For the third straight year, Athenian Athletics has had quite a day at the Pleasanton Rotary Spirit Run as Samuel Hyams continued the tradition and won the event with a first place finish time of 15:49 and became the first athlete to break 16 minutes in the event.

For Hyams, he lowered his time from last year by nearly a minute when he placed third with a time of 16.46 as last years overall winner had a time of 16:35.

Hyams, who is set to run for UC Irvine this fall on an athletic scholarship, was taken back by his results on Sunday.

“Truthfully I was very surprised by my time because I had no one pacing me and haven’t been training for cross country yet so this is a great sign of things to come. This race definitely pumped me up and shows the hard work I put in this year,” said Hyams. “This was a transitional race from track so I still have to work on my pace.

His goals were to run a steady and a controlled race and to never surge too much. He almost set a personal best in the 5k as he was a second short as his best time was 15:45.

"This is a tough course to run a fast time on because of the gravel on a good portion of the race. For him to run under 16 minutes was impressive," said Coach Rik Richardson.

Also running for the club was Will Lowenhardt who placed third in the 18 and under group with a time of 17:30, Omar Gonzales (18.29), and Michael Fung (24.15).

Peter Zimmer had the single greatest improvement of club members in the race as he improved his time by nearly two and a half minutes as he clocked in with a final time of 22:30 compared to last years 25:05.

“I felt a little short of breath the first two miles, but in the end, the goal was accomplished and feel very proud of my time,” said Zimmer.

Also running in the 5k race in the youth section was Jay Singh (8) who ran a fast 26:40 and Eknor Singh (7) who ran a 36:20. Justin Hewitt returned to the club and ran a time of 31:36.

"I am very impressed with Jay's time. I had no idea he had the stamina and speed to run that time. I don't know how I missed it but it's always good to learn something new about an athlete everyday. Today we found out he is a distance runner," said Richardson.