Race Coverage

Revenge of the Newbs....

Thursday, 16 February 2023 00:10

BUZZ RYAN SPRINT COVERAGE - While the usual suspects battled for top spots in the women's race, a pair of ex-collegiate runners with little or no prior tri experience, broke away from the the established swim-bike-runners in the late stages to claim the gold and silver positions for the men. Exciting stuff.

Former Duluthian and Gopher distance runner MATT WELCH had PRs superior to those of Mankato's MICAH WARNING (Great Name!), who ran for Winona State, and he demonstrate that fact by throwing down a 11:54 split in the closing 2.4ish mile run. That's sub-5 miles, folks!

But it was only enough to earn him 2nd place. Warning's swim split, together with superior transitions, gave him an edge that proved to be insurmountable. (FYI, his run was wicked fast - 12:2, Sub - 5:10 pace--too. ) Micah's winning time - 49:45--gave him 2:45 to recover before Welch's arrival, and another 31 ticks before the vastly improved MICHAEL KARAU made his bronze medal effort official. Karau commented later that "the second guy--Welch--blew by me like I was jogging." (6:20-pace is not jogging!) ...

Let's return to the usual suspects theme that defined the women's competition. Yes, ELAINE NELSON managed to collect her 8th Buzz Ryan win in nine starts, and 23rd W in her 12-year tri career. She patiently, as always, strung together the kind of splits that get one to the front of the line. In this case, her 54:25 finish gave her 2:07 to relax before TIFFANY KARI's runner-up effort was secure. (Tiff needs to race more tris! Two starts in 2021 and 2022 combined produced 2nd-place finishes.)

The battle for Bronze came down to a two-second victory for 2021 Most Improved nominee LISA FILZEN, whose run split proved to be the difference. However, 4th placing CHRISTEL KIPPENHAN, 57, raced fast enough to blow away another Age Group record, like she did at Timberman Sprint the previous weekend. Christel appears to be ready to take on the best in her AG at Nationals in early August.

A record 165 athletes finished the race, the only event in our state (we think?) that awards lethal weaponry to it's overall and AG medalists. Named for a bygone badass lumberjack, Buzz Sprint is an excellent tune-up for Brewhouse, which shares the same picturesque Island Lake venue, on August 7. BH is a classic that has been satisfying our region's triathletes for three-and-a-half decades.  RESULTS

Awesome Photo - Tiffany Kari and Matt Evans at the photogenic best.