Leisl Soergel picked up where she left off last year.

For Ryan Edmiston, he got back where he was two years ago, but knows he can get there quicker next time.

Soergel, 19, of Butler captured her second consecutive women's 2K run at Saturday's Butler Road Race with a time of 7 minutes, 24 seconds.

She won last year's race with a time of 7:32.

Soergel defeated Janelle Hartzell, 17, of Slippery Rock by 26 seconds and third-place finisher Sarah Barnes, 19, of Butler by 1:12.

Jessica Glas, 13 of Cranberry Township (8:41) and Jodi Caro, 19, of Sarver (8:42) placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Soergel was focused enough that she didn't know how close the next runner was at the turnaround at Emily Brittian Elementary School on West Penn Street.

"I couldn't tell, but I knew it would be a long halfway back," said Soergel, who will be a sophomore at Penn State-Behrend this fall.

"You can't pace yourself since it's a downhill the whole way down. I pretty much knew I wanted to be in the front of the pack and I had placed well last year," she added.

Having finished up her freshman year on the track team with the Lions, Soergel felt stronger heading into this race than the year before.

"But I came back from track season and I didn't really want to run the 5-mile," said Soergel.

While having run in the spring in college may have helped Soergel, not running apparently didn't have an adverse effect on Edmiston.

"I was just running in a daze," said Edmiston, who attended Slippery Rock University last year as a freshman, but did not run. "I haven't done much since my senior year in high school.

"I took some time off and I'm trying to ease my way back in," added Edmiston, who will run as a sophomore for The Rock.

There were 10 seconds that separated the top four runners. Edmiston held a solid lead coming up Main Street, holding off William Smith, 25 of Petrolia, who ran a 6:41.

David Dunmyre, 46, finished two seconds behind Smith. Paul Geibel, 20, of Butler was fourth (6:47) and John Strutt, 18, of Butler was fifth (6:54).

"It was a nice, relaxed run," said Edmiston. "I didn't think it would be like that. I thought John Strutt would be up there."

"I didn't expect a time like that to win it," Edmiston added.

Edmiston won the race two years ago with a time of 6:35, which was two seconds faster than his time this year.

"The last time I felt fast," said Edmiston. "This year I felt slow...Next year, it'll be better."