Race Coverage

2016: The "Year of The Couple"...

Tuesday, 21 June 2016 00:10

ROCHESTERFEST TRIATHLON - 2015 was the "Year of The Woman" in Minnesota. More than half of the ladies on Team Minnesota, and many others as well, enjoyed breakout years.

This year--2016--is turning out to be the "Year of The Couple."

Just look at the results. At Buffalo Olympic, for instance, BF-Sean Cooley and GF-Hanna Grinaker placed 2nd overall in their respective genders. A week later at Liberty Half, Hanna took 2nd in the women's race, and Sean placed 3rd for the men.

Last Saturday, Christina Roberts was crowned women's champion at Lake Minnetonka. Her Significant Other Jordan Roby placed 3rd in the guys' race.

And let's not forget that GF/BF Gaby Bunten and Kris Spoth set overall course records at Trinona Sprint on June 12....

Well, Gaby and Kris almost did it again. At RochesterFest Olympic last Sunday, they didn't set records, it was not a day for that--too dang hot!, but they did win, and did so by impressive margins.

For Gaby, it was her 6th career victory, and her time was 2:15:57, a mere one second slower than her winning time in 2015. In the eight-year history of the race, she owns the 3rd and 4th fastest women's times.

The women's podium was, predictably, filled out by fellow national-classers, Kortney Haag (2:17:24) and Bridget McCoy (2:19:22).

Spoth was the amateur men's champ, but he actually placed 2nd overall, and with good reason. DKT showed up. (Incidently, David raced in a team event in Sarasota, Florida on Saturday.) David's (pro) victory in the Med City in 1:57:34 marked the 104th time he's finished in 1st place in a multisport race.

Third place was earned by Kevin O'Connor, who already has two wins this season.

The companion sprint race was won by local star Peter Somers, whose 51:57 was the 3rd fastest time in the seven-year history of the RFS. He finished 55 seconds in front of runner-up Ian Bachman-Sander. Colin Smith took the final podium spot in 55:30, and 19-year-old Mitchell Clayton took 4th in 55:10, the second fastest junior time ever here.

Transplanted South Dakotan Mary Thum (pronounced "Toom" - photo above with a really cool dog) topped the women's sprint field in the event's 4th fastest women's time (58:40). Local teens Aly Welch, last year's women's winner, and Arianne Werts (4th in 2015) placed 2nd and 3rd.

The event featured the highly successful Rookie Experience. MTN will post Brad Mitchell's excellent RE coverage tomorrow. RESULTS