(Photo by Joe Imel)

Phillimon Hanneck spent half of Saturday’s 20th annual Bowling Green 10K Classic cruising along at a nice pace, not even breaking a sweat.At about the halfway mark, Hanneck decided to up the stakes by picking up the pace.”We were just running even, I guess,” Hanneck said of the race’s lead pack. “The last 5K’s I decided to pull away. I just wanted to run my own pace and see if anyone would come with me.”No one did, allowing Hanneck to coast to victory in his first Classic appearance with a time of 28 minutes, 51 seconds. The win also gave Hanneck the USA Track and Field Men’s 10K National Championship title. Hanneck’s nearest competitor, second-place finisher Andre Williams of Arlington, Va., was 15 seconds behind.”To be honest with you, I don’t really care what others are doing,” said Hanneck, a native of Zimbabwe who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and lives in Clackamas, Ore. “I like to run at my own pace.”In the women’s 10K, Kenya’s Teresa Wanjiku won her second consecutive race. Last year, Wanjiku braved a steady rainfall for the victory. On Saturday, Wanjiku ran under sunny skies to a win in 32:14. Wanjiku’s time was the second-best ever in the women’s race, behind only Anne Hannam’s 31:33 winning time in 1988.”I liked today because it wasn’t humid and it wasn’t cold,” Wanjiku said. “The weather was so beautiful.”Russia’s Lidiya Girgoryeva finished second in 33:30, followed by Katie McGregor of Ann Arbor, Mich., who turned in a time of 33:44. Former Western Kentucky University runner Breeda Dennehy Willis of Ireland was fourth in 34:50.In the men’s competition, Warren East High School graduate Jimmy Hearld ran a strong race to take fourth-place honors in 29:22. Peter De La Cerda of Alamosa, Colo., was third in 29:06. Hearld, preparing for the upcoming Chicago Marathon in three weeks, was pleased with his performance but still wants to win the Classic.”I just kept picking off runners in the last three miles,” Hearld said. “A lot of that marathon training helped out, all that strength running. My goal in life is to win this thing one day.”Hearld wasn’t the only crowd favorite in the race Saturday. For the 20th anniversary of the race, several past winners competed once again. Five-time winner Nick Rose, who captured the inaugural Bowling Green (then Wendy’s-Daily News) 10K Classic in 1980, won the master’s division with an impressive time of 32:15.”The second woman, I know,” said Rose, who finished one second behind Wanjiku. “That’s the first time I’ve been beaten by a woman. She ran great. She’s a world class athlete.”Rose, who also won the race from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1986, admitted the 10K course seemed much harder than it once did.”I never really noticed how hard that first mile was,” Rose said. “Today I noticed it. It’s a sign of the times. I’m getting older and I’m not as fit.”Former Western All-American and two-time winner (1994 and 1996) Sean Dollman also came back to run. Dollman hadn’t run at all since retiring from the professional circuit in 1996.”I got the call six weeks ago,” Dollman said. “They said they were having the 10K and they wanted me to come back. I said ‘That’ll be fun.’ When they said they wanted me to run, I said ‘Well, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.'”It took me three days to find my running shoes.”Nevertheless, Dollman finished in 47th place overall with a respectable time of 35:21.”It’s good to be back in Bowling Green and running in this race,” Dollman said. “Tommorrow, I’m going to feel it.”Other past winners who competed Saturday were defending champion Dan Browne (1998), Steve Jones (1988), Ed Eyestone (1990) and Priscella Welch (1984). Welch won the women’s master’s division race.Race director Rick Kelley was happy with Saturday’s turnout.”We were very pleased,” Kelley said. “Things just seemed to go like clockwork. Our volunteers did a fantastic job of getting everything together. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful day.”