LIBERAL ? Jill Wettstein won the American leg of a trans-Atlantic pancake race Tuesday in a time just fast enough to edge out the winning English runner, giving the United States its seventh straight victory.

Wettstein, 25, finished the 415-yard run in 67.38 seconds. Earlier, British winner Andrea Rawlings ran the course at Olney, England, 50 miles northwest of London, in 69 seconds.

Wettstein, a medical technologist who runs every day and lifts weights, finished third at Liberal last year. Cheri Bevis, the winner in Liberal the last two years, didn’t compete this year. A year ago she finished in 60.6 seconds, beating Rawlings’ time by nearly five seconds.

Julie Sumner, 29, a preschool assistant director, was second this year, and Jennifer Hyde, 28, a teacher, was third. Brooke Buchman, who finished second last year, fell about 100 yards from finish line.

Each town has the race at 11:55 a.m. local time, meaning the American race is run almost six hours after the English winner has been decided.

Rawlings was the fastest in a field of 26 apron-clad contestants between ages 20 and 73, who ran from the Olney market place to the local church while carrying a pancake in a frying pan.

The 1:09 time clocked by Rawlings, 31, was four seconds slower than her winning time last year.

Shrove Tuesday, widely known in Britain as Pancake Day, was traditionally the last day for merrymaking before the start of Lent. Pancakes were thought to be a good way to consume the fat the Christian faithful were supposed to forego during the period of fasting.

Jill Wettstein races to the finish line to win the American leg of a trans-Atlantic pancake race in Liberal. Wettstein, 25, finished the 415-yard run Tuesday in 67.38 seconds. Earlier, British winner Andrea Rawlings ran the course at Olney, England, 50 miles northwest of London, in 69 seconds.

Legend has it that the Olney race started in 1445 when a harassed housewife, rushing to be on time for church, arrived at the service still clutching her frying pan with a pancake in it.

After a lapse during World War II, the race was revived in 1948. Liberal, in southwest Kansas, challenged Olney to a friendly trans-Atlantic competition in 1950 after seeing a picture of the race in Time magazine.