Spangler Is the Star With a Banner Run

Jenny Spangler, unknown and overlooked by even her closest competitors, scored a shocking victory in the U.S. women’s Olympic marathon trials Saturday.

Sentimental favorite Joan Benoit Samuelson finished 13th.

Joining the unheralded Spangler on the team that will compete against the world’s best long-distance runners at the Atlanta Games were Linda Somers, the 1993 and 1994 U.S. marathon champion, and Anne Marie Lauck, who dedicated the race to her late mother.

Spangler, 32, wearing bib No. 61 because of her slow qualifying time, was among the leaders from the outset before taking control of the race between miles 11 and 12.

Thereafter, no one threatened her, and Spangler completed the 26 miles, 385 yards in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 54 seconds, her personal best and a course record.

The previous course record was 2:34:42 by Debbi Kilpatrick in winning the U.S. marathon championship last year.

“I couldn’t believe it,” the stunned Spangler said. “When I crossed the finish line, I had tears in my eyes. It was awesome . . . a dream come true.”

Spangler, from Gurnee, Ill., had run her previous best of 2:33:52 at the 1983 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. The time was a U.S. junior marathon best, a mark that still stands.

Somers, 34, who won the 1992 Chicago Marathon, the 1993 California International and Long Beach marathons, and the 1994 Grandma’s Marathon, was timed in a personal-best 2:30:06.

Lauck, 26, was clocked in 2:31:18 in only her third marathon. Her mother died last August after a six-year battle with breast cancer.

Samuelson, winner of the first women’s Olympic marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, ran courageously, but at 38 and after years of illnesses and injuries, she could not keep up with the front runners. She was timed in 2:36:54.