Barry Dunstan and
Janelle Heusinger Lead Area Runners at Boston

BOSTON - The Boston Marathon celebrated its 106th anniversary on April 15 and 38 Buffalo area runners were among the 14,137 finishers. The fastest performance among local runners was produced by 27-year-old Barry Dunstan with a time of 2:48:42. The Youngstown resident placed 391st overall.

The top area woman finisher was Lackawanna's Janelle Heusinger. Janelle, who is 23, covered the 26 mile Boston course in 3:27:24, good for 733rd place among all 5,119 women finishers.

Cracking the top-1000 and breaking the three-hour "barrier" was Springville's Patrick Occhino. The 38-year-old Occhino pumped his arms in triumph as he crossed the finish line in 2:54:42 - he had not expected to run that fast. His marathon performance was good for 691st place overall and was even better than his Boston finish in last year's race.

Trailing Occhino was Buffalo's Jason McGrath. Jason came tantalizingly close to cracking the coveted 3-hour "barrier" when he crossed the finish line with a chip time of 3:00:17.

Tom Appenheimer, Sr. ran brilliantly to earn the unofficial title of top local masters athlete from Buffalo. Tom blistered the streets of Boston with a remarkable 3:11:37 performance - good for 89th place in his age group (M 55-59). East Aurora's Richard Cassidy also earned praise for his 3:49:24 clocking which placed him 75th in the mens 60-64 age-group.

The top female masters athlete from the Buffao area was Lynn Russenberger of North Tonawanda. Lynn posted a 3:37:10 marathon performance which placed her 251st in her age-group.

The Greater Buffalo Track Club salutes all the local runners who made the pilgrimage to Boston this year. The Boston Marathon race results for these runners and last year's group are available via the links below.