Race Coverage
#50 For Payne...
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Monday, 31 July 2017 23:10
CHISAGO LAKES SPRINT XII - We love to witness breakout performances, and the Chisago races never fail to deliver in that regard.
Let's start with the Sprint. On paper, MATTHEW PAYNE's 50th career win appeard to be, as they say, in the bag; as long as he doesn't crash, like he did at HOLT, or make a wrong turn, like he did at Lake Waconia.
Matt would indeed claim his landmark half-century W, but it wasn't easy. In fact, it was hard as heck, thanks to a breakout effort by 2015 Minnesota Junior of the Year NICK KLONNE, who dogged the Payne Plane (he's a pilot, you know!) the ENTIRE race.
When Matt topped the final hill and had only fifty downhill meters to go, the pesky Colorado School of Mines junior was still in his reaview mirror.
Payne had only ten seconds to catch his breath before Nick's timing chip burped for the final time. Klonne proved unequivocally that he is ready to bark with the Big Dogs. Good stuff!
For Payne, 40, his 1:16:33 was a masters record, lowering SCOTT PENTICOFF's 2010 mark by five seconds. Howevr, a glance at the splits suggest that the run was longer than 5K, at east a tenth, perhaps two.
Rounding out the men's podium was a guy who seems to be having breakout performances every time he races this season. We're talking about ANDY WIBERG, who finished only eight seconds behind Klonne (pronounced "Clone -nee")....
NICOLE HEININGER came into the race having won the last two editions, thus her three-peat came as a surprise to no one.
The rest of the women's sprint podium, though, was comprised of women who are racing lights-out right now. KATHERINE LENGLET, whose 2017 resume is the stuff that Most Improved nominations are made of, had an awesome race, beating several women who used to regularly beat her. At Chisago, she took the bronze medal, finishing behind JENNIFER FITZHARRIS-FUNK, who threw down excellent bike and run splits.
The last time Katherine and Jennifer faced each other (Minneapolis Sprint), Lenglet came out on top. The length of the swim portion appears to the deciding factor when these ladies face each other. Longer swims favor Katherine. More saddle time favors Fitzharris-Funk.
The longer run resulted in a lot of "just-missed" course records. Two AG marks fell anyway, starting with Payne's 40-44 new standard. The other was DANIEL KIRK's 7:46 lowereing of the 70-74M mark.
ED. Chisago Half coverage will post tomorrow.
