Roxborough's Hewitt Places 7th In Broad Street Run

ROXBOROUGH -- Roxborough's Claire Hewitt was among the top female finishers in Sunday's Broad Street Run, placing 7th overall in 58:39.

Hewitt, a track coach at the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in West Philadelphia and also attended Penn, where she was a three-time Academic All-American and four-year letter winner for the Quakers. Before coaching at her alma mater, she coached at nearby St. Joseph's University for several years.

Hewitt wasn't the only local to place highly in the woman's race. Skippack's Crystal Burnick was the first female overall across the line, blazing through in 57:06.

Burnick is an employee at Phoenixville's All Kinds of Fast Running store on Bridge Street and is currently an assistant track coach at Ursinus College. She won the race by a comfortable 46 seconds, beating out Ephrata's Emily Giannotti, who placed second. Burnick, 27, was a standout runner at Methacton High School before competing for Slippery Rock University.

The Broad Street Run follows a point to point course from North Philadelphia to the Navy Yard. It is one of the largest and most competitive road races in the country each year. There were 34,421 finishers on Sunday.