Kimmel and Scott Win Jupiter Peak Steepechase and La Sportiva Mountain Cup

This year’s La Sportiva Mountain Cup came down to its tenth and final race, the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase run in Park City, Utah on Saturday, August 6. Meghan Kimmel and Jared Scott both showed up, won their races, and, in so doing, won the 2011 Mountain Cup.

Those victories weren’t easy. First off, the Steeplechase climbs and descends 3,000′+ during its 15 off-road miles. As with the previous LSMC race, the La Sportiva Table Rock Trail Run, no fewer than nine top Mountain Cup competitors showed up. In fact, all five women and four of the five men in final top five of this year’s Mountain Cup standings raced Jupiter Peak. Add to that the fact that the semi-annual Outdoor Retailer show was being held in nearby Salt Lake City and you get runners like Luke Nelson, Nicolas Mermoud, and Ty Draney out for some Saturday morning fun. Heck, even the spectators were speedy with many time USATF ultra champ Dave Mackey and 2011 Mt. Washington  and Canadian Death Race champ Rickey Gates in attendance!

Nick Halliday of Park City, 14, relaxes after finishing his longest ever trail race.

After kicking things off with our LSMC race coverage, we’ll take a look at the Mountain Cup standings. Next, we’ll move on to our La Sportiva shoe giveaway contest before calling for your comments and finishing up with the full La Sportiva Mountain Cup schedule.

The Race
Men’s Race
Jared Scott knows how to take things to wire. He crested Jupiter Peak with a nearly 30 second lead before Matt Byrne passed him a couple miles into the descent. Scott battled back and opened a slight lead that he held through the final downhill switchbacks. In the end, Scott (1:51:37) won by just 11.5 seconds over Byrne (1:51:48). For those who don’t remember, these two were separated by 3 seconds at the prior Mountain Cup race.

Ultrarunner and ski-mo racer Luke Nelson (1:55:35) showed his versatility by finishing third. Bernie Boettcher (1:56:12) had a strong enough performance in the series finale to take fourth while Jason Bryant (2:01:17) closed out his Mountain Cup season with a fifth.

Other notable men include Nico Mermoud (7th man – 2:04:09) and Ty Draney (11th man – 2:06:52). What the heck, I’ll include myself in there as I ran what was either my fourth or fifth Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. While I’ve not done any speedwork or intensity training in a loooooooong time, I ran a 7 minute personal best in 2:14:06. That was good enough for 14th guy (good for 2 LSMC points under last year’s scoring system). Having followed (and raced) the top women of the LSMC for the past three years, my position relative to them showed me I had a strong race.

Luke Nelson, Jared Scott, and Matt Byrne after the 2011 Jupiter Peak Steeplechase.

Men’s Top Five

1. Jared Scott – 1:51:37
2. Matt Byrne – 1:51.48
3. Luke Nelson – 1:55:35
4. Bernie Boettcher – 1:56:12
5. Jason Bryant – 2:01:17

Women’s Race
Megan Kimmel (2:11:14) took the lead from the start and never looked back. All she needed to do to insure her series win was to beat Ashley Arnold and she did so by almost five minutes. Lauren Arnold (2:15:30) bested her sister this race to take second, while Ashley (2:15:59) followed less than 30 seconds back to finish third. Alison Bryant (2:18:32) closed out her series with a fourth place finish. Melanie Clayton (2:18:32) was close behind in fifth. Series contender Rachel Cieslewicz (2:23:42), who was nursing a knee injury from a fall a week earlier at the Speedgoat 50k, managed a ninth place finish.

Women’s Top Five

1. Megan Kimmel – 2:11:14
2. Cynthia Arnold – 2:15:30
3. Ashley Arnold – 2:15:59
4. Alison Bryant – 2:18:16
5. Melanie Clayton – 2:18:32

Full Results
Full results are available.

La Sportiva Mountain Cup Standings
Women
Meghan Kimmel closed out her season with a big race win to take home her fourth straight La Sportiva Mountain Cup. With her third place showing last weekend, Ashley Arnold held onto second place in the series. Lauren Arnold’s second place at Jupiter Peak earned her enough points to move past Rachel Cieslewicz into third, while Cieslewicz moved back to fourth. Alison Bryant held onto the final money position through the final race.

Megan Kimmel celebrates her race and series victories with La Sportiva NA President Jonathan Lantz.

Final Women’s Rankings

1. Megan Kimmel – 119 points
2. Ashley Arnold – 104 pts
3. Lauren Arnold – 91 pts
4. Rachel Cieslewicz – 77 pts
5. Alison Bryant – 75 pts

Men
With the race win, Jared Scott moved past Ryan Woods to win the 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup. Scott’s fierce competition the final two series races, Matt Byrne, also passed Woods to take second in the series. Woods, who led the series standings from the first race through the ninth race, but didn’t run Jupiter Peak, fell back to third. Jason Bryant and Bernie Boettcher held on to their respective fourth and fifth place series rankings.

Final Men’s Rankings

1. Jared Scott – 117 points
2. Matt Byrne – 99 pts
3. Ryan Woods – 92 pts
4. Jason Bryant -69 pts
5. Bernie Boettcher – 66 pts

Official Mountain Cup standings can be found here.

iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup Contest
Eddy Compagno Zoan of Los Angeles, California, you’ve just won a pair of La Sportiva Sky 2.0s! Contact us to claim your prize.

In three seasons of covering the Mountain Cup and with 29 previous shoe giveaways, I don’t think I’ve ever given away the same model two races in a row. That’s about to change, as I wore the La Sportiva Skylite 2.0 for Jupiter Peak, loved its performance, and want to give you another chance to win a pair. The Skylite 2.0 have the enhanced stability that I love in the Crosslite 2.0 with a lower platform in a 9.5 ounce package (men’s US 9).

If you’d like to win and try out the La Sportiva Skylite 2.0 yourself? Simply leave your name and town (in the US or Canada) in a comment before September 5th. As a reminder, if you enter to win the Skylite 2.0 you’ll also automatically be eligible to win the grand prize to be awarded in September. Read up on the iRunFar.com La Sportiva Mountain Cup giveaway grand prize.

Call for Comments
If you ran the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase, please leave a comment letting everyone know what you think about the event.

The La Sportiva Mountain Cup

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3. Scott and Cueller Victorious at Vail Hill Climb iRunFar covers the Vail Hill Climb, the eighth race in the 2011 La Sportiva Mountain Cup....

Filed under Contests, Races · Tagged with Alison Bryant, Ashley Arnold, Jared Scott, Jason Bryant, Jupiter Peak Steeplechase, La Sportiva Mountain Cup, Lauren Arnold, Luke Nelson, Matt Byrne, Megan Kimmel, Rachel Cieslewicz

Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell