by Bill Shaw

Great Texas Mosquito Chase Photo Gallery

Rudy Rocha (leading), 31, of Baytown left the lead runners in the swarm of 110 participants early in the Great Texas Mosquito Festival Chase, buzzed around the carnival grounds of Clute and posted a record mark on the USA Track & Field 5K course.

Rocha set a burning 5:12 race pace in the morning heat and humidity and finished in 16:07, 13 seconds faster than previous record holder John Reich of Pearland. Rocha led second-place finisher Cornelio Castanon, 18, a recent Bay City High School Graduate by 25 seconds.

Castanon finished in 16:32, and Sweeny High School senior Randall Krauskopf, 17, finished third overall in 17:10, 38 seconds behind Castanon.

Like Rocha, Susan Walters, 38, of Wallis, Tex., built a big lead early in the race and finished 21st overall and first in the women's competition in 19:37, a 6:20 pace that put her 1:38 ahead of the second-place female finisher Bonnie Jo Barron, 41, of Houston, who finished in 21:51. Walters was 1:01 short of the contest record mark posted in 1997 by Jones Creek Local Melissa Hurta. Kimberly Pilcher, 40, of Houston shadowed Barron throughout the race and finished 26 seconds behind her for third place in the women's competition in 22:17.

In the one-mile Chase, Leno Rios, 27, of the Houston Tornados finished first for the fifth year in a row in 5:03, 10 seconds slower than last year and 17 seconds off his 4:46 mile record posted in 1999. Rios' wife Maria, 27, in her first one-miler, finished first for the women in 6:44, 1:02 off the contest mile record established in 1996 by Lisa Bidelspach of Houston.