Race Coverage

"She's an Outlier".......

Monday, 03 June 2019 23:10

BUFFALO OLYMPIC - The 14th edition of this classic race was staged in ideal weather, with, surprisingly, an accommodating lake (flat, 70-degrees on top), and produced a plethora of outstanding performances, some of which were record-setting.

The most jaw-dropping of the record efforts belonged to HANNA GRINAKER (photo), who despite some short-lived mechanical drama on the bike course, dominated the strong women's field. After making up the 1:16 she trailed heading into T1, she hammered the bike, her eventual split almost 3-mph faster than her nearest rival. That's insane. She outrode all but seven men. We're talking seven ELITE men.

Grinaker arrived at the finish line several minutes ahead of the previous course record, and 1-2 minutes before her generally expected time. Her final clocking was 2:06:57, an Oympic PR (1:09 better than her winning time at Minneapolis in 2018) and a 3:11 lowering of KORTNEY HAAG's 2016 course record. (FYI - the current course, which features a significantly more challenging run segment than the previous route, has been in place since 2015.)

The victory was the 10th in 18 triathlon starts for the two-time Minnesota Triathlete of the Year....

Significantly, HG's 2:06, which landed her in 8th place overall, was only 7:25 behind the men's winning time. A more typical elite amateur gender differential on an Olympic course is 12-14 minutes. Knowing this, Hanna's main guy, SEAN COOLEY (photo R), who claimed the men's title in 1:59:33, his 20th tri win since crossing the Red River and becoming a Minnesotan (2011), called her "An outlier."

Hard to argue with that.

On the heels of her win, in Masters record time, at Apple, BECKY YOUNGBERG grabbed the women's silver medal in 2:12:56, which took the previous MR down by a chunky 3:37.

Becky was followed by CHRISTINA ROBERTS, who notched her fourth straight podium here.

Like Grinaker, Cooley did most of his damage on the bike, riding a full 1-mph faster than the next fastest rider. This allowed him to overtake early leader / uber-swimmer ALEXANDER MUNDT, a Danish guy who is a swim coach in St. Cloud, then hold off a hard charge from fellow Every Man Jack teammate JORDAN ROBY during the run. Roby made up more than two minutes during the final phase, but the course ran out before he could completely close that gap. His 2:00:13 left him 40-seconds back, and 34-seconds in front of third-placer Mundt.

Also impressive in this mix was DAVID KOPPEL, who proved himself against a bunch of guys he'd never beaten before. He placed 4th on Sunday, only 16 seconds behind the amiable Dane.

Two age group record were set on Sunday. Mandan, North Dakota's KARIN GARDNER, owner of the Buffalo Olympic's 45-49W mark, is now 50. Her 2:34:19 on Sunday took a voracious bite (almost nine minutes) out of the previous 50-54W AG record.

DIANE PETERSON's 2:49:19 took an even bigger bite out of the prior 55-59W best on this course.

Our coverage of the Buffalo Sprint will post later this week. Between the two races, 490ish athletes registered and 416 crossed the finish line. RESULTS