Juan Soto, Erika Shaughnessy Take Rock N Roll Marathon Titles


On a perfect autumn morning, Jonny Wilson successfully defended his Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Half Marathon title on Saturday and Mattie Webb finished first overall in the women’s race.

Wilson, of Flagstaff, AZ, completed the course with a time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, 10 seconds to earn the victory. After leading the opening 5 miles, Justin Garrard finished second in 1:09:23. Kurt Ward of Auburn, AL finished third in 1:09:44.

On the women’s side, it was the first career victory for 23-yearold Webb, who finished in 1:21:35. Her margin of victory was almost a full 2 minutes over 2nd place finisher Tammy Putt (1:23:32). Ellen Ellender of nearby Hilton Head, SC was third in 1:24:03. “It was the first win of my career and I’m very excited,” said Webb, who recently earned her Master’s Degree at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “My goal was to finish top-3 female and as long as I had a lead bicycle escort I knew I was in good position to achieve it today.”

Juan Soto of Gainesville, GA, won the men’s marathon in 2:45:44 and Erika Shaughnessy of Hilton Head, SC, finished first overall in the women’s marathon with a time of 3:02:59.

The marathon and half-marathon started on Bay Street adjacent to Savannah City Hall. Participants traversed a revamped route in 2016, designed to showcase more of Savannah’s charming town squares, historic buildings and canopies of Spanish moss covered trees.

In true Rock ‘n’ Roll fashion, live bands, enthusiastic cheerleaders and spectators lined the race route, concluding with a celebratory finish line festival where Old Crow Medicine Show headlined the Toyota Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert Series at Forsyth Park.

For complete results, photos and more, visit RunRockn- Roll.com/Savannah



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