No experience, no shoes, no problem: Iacofano, Sabadosa claim Jacksonville marathon titles

A graduation. A vacation. A marathon victory.

Here’s a guess that Mick Iacofano is going to remember this weekend for a long, long time.

The 23-year-old won his first attempt at the 26.2-mile distance in near course-record time at the 35th annual Ameris Bank Marathon Saturday morning, with his father joining him for a rare two-generation top-10 finish.

No experience, no problem.

“I started feeling really good and confident about my time coming into this week, and that’s why I decided to shoot for 2:18,” said Iacofano, whose time of 2:18:39 was just four minutes off Jerry Lawson’s course record of 2:14:33 from 1992. “I ran right where I expected to run.”

In the women’s race, it was no shoes, no problem for winner Apryl Sabadosa, who raced away to victory in 2:53.27 while running in socks for the last three miles of the course.

The marathon victory was Sabadosa’s third, but her first in Florida.

For Iacofano, by contrast, the run was his first above the half-marathon distance. But that didn’t matter for the native of Medina, Ohio, who found a way to squeeze Jacksonville onto the calendar for his eventful weekend.

“The timing was just right,” he said.

On Friday, he graduated from the University of Kentucky. On Sunday, he boards a flight for a post-graduation vacation in the Keys.

And in between, he traversed the long course that wound through Beauclerc and Mandarin before finishing on the Skinner-Barco Stadium track at the Bolles School.

“I wanted to go out fast for the half-marathon and put some time in the bank, and then sort of cruise,” Iacofano said. “But I needed that time in the bank.”

He didn’t need too much. Oneil Williams of the Bahamas placed second in 2:30:35, almost 12 minutes behind, followed by Andy Merrill of Starke.

Iacofano had previously raced the 10,000 on the Kentucky track squad and won a state cross country title at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, but he said he felt the open road might suit him better.

Now, he’s got proof.

“I was all right [in college track], but I knew I was probably going to do better on the roads, and sure enough, my road career has already been a lot better,” he said.

That wasn’t his only reason to celebrate. About 25 minutes after he snapped the winner’s tape on the Skinner-Barco Stadium track, he got to share the good news with his father, Michael Iacofano, who crossed the line himself in sixth place.

While there’s no official record on the books, the combined first-place and sixth-place finishes undoubtedly form one of the highest placings in race history for a father-son combination.

“We’ll take it,” said the elder Iacofano, 49. “That’s nice.”

In the women’s race, Sabadosa pulled away to win by more than five minutes ahead of Jackie Morgan of Richmond, Va. and Amanda McEnroe of Glen Allen, Va.

For Sabadosa, noted in the American running world for her shoeless racing - she’s run several courses during the past five years, including the Boston Marathon, barefoot - wearing shoes for the first 85 percent of the route was actually unusual.

“This was the longest duration of a marathon I’ve worn shoes,” said the 33-year-old, from Westfield, Mass. “I just didn’t know what the roads were like and I didn’t want to risk it.”

She slashed her time by three minutes from October’s Baystate Marathon in Lowell, Mass., pressing to hold on to the tempo of several elite men in the field through mile 16.

“I had some really fast guys that were pushing me early on and I ended up staying with them for most of the race,” she said.

The half-marathon titles went to Jacob Krolick, an assistant track coach at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, and former IAAF world championship qualifier Esther Atkins of Greenville, S.C.

Atkins, who has twice competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials and represented the United States at the 2015 championships in Beijing, ran through an upper respiratory illness to finally claim her long-awaited first place in Jacksonville after placing third in December 2011 and second in January 2016.

About 2,500 runners in all completed the marathon, half marathon or 5K, in slightly chilly but otherwise near-ideal conditions with overcast skies, light winds and temperatures in the 50s.