Race Coverage
Bontrager & Illgen Break Out!
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Tuesday, 23 April 2024 00:10
14th Maple Grove Triathlon Coverage - With 1000+ sign-ups and just under 900 finishers, this year's Maple Grove Triathlon was the second largest tri in Minnesota this year, surpassed only, and slightly, by the YWCA Women's Triathlon.
Twas a perfect day for racing at Weaver Lake Park on Sunday and great performances were plentiful. In the Olympic race the pre-race favorites did what they do, though perhaps not as convincingly as usual. Men's winner PRESTON YOUNGDAHL turned in a amateur course record effort--1:53:55, bettering Wade Cruser's prior best by 23 seconds, yet his margin of victory was only slightly more than a minute over runner-up TIM BONTRAGER, whose 1:54:59 appeared to have been a breakout effort, especially when you look at the list of talented guys he outraced, several of whom he'd never beaten before.
JOE ADRIAENS (1:56:15), JAKE KEEHAN (1:56:57) and elite collegian NATHAN KIM (1:57:41) secured the three-five spots. Seven men broke two hours.
Unsurprisingly, HEATHER LENDWAY won the women's Olympic race in a fine time, 2:05:07, but it was her runner-up that turned in arguably the most impressive women's performance of the day. UW-Madison's RACHEL ILLGEN placed 4th here last year in 2:16:22. This time, tough, she, like...
Bontrager n the men's competition, threw down what was likely her finest performance to date, 2:06:36, almost a ten minute improvement on her 2022 effort.
Placing third, 5:08 after IlLgen, was VANESSA NAGEL.
Age Group records were mercilessly crushed by JAN GUENTHER, 64 (2:28:16) and PAM STEVENS, 70 (2:47:51).
2022 Junior of the Year NOAH BILLINGS, now 17, repeated as men's winner of the MG Sprint, his 59:26 lowering his own junior course record. He was joined inthe winner's circle by the remarkable CHERYL ZITUR, 59, who collecetd her sixth Maple Crove Sprint title.
Photo: Cheryl Zitur, winner of the women's overall MG Sprint tite, and friend Christel Kippenhan, 4th place in the Olympic race setting a new 55-59 record (2:20:31).
