Race Coverage
Caryn & Jack, Cheryl and Nick...
-
Wednesday, 31 July 2024 00:10
CHISAGO LAKES OLYMPIC COVERAGE - There were plenty of awesome performances in Sunday's Chisago Lakes Olympic Triathlon. The race is young, only three years old, and many of the AG records are a bit soft, so it wasn't earth-shattering that eleven of the sixteen non-open class (00-19, 40 & over) age groups saw record times despite the heat and wind. Some of those performances were truly special, like JULIA WESIBECKER's 55-59 effort that landed her in 4th place overall in the women's race, or THOMAS WOODS' 50-54M performance, which landed him in 8th place overall. Woods is a highly decorated elite master from Nebraska....
But the AG performance of the day was turned in by JACK CONSIDINE, a 19-year-old Iowan. Jack was the first of three talented juniors to crack the men's Top 10. JUDSON SCHULZ, 19, of Golden Valley, and two-time Minnesota Junior of the Year NOAH BILLINGS, 18, of Rochester finished 7th and 8th respectively.
But Considine finished 2nd overall, just 27-seconds behind pre-race favorite TIM BONTRAGER. Jack's place took almost eight minutes to become official because he started two waves after Bontrager. His effort bumped PETER WIKMAN off the porium, and took vastly improved triathlete TEVIN NEEGAARD from 2nd to 3rd place.
Exciting stuff!
Rivaling Considine's performance was the one recorded by women's winner CARYN (HERRICK) WIKMAN. Posting impressive splits from shore to finish line, Caryn's dominant effort was arguably the women's Performance of the Year thus far. Her time was 2:10:45, good for 10th place overall. 2:10 is the fastest Olympic performance by a Minnesota woman thus far in 2024, and it needs to be understood that heat and wind were major obstacles to speed, and the course was, according to several particiants, a tad long in both the swim (1400+, not 1200m), and the bike (25.1, not 24.8).
The win was Caryn's second at Chisago. She won the half in 2023.
Rounding out the women's Olympic podium were KATIE DEREGNIER, whose 2024 scorecard boasts a win and two seconds, and Katie's BFF, KRISTEN HAWKINS, who has two 3rds and a 4th this season.
CHISAGO LAKES SPRINT COVERAGE - In 2023, CHERYL ZITUR's margin of victory over runner-up DANE HANKEE was 31 seconds. Last Sunday's race was almost like Deja Vu all over again, though it initially appeared that Hankee came out on top. After a wave interval adjustment, though, it was Zitur who would be victorious, albeit by a slightly smaller (21-seconds) margin. Zitur, who started winning races a decade ago, when she was 49, now has 24 first place trophies at home.
The women's Sprint podium was comprised of two elite Grand Masters--Zitur and Iowa's decorated JANET MCCULLOUGH, 59, and elite master, Hankee.
Faster transitions explained why former MInnesota Junior of the Year NICK KLONNE was able to prevail against DEREK PARKER. Nick and Derek had similar swim and bike splits, and Derek had the faster run, but Klonne spent approximately one minute less than Parker in the transition area. In the end, Nick's margin of victory was 14-seconds.
Page 2 photo - Julia Weisbecker and Cheryl Zitur.
