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Harbor Country News ✹ Friday, October 8, 2010 ✹ A7 good causes that the money goes to.” Those causes include two that Allen supported — St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Smile Train — as well as scholarships for area students ($500 scholarships were awarded to Lynn Cook and Christy Huisjen following the race). Horak’s roommate at Grand Valley, Ashley Riley- Schedler, graduated from River Valley in 2009 and ran track and cross country with Allen. She said the memorial 5K means a lot to her. “It brings back memories that we had,” she said. “We used to do running chants and cheers, make songs to how much we didn’t like running.” Riley-Schedler was quick to note that they really did like running, but had fun coming up with those cheers during practice sessions. They also had fun creating T-shirts to wear during the 2010 Nikki’s Shortcut. “We have talent,” Riley- Schedler quipped. Chelsea Baker, a member of the most recent River Val- ley graduating class and yet another Grand Valley State student, said Allen encour- aged her to join the cross country team in high school. “I could tell she really, really loved running, and she convinced me to start. She told me how much fun it was. It’s a big deal for me to be here,” she said. Two current Mustang runners went to great lengths to participate in Nikki’s Shortcut. Senior Forest Galanda and freshman Trenton Prentice both ran in the Berrien County meet, which started in St. Joseph about an hour before Nikki’s Shortcut got going. Thanks to a ride from Trenton’s mom, Jeannine Daniel, they had about five minutes to stretch and get ready before competing in their second race of the morning. “It was a hustle, but it was worth it,” said Prentice. “It felt great, after we got here on time, to run the race,” said Galanda. “It means a lot to me.” Galanda explined that he was on the both the cross country and track teams with Allen during his freshman year. “She was a good friend and a big inspiration to me.” Although Prentice wasn’t in high school when Allen was, he also knew her well. “She used to babysit me,” he explained. “Anything I can do in support of this, I’ll do.” The two high school run- ners still had enough gas in their tanks to cross the finish line together in second place (although Prentice was of- ficially classified as third). The only runner to get there earlier was 15-year-old Max Vickers, a former Three Oaks resident who now lives in Bloomington, Indiana, where he runs high school cross country for Bloomington South. The first female finisher was Lisa Krumroy of Galien. Many participants cel- ebrated the joy of running (or walking) through the outskirts of Warren Woods on the sun-drenched fall day. Kathy Noah, a co-worker of Lori Allen, said she origi- nally planned to hula hoop her way through the entire five kilometers, but decided to “hula hoop where I can” to avoid any space issues with the other walkers and runners. “I’m going to spin it, at least on my hand, the whole time.” she said. Nikki, was the daughter of Lori Allen and Brad Allen, and the oldest of four chil- dren including two brothers, Tyler and Alex, and one sister, Jessica. NIKKI From A1 Modeling the T-shirts they made for the Oct. 2 Nikki’s Shortcut memorial race are (from left) Olivia Rauen, Samantha Lee, Tricia Horak, Gina Sebasty, Ashley Riley-Schedler, Chelsea Baker and Maggie Lubarski. Lori Allen embraces her second cousin, Arnold Kleinerman of San Francisco, during the Nikki’s Shortcut race. Samantah Lutson, Jessica Allen and Autumn Tamlin await the start of the Nikki’s Shortcut memorial 5K. Four-year-old Bethany Allen of La Porte, Indiana, enjoys the view from atop the shoulders of her dad, Aaron, while he walks in Nikki’s Shortcut.
