Kassie Parker set for Quad-City Times Bix 7 despite injury, other final updates for the race

The former Loras College star, who now lives in Waverly, Iowa, will be at the starting line of the Quad-City Times Bix 7 for the fifth time on Saturday and feels ready to add to an already impressive resume of Bix finishes.

But back in mid-May her prospects of being ready for this weren’t bright.

Parker finished third in the United States Track & Field 25k championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on May 11 but while working out on tired legs the next day she tripped and broke her collarbone.

“I had surgery and got back up and started running again,’’ Parker said Friday at the Bix’s prerace elite athletes party.

“It held me back a little bit, but I think I’m finally back to a good place where I feel good about my fitness.’’

Parker felt good enough to place sixth in the Steamboat Classic 4-miler in Peoria in June and 11th in a highly competitive field at the Utica (New York) Boilermaker 15k two weeks ago.

She always seems to run well in the Bix 7 anyway, possibly because the fans who line the course know she is from Iowa and give her added support.

“When I'm running on the course everyone knows me and is cheering for me,’’ she said. “That’s kind of nice.’’

She ran the Bix 7 once while she was in college and has placed eighth, eighth and seventh in the past three years. If she can crack the top 10 again Saturday, she will be halfway to the Bix 7 record of eight top-10s before even reaching her 26th birthday.

Parker figures her experience in the race should help her considerably.

“That’s kind of the nice thing about being Iowa local,’’ she said. “I know the course and some of the people that are competing against me don’t know it as well. I feel like I have an advantage in that.’’

Several women elite runners withdraw

The women’s elite field for Saturday’s race has been somewhat depleted by the withdrawal of a few athletes.

Sara Hall, who has placed in the top three in the Bix 7 twice in the past, dropped out because of an injury. Former Iowa State star Callie Logue Hughes withdrew after being accepted into the USATF track and field championships next week.

Paityn Noe, who won the Bix 7’s High School Challenge two years ago and placed eighth last year as a freshman at the University of Arkansas, is questionable. She suffered an injury recently and was undergoing physical therapy Friday to see if she could be ready to do the Bix.

Volunteers of the year honored

Gregor McDonald, Kathy Becker, Mason Piggott, Angela Senne and Cory Griffin were honored Friday as the Bix 7’s volunteers of the year.

McDonald has been volunteering for the Bix 7 for 32 years and is the chairman of the race’s turnaround committee, helping to direct runners back toward the finish line.

Becker has been part of the packet pickup committee for eight years and has been the chair for the past six years; Piggott helps set up and tear down the post-race party for both the Bix 7 and the Arconic Jr. Bix 7; Senne heads up the race T-shirt table and handicapped race seating committee; and Griffin is in his fifth year as the leader of the finish line committee.

Sekharan scholarships announced

Two St. Ambrose University runners, both from Quad-Cities high schools, were honored as recipients of the Mari Sekharan Scholarship.

Raj Sekharan, a long-time Bix volunteer who established the scholarships in memory of his late wife, Mari, announced that the value of the scholarships has been increased from $2,500 to $3,000 this year.

Ross Willerth, a rising senior from North Scott and a two-year member of the Fighting Bees’ cross country team, and Alexa Minard, a sophomore-to-be from Pleasant Valley, were presented the scholarships.

McGrath scholarships announced

Seven people were honored as winners of the Rick McGrath Memorial Scholarship, which commemorates the Bix 7’s former assistant race director who died in 2021.

Student recipients of the scholarship were Brooke Van Damme and Zachary Brown. Van Damme is a graduate of United Township who will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Brown went to Bettendorf and will enroll at St Ambrose this fall.

Volunteer recipients were Tom and Nancy McGrath and Mich Harper while the runner awards went to Amy Schaefer and Russ Hart.

Soccer stardom?

During a panel discussion at the Bix 7’s elite athlete party at St. Ambrose University’s Rogalski Center, Bix legends Bill Rodgers and Joan Samuelson both were asked what they would have done with their lives had they not become distance runners.

Rodgers, who will run the Bix for the 45th time today, was stumped.

“I don’t really know because running was the only thing I could really do well,’’ he said.

Samuelson, who is in her 35th Bix, said that had the circumstances been different she might have become a soccer player.

She grew up with five brothers and always was clamoring to be involved in sports even though there were very few opportunities for women when she was growing up.

“I was always hanging over the fence at baseball games and hanging over the bleachers at basketball games to watch my brothers,’’ she said. “But they never let me play because I was a girl.’’

She said the only sports available to her were tennis and skiing. After breaking her leg in a skiing mishap, she took up running and decided to make that her career even though neither her high school or college fielded teams in track or cross country.

“If soccer had been available to me back then, I probably would not be here because I would have chosen soccer,’’ she said.