Race Coverage

Youth Excel at Green Lake...

Wednesday, 14 August 2019 23:20

GREEN LAKE TRIATHLON - A total of 281 athletes crossed the events' finish lines last Sunday after having endured the most turbulent swim in the race's 16-year history. Wave starts had to be elongated to allow previous waves to get far enough down the course before the next wave could be launched. (It took 53 minutes to get everyone in the water; not the posted 29.) Thirty-five life jackets were delivered to struggling swimmers via jet ski and paddleboards, and when their users either finished, or gotten to the downhill portion of the route, those jackets were delivered to the next group of strugglers.

Triathletes are "endurance animals," of course, thus few complained about the Maytag conditions. 

Despite the chop, and the rather windy conditions, the eventual finish times were surprisingly fast, especially in the Sprint race. Both of the winners--SPENCER SYVERTSON and South Dakota elite master TERESA VAN HYFTE--had raced, and won, here before and were convinced that the run course was a bit short this year. The printed results seemed to support their suspicions . 

As a result, Syvertson's excellent 57:46 could not be an official course record. JOHN SHELP's 58:35, set in 2012, therefore, remains intact.

And Van Hyfte's 1:10:41 would not erase the 50-54W course best (1:13:03) she set in 2018.

Still, both athletes were ecstatic with their performances and and were highly complimentary of the event.

At 22, Syvertson was the "Old Man" of the Sprint podium. His nearest challengers were a pair of talented 16-year-olds, both of whom had been laboring in the shadows of their elite siblings in past years. Placing 2nd was CARSON DEICHMAN (photo L), younger sibling of two-time Junior of the Year...

nominee CARTER DEICHMAN. Carson threw down a satisfying 1:02:12. After watching him place 3rd overall at Graniteman Clearwater earlier this season, we were not suprised by his performance here.

Forty-five seconds after Deichman finished, another Carson, CARSON ROEHL, whose older brother PARKER had been on the Elite Junior radar for several years, crossed the finish line with a smile on his face. Here in 2018, he had won the junior category, but his time was 13-minutes slower than this year, and he had placed 18th.

Finishing 2nd and 3rd after Van Hyfte, who also won here in 2012 and 2013, were LINDSAY SCHWAB (1:14:15), GreenLake Olympic winner back in 2008, and MORGAN BELL, 16 (1:14:47), who like fellow juniors Deichman and Roehl, is enjoying at breakout season.

And speaking of breakout performances, the Olympicish race (.75 - 22 - 6) was won in epic fashion by 19-year-old University of Iowa student KAELEB ROYSTER. He outsplit the field in all three disciplines en route to a legitimate 1:43:49. Only MARCUS STROMBERG (1:41:53 in 2012) and WADE CRUSER (1:41:46 in 2018), true national classers, have gone faster here.

Royster's resume had been a bit "spotty" coming into the race, thus we predictd that MICHAEL WEISSENBORN would be the man to beat. Kaeleb's efforts and Pigman Sprint (11th) and Steelhead 70.3 (4:39) did not reflect his true potential, though his win at St. Louis Sprint was impressive. He certainly proved at Green Lake that he is ready to bark with the Big Dogs.

Weissenborn raced impressively, as we had predicted, finishing 2nd in 1:48:28, a clocking that ranks 6th all-time here. Absent from the tri scene in 2017 and 2018, it certainly appears that Michael is picking up where he left off in 2016, a year in which he won three races and was nominated for Rookie of the Year.

Third in the men's race went to local triathlete JAY HALLIDAY (2:02:30).

Living up to her pre-race favorite status was PEGGY RENIER, whose impressive 2:05:26 landed her in 4th place overall in the Olympic race.

BECKY LEIS (2:18:03) and MERILEA OSTERLUND (2:23:23) took 2nd and 3rd in the women's race.  RESULTS