Photo By Carter Sherline

GRAND RAPIDS (5/10/03) -- Dan Browne just might have to change his name to Dan Red White and Blue.

The West Point graduate and Oregon National Guard captain -- also a member of the Nike Oregon Project team coached by the legendary Alberto Salazar -- became the first American to win the Fifth Third River Bank 25K run in seven years, pulling away from Kenyan Joseph Kariuki at the nine-mile mark to win by a minute in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 13 seconds.

Pulled away? Nah, "pulled" is too slow a verb. Drove off. Rocketed off. Materialized into another dimension, more like it. Kariuki had surged just after six miles and Browne went with him. Fellow Kenyan Gabriel Muchiri and Michigan's Ryan Shay slipped off the pace, but Browne went with him. The two ran stride for stride until nine miles, when the Browne accelerated at the beginning of a downhill. Kariuki let him go, and from then on it was just a matter of how much the American would win by. Browne's victory came despite steamy conditions of 65 degrees and 100-percent humidity, which took a toll on many would-be contenders, including Kariuki.

"It was very humid. It killed me," said Kariuki. "We have heat in Kenya but not humidity. When (Browne) made his break, I felt the pace was very high. I thought if I went with him, I might not finish. It was better to slow down and regain my strength."

Albina Ivanova of Russia also surged at nine miles to run away with the women's open championship in 1:27:28. Christine Clifton, a Kirkland, Wash., resident living and training in northern Italy with her boyfriend/coach Claudio Bellini, was second overall and won her first national title, in 1:29:30.

Browne earned $4,000 for winning the open division and another $4,000 for winning the USA Track & Field national title. Kenyans had won the open division seven-straight years, with Alfredo Vigueras the last American victor in 1996.

"That was the loudest finishing-line crowd I've ever heard," said Browne, who claimed U.S. marathon and 20K titles in 2002 and has also won national titles at 15K, 10K and 5K. "It was kind of scary. Usually when the crowd is screaming like that, it's because someone is coming up behind you," said Browne. "But I peeked back to see who was coming and didn't see anybody.

"This is a testament to what we are trying to do in America, competing at the highest level," the winner added. "I want to make Americans proud of their runners. That's my goal through the rest of the year. I've had a few mediocre races this year, but this is a turnaround."

If the Kenyans and much of the rest of the running world were stunned by Browne's performance, elite-athlete coordinator Greg Meyer was not. In fact, he'd been calling it since Christmas. Based on Meyer's predictions, the pre-race media kit said this about Browne: "He could be the race's first American to win in a long time."

Ivanova won her first River Bank Run coming off a sixth-place finish at the recent Boston Marathon. She ran with Clifton the first nine miles, then put the hammer down and blew the race open. "She just took off," said Clifton. "She had a 30-second lead within a mile."

Clifton had an 84-second margin at the end over third-place finisher Deeja Youngquist of Albuquerque, but the U.S. title didn't come easy. Clifton cramped up at 13 miles and had to walk a bit.

"It was scary," she said of her forced walk. "I was saying, 'Come on, Christine, you better suffer a little.' I looked over my shoulder and couldn't see anyone and said, 'Whew!' "I came here to win, but am I surprised? I am," said Clifton, who was not on the list of contender bios passed out by race officials. She ran an impressive 2:32 at Chicago in 2000, her first competitive marathon, but has done little since then. She dropped out of Twin Cities last fall and struggled for two months after. "I'd do a 20-minute run and feel like I was at the two-hour mark on a long run." Eventually she was diagnosed with adrenal problems caused by an inability to metabolize calcium, which left her weak. She changed her diet, took a couple months off and resumed training in February. In late April, Clifton paced a friend to a 1:13 half-marathon, "and I thought 'Finally I'm ready to give them a good race.'"

She came to Grand Rapids and did just that. Shay, a Central Lakes High School graduate and ex-Notre Dame All-American, saw the River Bank Run as a turnaround as well. After winning the national marathon championship in Birmingham, Ala. in February, he said he resumed racing too soon and had been stale ever since. "Each race was getting worse," Shay said. On May 2 he hit bottom, dropping out of a 10,000-meter track race at the Stanford Invitational. "I thought, 'This is ridiculous,'" Shay said.

He backed off training and made two trips to his chiropractor in the days leading up to the River Bank. "I had a lot of muscles that weren't firing at all," he said.

They fired fine May 10. Shay slipped to fifth midway through the race, regrouped, moved to fourth and was close to Phillimon Hanneck, Browne's Nike Oregon teammate, at the finish.

Saul Mendoza of Wimberly, Tex., won a thrilling wheelchair race and $1,000, beating Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa by one second, in 52:45, with Krige Schabort of South Africa third another four seconds back.

Winning $1,500 as top masters (over-40) runners were Dennis Simonaitis of Draper, Utah, 13th overall in 1:20:47; and Janet Robertz of Shorewood, Minn., eighth for the women in 1:35:16.

It was a tough day for defending champions. David Morris of Albuquerque was 10th overall and Jeanne Hennessy of Mahopac, N.Y., fell to fifth after being struck by bouts of asthma and having to hit her inhaler six times trying to get oxygen into her lungs.

It was a day of mixed results for top state runners. Shay did well, and Carl Rundell of Team Hansons was happy with his 14th-place time of 1:20:51. But it was a tough day for Kyle Baker, 22nd in 1:23:44 after finishing fourth American last year.

Lori Stich Zimmerman, a former Michigan runner now living in Texas, was sixth in 1:33:51; but the only current state resident in the women's top 20 was Laura Murphy of Rochester, 16th in 1:37:45.

It was also a rare bad day for the Kenyans. They lost the open title for the first time since 1996, with Gabriel and Patrick Muchiri both fading badly. Jackline Torori also failed to make the top 20 for the women. Two other Kenyans, 2002 champs Teresa Wanjiku and Ronald Mogaka, were last-minute drop-outs.

A total of 4,490 ran the 25K, with another 3,687 running or walking the 5K. Both were close to records set at the 25th annual River Bank