just wanted to support Saturday’s runs and the great cause they benefit.