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Jen Stearns is back on track--in road races at least.
The Stafford County resident returned to her old dominant form this season while competiting in the Coldwell Banker Grand Prix running series. The 34-year-old re-claimed the series' women's title, a crown she held from 1995-97.
"I'm really happy to win the circuit," said Stearns, who missed some running time during the last four years after the birth of her daughter. "It's what I set my goal for over the winter."
Her brother, Jason Van Horn of Dumfries, kept the series championship in the family by winning the men's title for the second straight year.
Van Horn won the Riverbank 12-kilometer race on Dec. 8 to seal his series title. Stearns claimed the women's title with top-three finishes in the races' first four events. The runners' top six finishes were used to tally their overall series standings.
Van Horn was glad to see his sister back on top after the layoff.
"She's had her share of injuries and went through troubles keeping her running going," he said. "It's nice to see her come through like that."
Two runners took a piece of the women's pie during Stearns' four-year break.
King George's Debi Bernardes won the first of her back-to-back titles in '98, and Liz Boyer of Triangle won the titles in 2000 and 2001.
Stearns stayed under the radar last year, running a few races but not competing for season-ending honors.
This season, she was runner-up in four races, third in one and sixth in another. Unlike her winning seasons from 1995-97 where she won race after race, Stearns claimed the title this season despite no first-place finishes.
That marked the first time in the circuit's eight years that a series winner had no individual race victories.
But Stearns had a strong start--placing second in three of the first four races--to carry her through the rest of the season. Her last race, the Turkey Trot 5-k, wasn't an ideal end for her year as she struggled with an injured right hip. Nonetheless, she still managed to place sixth in the race.
"It reached a point where I thought, 'Wow, this thing might really happen,'" said Stearns, who deemed her victory bittersweet without Bernardes and Boyer still in the running by series' end.
The two did not complete the required six races to qualify for the series' postseason awards.
"With the three of us, it's kind of that unspoken, 'Who's going to come out on top this time?'" Stearns said.
Her brother's 2002 series title is the latest in his dominating tenure in area races during the past three years. After finishing as the series' runner-up in 2000, the 29-year-old Van Horn recorded the Fredericksburg Area Running Club's first perfect score in the then seven-year history of the series. He won six races to achieve the perfect score of 6,000 in 2001.
This season, Van Horn was nearly perfect again, winning five of the six races he entered. The one time he didn't break the tape was when he was recovering from a severely sprained right ankle and had to settle for a fifth-place finish in the Heritage Festival 5-miler--the series' biggest attractor of out-of-town talent.
"It would have been nice to have another perfect season, but that wasn't a huge concern for me," Van Horn said.
Before Van Horn's two series championships, Steve Crowder of Fincastle won in 2000 to break a five-year reign as series titleholder by Fredericksburg's Matt Boyd.
To celebrate Stearns and Van Horn and other series place finishers, the Fredericksburg Area Running Club will have its annual pot-luck banquet Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. at Massaponax High School. For more information, contact the FARC hot line at 371-0588.