BROOKINGS — Jeff Kroll of Eagan, Minn. and Christine Hotvet of Lakeville, Minn. won the 2024 Brookings Marathon on Saturday morning.

The 35-year-old Kroll finished the race in 2 hours, 39 minutes and seven seconds. He said he didn’t have the goal of winning, but was happy that he came out on top.

“It was a great race. There were low temperatures to start, which is always ideal for a marathon. It started to get warm towards the end but that was okay. Going into it I knew I could probably be in the top five, but I didn’t know if I could win or not. I’m very happy to win,” Kroll said. 

Hotvet, who is 43 years old, finished the race in 3:18.00 and it was her second straight victory in Brookings. This was her second marathon this year as she ran the Boston Marathon four weeks ago. Her goal is to run three marathons this year and she is planning on running the Twin Cities Marathon in October.

“I will say, I just did Boston four weeks ago,” Hotvet said. “I was coming to try to do three marathons in one year and I was just throwing this one in from Boston to do it back-to-back and see if I could do it. I knew I went out too fast, but I was feeling really good and it was a positive split. Around mile six or seven my father in law [held up the one symbol] and I was pretty much in the clear if I could just hold.”

Kroll did the Brookings Marathon because he wants to finish a marathon in every state. So far he’s ran 14 marathons and the most noteworthy was the Tokyo Marathon. He said there are other big ones that are on his bucket list.

“I’m trying to do one in every state. I’ve done one in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and most of the midwest. I did Tokyo in March and that was an amazing race. I did Indianapolis in October and had a good time there too. I want to do New York, London and Berlin. Those are my top three [that I want to run in],” Kroll said.

Hotvet has run in 28 marathons and this was her third time running in Brookings. She chose to run in this year’s Brookings Marathon because she enjoyed it last year and it just happened to fall on Mother’s Day Weekend and she was going to be visiting her parents in Sioux Falls, which is where she is from.

“We were coming home for Mother’s Day and I was looking to see what weekend this was on just to throw three in one year and it was of course the same weekend as Mother’s Day and so I signed up about a week ago,” Hotvet said.

Gabriel Peters of Sioux Falls was the male winner of the half marathon and he finished the race in 1:15.12. Alex Bisson of Brookings was the top female half marathon runner and she had a time of 1:33.27. The Augie Bros from Brookings won the relay race with a time of 3:05.27.

Cameron Hoon was the top finisher from Brookings in the full marathon and he came in 21st with a time of 3:30.46. Blake Johnson was the top male finisher from Brookings in the half marathon. He finished in 12th place with a time of 1:35.08. There were no female Brookings runners in the full marathon.