Root Beer, Princesses & a Miltary Presence?

hopkins-swim.gifNEWS: Wire-to-wire wins in BLAINE for ROBERTS and TATTON. Words and pics coming soon.  RESULTS

SQUARE LAKE SHIRT COURSE - DKT notches 100th career multisport W! HEATHER LENDWAY claims her 3rd straight win here. GROSSINGER and HANKEE take amateur titles. Rookier AMY BORDEN (3rd woman/2nd amateur) continues to impress. RESULTS

 

By Doobie Kurus

Hopkins Royal Report - It was a dark and stormy morning…

which after a 45 minute delay, turned out to be a great, albeit HOT, race day! The root beer was flowing post-race, as finishers received bottle opener medals from the Hopkins Raspberry Festival Royalty and listened to music from the Starlifters, the US Air Force band from St. Louis, MO. Nearly 400 triathletes turned out for the 2nd annual Hopkins Royal Triathlon at Shady Oak beach on Saturday, September 5th. The event featured a newbies mini-sprint field of about 100 people from ages 10-85. The intriguing difference about this mini-sprint race is that the participants get to pick their distance for each segment on race day. Only a handful opted for the longer swim, and a few dozen did the long bike ride,...

but about half the field ran the 5K. One mini-sprint “newbie”, Lance Larsen, actually decided on race morning to try the whole sprint course…and did it! There was also Michael DeJolsvay (one of 5 family members competing) whose timing chip went AWOL, but opted to forgo a new race bib number so that he could be with his family when they started off the race. Let’s not forget our oldest competitor, John Markham (85) and his granddaughter, Caitlyn (13), who did the race together and were gracious enough to pose for a photo at the Run Out . Tricia Bauer of Belle Plaine, celebrated her birthday at the event. Hope her wish came true! Barb Grodahl, reported doing a triathlon was one of her bucket list goals. Check that one off Barb! The list goes on and on, including apparently Michael Jackson. Obviously, not that Michael Jackson, but it still catches your eye and makes you wonder! Speaking of wondering, travis-miller.gifmany wondered not why Brett Lovaas had the fastest time in the mini-sprint, but why Brett was in the mini-sprint race. The thing was it wasn’t Brett Lovaas, but rather Brett’s 11 year old son, Breckyn. Like father, like son.

On to the sprint field which was very competitive, especially in the Clydesdale and Athena category. The field was so deep that a masters Clydesdale/Athena division was added for those 50+. Ryan Collins came in first. Bill Benning, who actually had the 3rd best time for Clydesdales overall, placed first in the masters Clydesdale group, and may just win that category in the Metro Sprint Series which incidentally finishes up next weekend at the Blaine Tri. In the Athena division, Nicole Overby was the overall Athena winner, and Lynette Vavrick edged out Kathleen Pengelly for the masters title.

On the young end of the age spectrum, there is definitely some talent coming down the line. Elsa Peterson (13), of Mpls defended her 17 and under title. In the 18-20 year old male category, Patipan Pipatpinyopong (tough to pronounce, but oh so fun to watch compete), of Loves Park, IL, came in first. Phillip English, of Minnetonka, who was smoking hot (1:08:32), came in first in the 21-24 age group and 3rd overall. A very tight race occurred in the female (25-29) age group, where Jennie Fleurant (1:32:05) edged out Elaina Schellhaass (1:32:19) by 15 seconds; in the male (25-29) group, David Koppel (1:17:52) was 25 seconds ahead of Christopher Dirkes (1:18:17). That’s the beauty of the time trial start. Don’t look over your shoulder, but rather keep your eye on the prize!

Last year’s overall winner, Eric Hendrickson (1:09:30), was dethroned by Travis Miller (1:08:02 - photo) and actually had to settle for second place in the male (35-39) age group. To be fair though, Eric agreed to be the last one to start for the sprint distance. I’m sure he passed a lot people in the process. Way to be a good sport! Sara Woeste, won the female (35-39) age group, and 4th female overall, with an impressive (1:21:49). Even more impressive was that she said she only had taken her bike out a couple of times this summer. Michelle Pasko celebrated her first age group title in the female (50-54) age group. Way to celebrate the big 5-0! Clark Worthington, at age 73, was our oldest competitor in the sprint distance race. He also had the top swim, bike and run times across the board in his age group. That’s experience for you. Kevin Wolter drew a tough matchup when he later found out Patrick Parish was also in his age group. Fortunately, Patrick won the overall male finisher award, thus giving Kevin back his age group title. The overall female finisher was Suzie Fox, who with this victory made it a perfect 10 for the 2015 tri season. Sarah Mercer and Cathy Lee came in 2nd and 3rd overall, respectively. Congrats to all of the competitors who weathered the storm. RESULTS

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