FEATURES

Diane and Kevin Are Masters of the Year!

Monday, 16 November 2020 23:10

MINNESOTA MASTERS OF THE YEAR - DIANE HANKEE, 43, and KEVIN O'CONNOR, 49, have been named this year's MASTERS OF THE YEAR, honors they have earned eight times between them.

Diane was once again a slam dunk selection, while Kevin faced serious competition from Marshfield, Wisconsin's PATRICK ALLAIRE, 42.

Hankee raced thrice in 2020, winning each times. Her victory at Green Lake Olympic was arguably the female Masters Performance of the Year. Her competition was first-time nominee SARAH HUNTER, 46, who raced often (4 times) with solid results, especially in her final two races, which were in northen Iowa. That she was outraced by fellow 40-plussers in both of her Minnesota appearances further cleared the path for Hankee....

Tim & Lisa are GMOY Honorees...

Saturday, 14 November 2020 23:10

2020 MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - On the surface, the battle for male GRAND MASTER OF THE YEAR looked like a tight one. Rookie nominee TIM BROWN, 62, of Blaine, and perennial nominee LUKE HARNED, 67, of Mahtomedi, raced in the same four races last season, winning their respective AGs each time. Those events were the Graniteman triathlons, Square Lake Sprint and Fall Classic Duathlon.

A closer look at their performances, though, revealed that, according to MMH's Age Grading formula (-.5% per year of age difference after age-41), Brown was the clear winner. In all four events, Tim's margin of victory over Luke was more than 2.5%.

For instance, for Harned to match Brown's 1:16:15 at Big Lake, he'd had to throw down a 1:18:11. Luke's time was 1:19:56. The Committee therefore congratulates Tim Brown as the men's 2020 GMOY honoree....

Macy Iyer is 2020 Female Junior of the Year!

Wednesday, 11 November 2020 23:10

Photo - Macy Iyer and her mom / #1 fan Leslie)

2020 MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - Selecting the Female JUNIOR OF THE YEAR was more difficult than usual. No single girl dominated last season, as say, ARIANA WERTS did a few years back. Ariana (19, Rochester) was nominated again this year, despite not having claimed a junior girls title in the races she did. In other words, several girls raced a high level and took turns beating each other.

2019 female JOY BELLA BUENTING (17, Chanhassen) was not in contention this year, despite her Junior Performance of the Year effort at Graniteman Big Lake, where she placed 2nd overall among the women. Big Lake was her only tri start, and athletes needed at least two outstanding performances to be considered for honors.

Other than Bella, only two girls took home one or more junior titles in 2020: MACY IYER (16, Edina) and SIMONE LUNDQUIST (18, Osseo). Both girls have been nominated before.

The competition between Macy and Simone in 2020 was fierce, and there are strong arguments for both of them. In the end, though, MACY IYER was named female JOY....

Carson Deichman is 2020 Male Junior of the Year!

Monday, 09 November 2020 23:10

2020 MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - Determining the winners of the MMHs is easy sometimes. More often, though, it's extremely difficult. The boys JUNIOR OF THE YEAR category was a toughie.

There is a tendency sometimes to forget that the MMH recipients need to be selected based solely on resume, and not on who is recognized as the faster athlete. This year the fastest of the nominees for male JOY did not recieve the honor, which is to say that 2019 JOY KYLE SWENSON (18, Rogers) finished a close 2nd this time around. Yes, he convincing won the junior division in both of the events he entered, setting an AG record in one of those races. That record-setting effort - Graniteman Big Lake--was arguably the Performance of the Year for a Minnesota male teen. He will also be the first teen boy in the 21-year history of Team MInnesota to make the team.

And in his only confrontation with our choice to win the JOY, he won handily. Most of the MMH Committee members agree that Kyle would have repeated as JOY had his resume included just one more strong performance.

Why then did the MMH Committee nanimously select CARSON DEICHMAN (17, Mankato) as the 2020 male Junior of the Year?

Two words: Volume (6 triathlon starts) and Consistency (5 AG wins / 3 AG records)....

2020 Athletes of the Year...

Saturday, 07 November 2020 23:10

2020 MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - Here are the nominees for 2020 ATHLETE OF THE YEAR. Note that, unlike prior years, we are including a pro athlete, in this case, Ted Treise. We include him because of COVID-19's limiting effects on the frequency of races and numbers of participants. We are happy to include Ted because he supported local events and threw down some great performances.

Women (alphabetical):

1. DIANE HANKEE, 42, Lake Elmo

- 1st @ Green Lake Olympic

- 1st @ Fall Classic Duathlon

2. SHYANNE MCGREGOR, 36, Duluth

- 1st @ Graniteman Clearwater

- 4th @ Ironman Florida (11/19) - 9:47:52

3. ANNA RAINER, 26, Minneapolis (photo below)

- 2nd @ Graniteman Clearwater

- 4th @ Graniteman Big Lake ....