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Canby woman wins seventh overall title Drew Fleming photo By KEVIN GOFF The Deanna O'Neil machine churned out yet another Pear Blossom Run victory on Saturday. After a two-year hiatus from the women's 10-mile winner's circle, O'Neil held a comfortable lead for much of the race and cruised past the finish line in 1 hour, 31 seconds. O'Neil strung together six consecutive victories from 1992-97 in the race before the streak ended in '98. The win was the seventh title out of 11 Pear Blossoms the Canby runner has participated in. "It's nice to get a win," said the 35-year-old O'Neil. "The weather was great, and I just went out and had fun." Despite a nagging hamstring injury, O'Neil led most of the way and clocked in at 29:20 at the halfway point. "It was fine until I got to the halfway point," she said of her injury. "It started to tighten up, and I guess that may have had something to do with me not breaking the hour mark. "When it tightened, I just tried to stay relaxed and not panic." Finishing second was Meghan Arbogast of Corvallis. Arbogast was in third place at the halfway point and trailed O'Neil by nearly a full minute. But the former kept up her pace and finished in 1:01:14. "I had never run a 10-mile race before," said the first-time Pear Blossom participant. "I didn't go as fast as I had hoped, but it was a lot of fun." Arbogast finished 64th in the U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 26. Her time there was 2:53:26. "I'm normally more of a marathon style of runner," said the 38-year-old. "With the shorter race like this one, I can keep a good base. "Overall, I had a lot of fun. The race was well-organized, so I might come back and try it again next year. You just don't see too many 10-mile races anymore." Sarah Raitter and Cheryl Tronson, both of Bend, finished third and fourth, respectively. Raitter, 27, held down second place midway through the race with a time of 30:10 before slipping to third in 1:01:27. Tronson, 42, failed to duplicate her 1998 championship, finishing in 1:01:36. Ashland native, Rebekah Julian took sixth with a time of 1:06:31, and Jacksonville's Kim Denig-Gumaer came in seventh at 1:06:44. "This is my third Pear Blossom," said the 37-year-old Denig-Gumaer, who was also the Rogue Valley's top finisher. "But it is the first one I actually trained for throughout the year. It just feels good to finish a race like this." Susan Fox of Corvallis came in eighth at 1:07:22, while Ashland's Tonya Killeen finished in 1:08:10. Medford's Bonnie Havens rounded out the top 10 with a time of 1:09:04. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA