The June 6-8 weekend was busy for New England ultrarunners who took on races from coast to coast. In this week’s two-part roundup, we begin on the East Coast where a large gathering of runners took part in the Drummer Hill Trail Races in New Hampshire. Then we head to Virginia for the classic Old Dominion 100 and the Dam Yeti 50, before closing out in South Carolina at the Hell Hole 100.

Drummer Hill Trail Races

New Englanders have struggled to escape the rain during any weekend this spring, and the Drummer Hill Trail Races were no exception at the eighth edition of the event on Saturday, June 7, in Keene, N.H. Still, that didn’t prevent a large crowd of runners from turning out for the popular event that allows runners to choose how many loops of the 12.5K course they want to complete on the technical singletrack trails and jeep roads up, down and around Drummer Hill, with 34 opting for four loops and a 50K ultramarathon.

Gabriel Miller, 30, of Brighton, hammered the loop the hardest and won in a course-record time of 4:14:48, surpassing Patrick Caron’s previous course standard of 4:26:38 that had stood since 2016. Daniel Grip, 45, of Belchertown, Mass., was the runner-up in 4:38:56, good for the fourth-fastest time in course history. Clark Plummer, 31, of Londondeery, N.H., was a distant third in 4:50:11, followed by 28-year-old Benjamin Niebla of Manchester, N.H., in 5:11:11, and 60-year-old David Herr of Canaan, Vt., in 5:12:21.

Flora Berklein, 32, of Brookline, Mass., led the nonbinary field in 5:54:33, while first-place female Michelle Boland, 38, of Burlington, Mass., finished in 6:04:14. Boland was joined on the podium by Katja Fink and Jodie Davis. Fink, 50, of Cambridge, Mass., was the runner-up in 7:01:06, followed closely by Davis, 33, of Boston, Mass., in 7:04:59. Moments behind Davis, 40-year-old Jennifer Boshco of Billerica, Mass., finished fourth in 7:05:44.

Old Dominion 100

A half-dozen New Englanders took on one of the oldest 100-mile ultras in the United States when they took on the Old Dominion 100 on June 7-8 in Fort Valley, Va. It was the event’s 45th running since 1979, and it once again tested runners with a loop course through the Massanutten Mountains and Shenandoah River Valley. Runners ran on a variety of terrain, including singletrack trails, gravel and logging roads, and ATV trails, and amassed 14,000 feet of climbing. Adding to the challenge was the event’s tight 28-hour time limit.

Just 58 runners finished, with 35 doing so in less than 24 hours. Andrew Simpson, 37, of Wrightsville, Pa., led all runners in 15:33:55 and won with a 3-hour cushion. Simpson clocked the third-fastest time by a male in event history, trailing only Eric Clifton’s record-setting 15:10:00 from 1992 and Frank Bozanich’s 15:17:22 from 1980. First-place female Whitney Richman, 44, of Midlothian, Va., turned in the second fastest time by a female in 18:39:22 and placed third overall. Janice Anderson is the only female to have covered the course faster than Richman with her 18:25:48 record-setting run in 1997.

Michael Obara, 48, of North Kingstown, R.I., led the New Englanders with a ninth-place overall finish in 20:46:10. William Baker, 24, of Needham, Mass., placed 24th in 23:14:06, followed by 43-year-old Jason Kaplan of Boston, Mass., and 44-year-old Randy Patrick of Spofford, N.H., who were 28th and 29th in 23:23:54 and 23:28:58, respectively.

Additionally, 22-year-old Lila Gaudrault of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, finished 37th overall and fourth in the female field in 24:19:55, while 42-year-old Jennifer Whynot of Windham, Maine, was 52nd in 27:15:08.

Dam Yeti 50

A year ago, Bonnie Foley ran the 50-mile race at the Dam Yeti 50 for the first time. She returned to the eighth annual event on June 7-8 in Abingdon, Va., and set a massive personal best time on the course.

Foley, 44, of Princeton, Mass., once again ran the point-to-point course at the event, which also offered a 55K race. She had a strong day of running and placed 34th overall out of 103 finishers, crossing the line in 9:59:32. It was a three-hour improvement from 2024. Joining her among the finishers were four other New England residents. Heather Forchilli, 34, and Killian Madden, 32, both of Worcester, Mass., ran together and tied for 44th in 10:32:14. They previously ran the 55K together in 2023. Additionally, Scott Frasca, 64, and Tom Frasca, 30, of Sidney, Maine, ran together and finished 78th and 79th in 11:56:26 and 11:57:16, respectively.

David Compton, 42, of Madisonville, Tenn., and April Bailey, 48, of Cary, N.C., were the top male and female finishers and went 1-3 overall in 6:48:45 and 7:02:57, respectively.

Six New Englanders were among the 207 finishers of the 55K race, with 51-year-old Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello of Somerville, Mass., leading the way with a 65th-place finish in 7:02:38. Other finishers included Rachel Cook, 44, of Rochester, N.H. (124th, 7:57:04); Melissa Cutroni, 54, of Charlton, Mass. (163rd, 8:34:44); Molly Chace, 40, of Hudson, N.H. 9168th, 8:37:13); Josh Chace, 45, of Merrimack, N.H. (169th, 8:37:16); and Julia Becker Collin, 43, of Marlborough, Mass. (205th, 9:52:44). It was Collin’s fourth straight finish at the race. Justin King, 44, of Indian Trail, N.C., led all runners in 4:11:42 while Kathleen Stanford, 34, of Durham, N.C., topped the female field in 5:05:46 and placed sixth overall.

Hell Hole 100

If there is a 100-mile ultramarathon in the United States, there’s a good chance Tek Ung is going to try to finish it. Ung, 43, of Cranston, R.I., earned her first 100-mile finish at the Prairie Spirit Trail 100 in Kansas in 2017. Since then, she has completed at least 30 100-milers, with her most recent coming at the 12th annual Hell Hole Hundred ultras on June 6-8 in Bethera, S.C.

It was Ung’s first time at the event, and she was the only New Englander to take on any of the event’s 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K ultras. The races took place on 16-mile and 18-mile loops on the Jericho Horse Trail in the Francis Marion National Forest.

Of the 21 runners who started the race, just seven finished. Ung was seventh, and one of two female finishers, in 31:58:59. Regina Erwin, 23, of Sneads Ferry, N.C., was the first female in 31:20:52, while 45-year-old Andrew Burness of Summerville, S.C., led all runners in 23:10:03 and was the lone sub-24-hour finisher.

*Editor’s Note: Results are found on a variety of sites, including ultrasignup.com, UltraRunning Magazine, and official race websites. We do the best we can to find as many results as possible to report on and recognize the local ultrarunning community.