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Why Hanna? Why Jesson?

Thursday, 01 November 2018 23:10

MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - We have already discussed the slam-dunkiness of the selections of HEATHER TAYLOR for Rookie of the Year, BECKY YOUNGBERG for female Master of the Year and TED TREISE for male Most Improved.

Let's add another: HANNA GRINAKER for Long Distance Athlete of the Year.

Though her fellow nominees--SEAN COOLEY and TED TREISE--turned in multiple impressive long course efforts, Hanna's resume was almost perfect. She raced in three half IMs, winning each time in sub-4:30, or equivalent, clockings (Liberty's course was abbreviated & Superior Man's swim was long), and made her IM debut at Wisonsin, where she placed 2nd in 10:08:33, the fastest first-time 140.6 ever by a Minnesota female amateur. 

Every one of Hanna's long distance performances were worthy of a POY nomination, indeed every race she entered last season produced a POY nomination-worthy result. ...

Though not a slam dunk winner of the Duathlete of the Year, most Selectors agreed that former amateur World Du Champion JESSON BAUMGARTNER (photo) deserved the honor.

A great case could be made for WADE CRUSER, who rewrote his own course record at Cinco Long Course (1:18:44!), placed 3rd against the deepest non-championship men's field in the US (Apple), and finished 7th against an extremely talented field at Du Nationals.

In the minds of most Committee members, though, Baumgartner's two du performances overrode Cruser's three-race run-bike-run resume because he crushed DEVON PALMER's five-year-old course record at Falls, then followed that up with a HUGE win at Apple, where his time was the 3rd fastest in event history. His Apple performance earned a POY nomination, and he managed to outperform Cruser there by a 1:40 margin.

Winning the head-to-head with Wade gave Jesson the edge here.

Also nominated was ANDREA MYERS, who has been nominated for Master of the Year in each of the last three seasons. She had a terrific du resume in 2018, winning at Falls and Cinco Long Course, then placing 2nd at Apple. What prevented the Committee from taking these results more seriously was the fact that the women's du fields in 2018 were much thinner than in prior seasons.