Alva Review-Courier -

When the 37th Annual Kiowa 5K Labor Day Race began near 8:20 a.m., Monday morning, the thermometer showed a comfortable 63 degrees. Race co-directors Gayle McNett and Teresa MacKinney confirmed they had 208 runners and walkers finish the race.

This is the sixth consecutive win for Luis Chavez who won the race with a time of 16.02. That's nine seconds faster than last year with a 16:11. Pushing their 18-month old daughter Blakeley in a stroller, his wife Bailey Chavez still won her age division, age 20-29, and was 7th overall in the race with a time of 22:41. She was the second fastest woman in the race.

Luis' win is no surprise as he was in the top few hundred fastest runners in the Boston Marathon in April that has well over 20,000 runners. Bailey is training for a marathon in Chicago to try and qualify for the Boston Marathon next year.

The Chavez family reside in Edmond where she is a school teacher and he is a shoe buyer for a sporting goods company.

Luis wrote on his Facebook page since winning the 5K, "Since 2016 when we were in college at NWOSU, we started running this 5K on Labor Day in Kiowa, Kansas. Fast forward to 2022, and I would never guess we would still be making the trip to run the race! Before too long Blakeley will be running in the kids race."

South Barber Superintendent Dr. Mylo Miller was the second fastest male in the race and second overall. Winning this race multiple times in the past, Mylo was runner-up this year with a time of 19:13. His wife Heather also won her age division (30-39) a time of 23:36. This made Heather 13th overall in the race.

Daigan Miller is the overall winner in the women's division of Kiowa's 5K Race. That's after she ran the route in 21:08. This time made Daigan 4th overall in the race. Race organizers think this was Daigan's first year to run Kiowa's 5K. They said she is from Union City, Oklahoma.