FEATURES
Why Wade, not Sean?
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Sunday, 04 November 2018 23:10
MINNESOTA MULTISPORT HONORS - Until now, we have explained the reasoning behind the categories with slam dunk, and semi-slam winners, women's Most Improved notwithstanding,
Now we move to the remaining categories, those that are controversial, thus much harder to explain.
Let's start with male TRIATHLETE OF THE YEAR, a race that came down to two guys: 2017 TOY SEAN COOLEY, and this year's honoree WADE CRUSER (photo L).
Let's look at atheir respective highlights:
SEAN (photo below) -
- 1st @ Liberty Long Course
- 1st @ Minnespolis Olympic
- 1st @ Superiorman Half IM
- 2nd @ Heart of the Lakes ...
- 2nd @ Chisago Half IM - 4:09:25
WADE -
- 1st @ Brewhouse Olympic - Course record
- 1st @ Maple Grove Olympic - Course record
- 1st @ Lakes Country Course Record
- 1st @ St. Paul Olympic - Course Record
- 1st @ Green Lake Olympic
- 3rd @ Liberty Long Course
- 4th @ Lake Waconia
Sean, once again, proved that he is our state's premier half IM guy (though Ted Treise is hot on his heels). He faced Cruser twice in long distance events, and beat him rather handily both times: 9:19 at LIberty, 7:0 at Chisago.
Advantage Sean?
So why Wade?
Fiirst of all, he had FIVE Olympic distance wins, four in course record time (and he only missed the CR at the other race--Green Lake-by two seconds), and his 1:54:18 at Maple Grove was unquestionably the Olympic POY by a Minnesota male in 2018.
Hey wait! What about Sean's win at Minneapolis, you ask? Wasn't that the best Olympic effort by a Minnesota guy?
No. The men's field at Minneapolis was not as strong as in year's past. And Sean's 1:59 didn't stack up against the times of past winners, much less with his 1:55 2nd place performance the year before (yes, weather was more favorable in 2017).
More illuminating, though, was the fact that Cooley only beat the women's winner--Hanna Grinaker--by 8:23. A typical elite amateur male/female Olympic differential is in the 13-minute range.
So, while it was a tight race between Cooley and Cruser (with Patrick Parish close behind, thanks largely to his POY effort at Lake Waconia and win at Heart of the Lakes, where he outraced Sean by a 1:01 margin) the majority of the Committee ultmately favored Wade.