Race Coverage

Love, Newbies and Breakouts....

Monday, 24 June 2024 00:10

GRANITEMAN CLEARWATER. COVERAGE -  JESSICA, 45,  and JASON , 53, are in love, the capital L head-over-heels kind. Poor Jessica, though.  Jason is training for Ironman and their time together is limited. Unless! Unless non-trathlete Jessica becomes Triathlete Jessica. Then they can train together occasionally, but also have a mutual interest to talk about at the end of the day. Jason knew that the best way to addict his fiance (we think?) to the tri lifestyle is to do a race together. When she crosses her first finish line, she will be hooked like a Netflix binge-watcher.

Jason Riley lstarted three minutes in front of his beloved at Saturday's Clearwater Sprint. He waited for her at the mount zone Then they rode and ran together the rest of the way,  sometimes holding hands. Did it work? Heck yeah! She's a triathlete now. Okay, what they did was not exactly legal but it's hard to get upset when you're in the presence of true love.

KAITSEY BAKER was bursting with joy when she crossed the finish line in 2nd place at Clearwater Sprint. Her elation was infecious. Her family was awaiting her, as was her boyfriend. He had flowers. Who is Kaitsey Baker, you ask? We asked ourselves the same question. She's a tri newbie, and to say she has aptitude for this sport is like saying Caitlin Clark is a pretty good basketball player....

When results were posted, Kaitsey, a 24-year-old U of St. Thomas student who is totally into social media stuff, finished 5th overall behind. (Later wavers, all tri vets, took the Top 4 spots.) Her bike and run splits were especially competitive.

Not all of the human interest stuff was happy, though sometimes clouds have silver linings. Two-time Junior of the Year and shoo-in for another nomination, NOAH BILLINGS, had chosen Clearwater Graniteman to be his Olympic-distance debut, and man was he rocking through seventy-five percent of the race. He was winning when he made a decision that aturned out to be his undoing. When he arrived at the Sprint turnaround point, he turned instead of proceeding to the 10K turn. The word "turnaround" was hard to ignore. Noah finished and accepted his DQ. Afterwards he expressed more hope and pride than disappointment. He learned a lot about himself on Saturday, mostly that he has elite amateur creds not only as a Sprint course racer, but in the longer stuff as well. Very mature for an 18-year-old, you'll have to agree.

Okay, let's talk about the race, starting with the heated battle between elite mastrs BRANDON LEE, 42, and BROOKS GROSSINGER, 46 (top photo), in the Sprint. Brandon had never beaten Brooks before but was was determined to change that on Saturday. His trajectory in this sport suggests that he was ready to move to the front of the pack. He did that on Saturday, His lead over Brooks was small after the swim, but grew enough during the bike that Grossinger, a former collegiate runner, could not completely close the gap. Lee's time was 1:06:00; Brooks' was 1:06:24, which was 53-seconds faster than his winning time here in 2023.

Elite Junior CORBIN DEICHMAN threw down the fastest run split of the day and secured the final podium step. His time was 1:07:21 is the second fastest time by a junior boy in the 15-year history of G-Man Clearwater.

We know that Kaitsey Baker (photo R) placed fifth, and 2021 winner BETTE ROWLEY finished ahead of her. Who else did? Rowley ended up in 2nd with KATHRYN BARTHELMES and ALYSSA KNESE earning 3rd and. 4th respectively. Who won? Pre-race favorite CHERYL ZITUR, now 59 though ishe doesn't seem to be slowing down, claimed her third victory on this course, and the 24th win of her illustrious triathlon career.

Noah Billings' boo-boo meant that someone else had to win. That person was BRYAN TINAJERO, who was coming off a 6th place finish at Trinona Olympic.

The unquestionable stars of Saturday's Olympic race were ELENA JASPER and CAMI ECKHOFF. With Heather Lendway on the sidelines, Elena now appears to be our state's premier female triathlete, the one with the target on her back. Elena's win on Saturday landed her in 3rd place overall overall. Moreover, her time--2:23:54--on the bike-heavy course had only been previously beaten by National class talents CATHY YNDESTAD and KORTNEY HAAG. 

Eckhoff placed 2nd behind Jasper, and 4th overall. Her time--2:25:46--would have won six of the nine prior nine editions of Clearwater Olympic.

Taking the final women's podium step was BRIDGET TETMEYER, who was 2nd here in 2023, but three minutes faster this time around.

Two AG course records were rewritten, both in the Olympic race. CHUCK HENGEL, 60 (Elena Jasper's dad) , took a 2:44 bite out of the previous 60-64M record, and TIM BROWN, 65, who shaved almost 13-minutes off his division's prior best.

Two hundred and seven of the 252 entrants participate in Graniteman Clearwater 2024. Those that remained in bed fearing inclement weather, which didn't happen, missed a great event.  RESULTS