Race Previews
The Most Competitive Tri of 2022?
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Saturday, 13 August 2022 00:10
MAPLE GROVE TRIATHLON PREVIEW - The 13th edition of this great event is happening two Saturdays from now (Aug. 27). Staged at Weaver Lake Park, one of out state's premier tri venues, the Olympic and Sprint races promise to be the most competitive on the 2022 Minnesota calendar. With an anticipated 1000 entrants, MG should also be our state's second largest swim-bike-run behind the YWCA Women's Tri....
Put differently, Maple Grove will be Minnesota's largest coed multisport event in 2022.
Though we have not seen a registration list, we know from the buzz in the community, that many of our state's most accomplished triathletes will be racing. TED TREISE contacted us recently inqiring about MG's Olympic course record, which for the moment is Wade Cruser's 1:54:18, set in 2018. Ted expects to replace that and we believe that, weather permitting, he will do just that. He rewrote the Olympic record at Buffalo in early June, then went even faster on a more difficult course at Tri West last month.
Yes, Treise will be the man to beat.
In that he is a pro, the Olympic race will also have an amateur winner (for record-keeping purposes, not awards), and there will be plenty of competition for that spot. Our pick to win the amateur race and give Ted a nice push is PRESTON YOUNGDAHL, who has won three of his four tri starts this year, including a thunderous course record at Clearwater. A monster cyclist, Presto could actually be leading going into T2.
And let's not discount guys like former Minnesota Triathlete of the Year DAVID KOPPEL, two-time overall Top 10 finisher at Nationals, HENRY JESSEN, 2021 MG winner KYLE JENSEN, and rising star ANDREW KERSHAW, plus some emerging collegiate athletes.
We wouldn't be surprised if LUKUS KLAWITTER showed up as well.
The women's field should be formidable too. In the Sprint, We are anxious to see if ELENA HENGEL can outrace six-time MG Sprint winner CHERYL ZITUR. She beat Cheryl at Buffalo, though not by much. We're anxious to see how this meeting plays out.
The Olympic race might feature two-time runner-up KORTNEY HAAG, who lives in the area, and VANESSA NAGEL, who like Hengel (and Cami Eckhoff) is a likely 2022 Most Improved nominee. She was the fastest Minnesota woman and Olympic Nationals.
We wouldn't be surprised if KATIE DEREGNIER, CHELSEA DUNKEL, who like Nagel, rocked socks at Nationals, KRISTEN HAWKINS and perhaps even two-time winner / women's course record holder BECKY YOUNGBERG were dressed, racked and ready to rock n roll at Weaver Lake on race morning.
Who knows, maybe former World Champion and two-time National champion HEATHER LENDWAY will make her Maple Grove debut?
