Here are the results of our 2016 Western States Prediction Contest. Before we move on, we wanted to thank Mitchell Goodman for being the programming brains behind this contest for all eight years!
We’re only posting place-specific rankings through the top three. (For a refresher on the rules, check out the contest entry page.) Read on to find out who won the contest, and who did the best at picking the men’s and women’s fields individually.
It’s worth noting that this year only two people totaled fewer than 20 points in comparison to 65 entrants last year. Last year’s winner had a scant 10 points compared to the 17 points this year’s winner amassed. That’s a testament to the topsy turvy nature of this year’s race.
The Winners
Thank you again to Flora, Julbo, and Inov-8, along with artist Maggie Tides for providing the great prizes for the contest. Without them, the only thing to come out of the contest would be bragging rights. On to the winners!
Jeff Collins (17 points), our winner, had only two dead-on picks, Kaci Lickteig and Devon Yanko to go first and third. He got two points for picking Meghan Arbogast in eighth an three points each for picking Jodee Adams-Moore and Erika Lindland to finish sixth and seventh, respectively. On the men’s side, his best pick was Thomas Lorblanchet for third, while he got two points each for picks Didrik Hermansen fourth, Jeff Browning fifth, Chris DeNucci seventh, and Ian Sharman eighth. Amazingly, Jeff Collins has won the grand prize TWO years in a row… as he was the random grand prize winner last year. Way to earn it this year, Jeff! This year, Jeff takes home some great prizes including Udo’s Oil, Red Beet Crystals, and Floradix Iron from Flora, his choice of a pair of Inov-8 X-Claw 275, X-Talon 225, or Trail Talon 250 and an Inov-8 RaceUltra Pack, a Western States triptych by Maggie Tides, and a pair of Julbo sunglasses.
- Meghan Hicks (19 points), our senior editor here at iRunFar, earned second. However, Meghan will forgo her second place prizes so that another entrant my enjoy them. That said, Meghan’s spot-on picks were Devon Yanko for third and Bethany Patterson for seventh. She had one point each by way of picking Kaci Lickteig to finish second and Alissa St. Laurent to take sixth, while picking Sally McRae for eighth got her one point. She was one spot off in picking Thomas Lorblanchet for third and Ian Sharman for fifth. She racked up two points for Didrik Hermansen taking fourth, four points for Jeff Browning taking seventh, and sixth points for Tòfol Castanyer taking sixth.
We had a three-way top-line tie for third place with Emily Janosko, Mark Slivka, and David Simmons each scoring 20 points. Emily wins the tie-break by correctly picking both Amy Sproston and Jeff Browning as the masters winners. Mark Slivka edges out David Simmons by correctly picking Jeff for the men’s masters win, while David picked Paul Terranova. Both Mark and David erred in picking Magda Boulet for the women’s masters win.
- Emily Janosko (20 points) lone spot-on pick was Kaci Lickteig for the win. She had a single point for choosing Bethany Patterson for eighth. She racked up three points for choosing Erika Lindland for seventh and four each for Jodee Adams-Moore in fifth and Amy Sproston in sixth. On the men’s side, she was one off in choosing Jeff Browning for second, and Thomas Lorblanchet for fifth. She was two spots off in choosing Paul Giblin for third, Didrik Hermansen for fourth, and Ian Sharman for eighth. In placing second Emily will take home a slew of Flora goodies, including Udo’s Oil, Inov-8 gear including a Race Elite Vest, and a pair of Julbo sunnies.
- Mark Slivka (20 points) also correctly chose Kaci Lickteig to win along with Bethany Patterson taking seventh. He was one spot off in thinking Alissa St. Laurent would be sixth, two spots off with Devon Yanko in fifth, and five places off for piking Jodee Adams-Moore for fourth. Jeff Browning was Mark’s best men’s pick at one spot off in second. He was two off with Ian Sharman in eighth and three off for Didrik Hermansen in fifth, Christopher DeNucci in sixth, and Thomas Lorblanchet in seventh. Mark will be receiving plenty of Flora products including Floradix, some Inov-8 kit, and a pair of Julbo running sunglasses.
Nicholas Footrace is our random grand-prize winner for which he gets the same loaded prize pack as Jeff Collins minus the art.
Maggie Tides Western States 100 course Triptych.
The Overall Contest Field
For the first time ever, we’ve had a significant drop in the number of folks with 50 or fewer points with only 509 making it this year… so don’t feel bad if you had a rough of it in 2016!
Here’s a breakdown of the number of folks tallying 50 or fewer points other the past seven years: 2009 – 46, 2010 – 107, 2011 – 274, 2012 – 446, 2013 – 694, 2014 – 683, 2015 – 807, 2016 – 509.
Below are the full results:
Women’s Predictions
Last year, two folks ended up with zero points on the women’s side. This year, we’ve got two folks tied at four points. Nick Pedatella correctly chose Kaci Lickteig to win, Davon Yanko to place third, and Bethany Patterson for seventh. He was two places off in choosing Amy Sproston for fourth and Meghan Arbogast for eighth. Dennis Mui was correct in choosing Alissa St. Laurent for fifth and Bethany Patterson for seventh. He was one place off in choosing Kaci Lickteig for second and Amy Sproston for third as well as two off in choosing Erika Lindland for eighth. Both of you get your choice of an iRunFar hat or visor, if you’d like one.
Men’s Predictions
An even bigger increase was seen in the lowest score on the men’s side going from two points last year to eight this year. There was also a four-way tie between Emily Janosko, Paul Terranova, Thomas Örderud, and Dirk Mostert. With the four-way tie, we’ll skip the play-by-play. ;-) Still, each of you get your choice of an iRunFar running hat or visor, if you’d like one.
Final Words
Thanks to the more than 837 individuals who took part in the contest… far more than double the total number of starters (353) in this year’s Western States! We had a lot of fun bringing it to you and hope you had a lot of fun participating. We’ll bring you more fun contests in the future.
