Race Coverage

Deepest Women's Field....

Saturday, 14 March 2026 00:10

2025 Timberman Sprint Coverage - This year's race drew the most talented women's field in the eleven-year history of the current sprint course. Nine women broke the 1:10 mark. Typically the number is four or five. While true that nine women cracked the 70-minute mark in 2017, those athletes had a flat lake and clear air, unlike last Saturday, where wind and chop and chunky Canadian air prevailed....

Despite the challenges, which were preceded that day before by four inches of rain, the race was "Typical Timberman," i.e. a wonderful and joyful event.

Unlike the depth of the women's assemblage, the men's portion of the 179-member sprint field was top heavy. The three guys who were expected to podium did exactly that, each in very quick times. Mitchell Clayton and six-time T-Man champ Brooks Grossinger rocked the fourth and fifth fastest men's clocking in course history,  with three-time Junior of the Year nominee Sean Pickle turning in the route's seventh fastest time ever. 

Only eight seconds separated Mitchell, who has proven in the last two seasons that he can Bark with the Big Dogs in our region, and Brooks, a six-time winner here. Pickle's time (55:12) was only  twenty-six seconds slower than Grossinger's, whose 54:46 rewrote the 45-49M course record.

In the women's race, three former champions placed in their gender's Top 11, with Diane Hankee upsetting Bettina Keppers bid to collect her seventh victory. Both women turned in great times.

The is an asterisk next to Hankee's W, the 43rd of her stellar career, because we separate pro and amateur performances. Diane's amateur win placed her 2nd overall woman behind Duluth-based pro Shyanne McGregor, who did manage to turn in the fastest women's time ever, though only by 23-seconds.

Bettina rounded out the women's podium.

Diane's 1:03:31 was an AG record (45-49W), and the second of three divisional marks to fall on Saturday. The others: Brooks', and Christel Kippenhan's (1:05:44 - 60-64W).

It needs to be noted that the Top 4 women placed 5th through 8th overall. Who was the fourth place woman, you ask? It was rising star Kaitsy Baker, whose solid results in 2024 portended a bright future. Her 1:04:47 is the fastest women's rookie effort here.

MTN thanks Amy and Alan Dettmer, who for the last ten years have given the athletes of our region this terrific event, aka "Minnesota's Premier Destination Triathlon."  RESULTS

Timberman Olympic coverage will post on Wednesday afternoon.