Monongah’s Jo Preolitti Armistead runs Pittsburgh Half-Marathon

Jo Preolitti Armistead

North Marion High grad Monica Jo Preolitti Armistead, who grew up in Monongah as the daughter of Irene Fazio Preolitti, Class of 1966, ran the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon, her first half-marathon ever, in 2 hours and 33 minutes today. That’s a little more than an 8-mile race.

Jo’s aunts and uncles – Irene’s siblings – are Steve Fazio, Class of 1975; Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, Class of 1969, married to Tom Ramsey; and Dave Fazio, Class of 1968, married to Cora, who operates the Fazio Special Care Home in Stoney Lonesome.

Jo is a Registered Nurse at WVU Hospitals who studied at North Marion and Fairmont State to get to WVU. She lives in Fairmont with husband Deano Camino.

Jo’s sister is Ann Marie Cochran, whose daughters are Rhyan and Renzy, a namesake of her late grandfather, Renzy Fazio, who was married to the late Francis Olesky Fazio, sister of John W. Olesky, Sr., the father of John Olesky, Jr., Class of 1950, and Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955.  

Ethiopian Gebo Burka and Clara Santucci of Dilliner, Pennsylvania, near the West Virginia border, won the sixth Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon.

Burka's time was 2:16:30. Santucci was the fastest woman at 2:32:23.

Santucci, 27, was third among American women in the 2011 Boston Marathon and last year was the top American woman at the Chicago Marathon.