Race Coverage

Nicole & Kevin Throw Down....

Wednesday, 31 July 2013 01:10

(Photo - Nicole and Julie)

Waseca 1/3 & Sprint V - Nicole Heininger tightened her frontrunner's hold on the 2013 Rookie of the Year award on Sunday by winning the Waseca 1/3 in record time. She covered the 1-mile swim, 34-mile bike, 8.8-mile run in 3:02:25, which proved to be 2:04 faster than Diane Hankee's year-old CR. It was Nicole's first career W to go with awesome podium efforts at Heart of the Lakes and Lake Waconia.

Joining Heininger in the women's Top 3 were perennial stars, Julie Hull (3:08:13), and Gillian Auslander (3:11:30).

The men's podium was filled out by Luke Nelson (2:52:54), who placed 4th here in 2012, and Mario Minelli (2:54:12), who lowered his PR on this great course by more than two minutes.

Heininger was not the day's only record-setter. Kevin O'Connor blasted the men's course best in the Sprint. His 1:04:23 lowered Jesse Nelson's 2010 race best by a flabby 6:29. Jesse also managd to better his previous mark by finishing 2nd in 1:10:22. Placing 3rd was Scott Myers. His time was 1:11:41.

FYI, Kevin O'Connor has won five races is six starts this season.

Scott Myer's wife Andrea won the women's Sprint handily. Her time was 1:18:19 and her margins over 2nd placing Sandra Rather and 3rd placing Amanda Heinritz were 11:24 and 11:34, respectively. Heinritz was 3rd here in 2012, too.

Competing for participants with four other multis last weekend, including the 1500-entrant Chisago Lakes race, Waseca's numbers did dip somewhat this year. One hundred and forty-five athletes finished the Sprint. There were 83 finishers in the 1/3. This is one event that needs to be on every triathlete's Bucket List. RESULTS

Photo - Waseca swim start.