Ameris Bank Jacksonville Marathon a championship swoop for former UNF, Mandarin runner

Sem Sultanov can chalk off two milestones in his running career.

Marathon victory number one, and in his hometown.

"It feels nice to know I can win here," he said.

A First Coast native through and through — he ran at Mandarin High School and the University of North Florida — Sultanov swooped to the men's championship at Sunday morning's Ameris Bank Jacksonville Marathon.

Staci Huelat of Wellington made it a Sunshine State double with her victory in the women's marathon, climbing through the pack to break the tape on the track inside Skinner-Barco Stadium at The Bolles School.

On a gray and increasingly drizzly December morning along the St. Johns River for the annual 26.2-mile run through Beauclerc and Mandarin, complete with a Viking invasion from north of Florida, Sultanov brought home a victory to remember.

Part of an ASUN champion UNF squad in cross country, he hadn't even raced a marathon until last year in Duluth, Minn. And while he had competed with success at this race's past editions, he had only run the half marathon in Jacksonville, so he wasn't familiar with the course's second half.

"I was so far off [winning the previous marathon in Minnesota]. I think I was like 60th place," said the 25-year-old, who is training for next month's Houston Marathon. "So this is my first win, and to get it right here, it feels great."

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This time, at 2:30.38, victory was never in doubt.

Sultanov left the field well in the rear-view mirror from the opening miles, amassing an edge of more than 20 seconds by the 5K mark. Jacksonville resident Cody Pontius, 33, finished second place more than 12 minutes behind, with Boca Raton's Kevin Brown, 41, in third.

"I pretty much ran the entire time by myself… a lot of the top guys ran the half [marathon] today," Sultanov said.

And where there was the front of the half-marathon field, there was usually a navy blue and white uniform nearby. An estimated 40 runners from Berry College, an NCAA Division III institution near Rome, Ga., selected Jacksonville as the team's annual half-marathon destination.

Cameron Bensley is glad they did.

"The team does a different half marathon every December, second week," he said, "so I just figured I'd come and run with the guys again."

Sunday's chief of the Vikings, the nickname for Berry runners, was recent graduate Bensley of Powder Springs, Ga.The 24-year-old, running the course for the first time, emerged victorious in a back-and-forth race to win in 1:06.53. He pulled ahead of Jonathan Besselink of Indianapolis, 31 seconds behind, while Charlie Marquardt of Gainesville placed third.

"They kept it close," Bensley said. "After mile 9 I started to get a little separation, but I knew they were close and they were battling. I didn't really know I had it until a quarter or a half-mile to go. I had to tell myself to just keep calm and keep pushing."

In the women's marathon, a little teamwork paid off for Huelat, 35.

Running with a group of friends from just outside West Palm Beach, she stayed on course as a teammate helped set the pace for the first 21 miles, and pretty soon, Huelat realized that her 10th career marathon might end in her first victory.

"He told me to go for it," she said. "Then I caught the first-place girl just before mile 24, and then I was like, all right, just kind of leave it all out there."

Huelat pressed hard down the stretch to shatter her personal best in 3:03.28. About a minute behind was early leader Natalie Lutz of Hockessin, Del., followed by Kathryn Repperger of Cape Coral.

Winning decisively in the women's half marathon was Stefanie Slekis of Thibodaux, La. She crossed in 1:18.50, two and a half minutes clear of local runners Alex Midgett and Lainie Smith.

The head track and field coach at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, the 34-year-old previously qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. She scheduled her race in Jacksonville as part of her recuperation from a bout of tendinitis in her knee.

"I feel like I maxed my effort and I feel proud of how hard I ran, because it was a little windy, a little tough in the second half," she said.

William Hartje of Denver and Lydia McRae of Jacksonville won the 5-kilometer runs.

Despite the occasional mist, the half marathon recorded 833 finishers, a rise of more than 100 compared to 2021 and the race's highest participation total since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic.

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX, and sign up for the First Coast Varsity newsletter at https://profile.jacksonville.com/newsletters/first-coast-varsity/.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ameris Bank Jacksonville Marathon 2022: Sem Sultanov, Staci Huelat win