Race Coverage

M & Ms, Girlfriends & Katie's Gun Show...

Wednesday, 07 August 2024 00:10

GRANITEMAN BIG LAKE OLYMPIC COVERAGE - We don't much about NATHAN LASSELLE, other than that he is young and wears a UM tri kit. He captured our attention in 2023 when he placed 2nd at Big Lake Olympic. So we did some research, starting by Googling the UM Tri Team. We learned at lot: 

Nathan Lasselle - "I am this year’s Fundraising Coordinator. I am from Maple Grove, Minnesota, and I am majoring in Chemical Engineering. My hobbies include playing clarinet, being outdoors in nature, weight lifting, eating M&Ms and of course swimming, biking, and running. My favorite part of the team is the friendships that are formed. Many of my best friends were met on the team. My favorite memory of the team is when we went tubing after Pleasant Prairie Tri."

Lasselle, an exuberant clarinet-playing, M & M aficionado (Who isn't?) with fundraising skills is a faster in all three diciplines this year than he was in 2023, when he posted a 2:19:47 second place finish at Big Lake Olympic, which proudly features four bike miles more than standard Olympic routes. Last Saturday at this year's Big Lake Olympic, he won the race, though he needed to overcome a rather slow first transition to eventually track down and pass early leader NOAH BILLINGS, who would keep things close until the run, where he proved to be about 10-seconds per mile faster. Billings, whose girlfriend (phot below) was watching him race for the first time, was justifiably pleased with his effort. ...

BRYAN TINAJERO was the third and final athlete to crack the 2:2o mark (2:18:06).

KATIE DEREGNIER (top photo) and 2023 champ ANDREA MYERS were expected to finish 1-2 in the Olympic race. Both were coming off impressive performances the previous weekend, Katie taking 2nd at Chisago Olympic and Andrea winning Lake Rebecca Sprint. Youth and resume favored Deregnier, who went on to outsplit Myers in all three diciplines en route to second W of the season. Her 2:17:55 proved to be 6:50 faster than Andrea's runner-up clocking. Myers' time--2:34:45--was 2:05 faster than her winning  result in '23.

Third place in the women's Olympic was earned by KIMBERLEY LAMEY, who was only 39-seconds behind Myers. A check of her past results suggest that her performance may have been her finest to date.

GRANITEMAN BIG LAKE SPRINT COVERAGE - Though ANTHONY HIRSHMAN races infrequently in multisport events, seeing him signing up on race morning told us that, under-raced or not, he would probably win. Not seeing preregistered EMILY GAGE show up on race days told us that BETTE ROWLEY should have clear sailing to her second win here. She also won in 2022.

Gage and Rowley duked it out on this course last season, with Gage winning by 39-seconds. On Saturday, Rowley cruised to to her convincing win. A pair of talented teenagers  grabbed the next two places, starting with RAYCHEL TONG, 16,  a Top 10 finisher and AG winner at Clearwater Sprint. Third went to ADELINE ATHAUS-KOTILA, who placed 2nd behind Myers at Lake Rebecca the prior weekend, and 5th at Buzz Ryan the week before that.

Hirschman took control of the race midway through the bike and raced unchallenged the rest of the way. His solid 1:07:36 was almost four minutes faster than DAVID ALEXANDER's second place time.

A total of 317 athletes registered for the Big Lake triathlons. The water was flat. The sky was sunny and clear and it was neither too hot, nor too humid. A beautiful day for a beautiful event.  RESULTS