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Minnesota's Talented Teens..

Monday, 06 March 2017 23:10

Last week, one of the MTN Guys discussed the 2017 season with a parent of an up-and-coming pair of junior triathletes. He was hoping to enroll his sons in some of the more high profile races. If one or both of them have a successful season, perhaps a Junior of the Year nomination would follow.

The dad was aware that three of the four JOY nominees from 2016 have aged-up, and thus no longer eligible for consideration. Mitchell Clayton (JOY), Kristina Swenson and Alison Crum have or will turn 20 this year. Lauren Steinke, 17, is still elgible for a nomination and will enter the season as the frontrunner for the JOY '17 award...

We decided to look at the 2016 results to see if we could spot some likely contenders. We discovered that there are a number of very talented youngsters who are racing on the Youth and Junior Elite draft-legal circuits. DL performances are currently not applicable for MMA consderation. (The reasons for this are many and require more words than we want to include in this post.)

So, we want to remind parents and their teen athletes that eligibility for JOY consideration requires tri/du-athletes to turn in at least three "outstanding" performances in non-draft-legal races during the season. By "outstanding," we mean efforts that approach, match or exceed the junior standards established in the events in question.

Here are some of the teen athletes, along with Steinke, who have caught our attention in the last year or two. We hope to see them, and others we are currently unaware of, often at this year's multisport races:

Boys - Nathan Bich (18, Duluth), Anders Broman (17, Eagan), Carter Deichman (16, Mankato), Josiah Eide (17, Rochester - top photo), Jack Hennen (17, Cambridge), Erik Lundstrom (18, Northfield), Parker Roehl (19, St. Bonifacious).

Girls - Eve Anderson (14, Mankato), Hannah Bettendorf (17, Duluth), Megan Bettendorf (16, Duluth), Isabella Buenting (14, Chanhassen - photo R with her dad, Mike), Grace Busch (14, Mankato), Kaytlin Garrison (19, Cohasset), Reilly Ingersoll (18, Minneapolis), Macy Iyer (13, Edina), Taylor Lundquist (17, Maple Grove), Hannah Higgins (16, Byron), Maisey Waech (17, Grand Rapids), Aly Welch (18, Rochester), Ariana Wertz (16, Rochester).