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Potential Nominees for 2026 Master of the Year...Men

Thursday, 08 October 2026 00:10

2026 Masters - Men - As with the Grand Masters, there are some notable absentees from this year's Masters list. 2025 and 2024 MOY Josh Blankenheim is ineligible for consideration this year. He only raced once. Other top 40+ guys that only raced once or twice (or ot at all) this season include Brooks Grossinger, Sam Hauck, David Koppel, Brandon Lee, Andys Wiberg and Zabel.

So, who will receive consideration? These are the guys, in alphabetical order, that we are currently considering for nominations:

Emmanuel Darne, 54, Woodbury

The transplanted Frenchman won two races outright (Chisago Sprint and Square Lake Sprint), and placed 3rd at Brewhouse Intermediate.

Thaddeus Ingersoll, 56, St. Paul

Thad was the outright winner at Chisago Olympic. He placed 3rd overall at Buffalo Sprint, crushing the previous 55-59M race record. He won his AG by a ten minute margin at Rockford 70.3, and his 2:11 at Olympic Nationals was good for 5th place in his division.

David Lewis, 52, Nevis

In five regional starts, he made the overall podium four times, including a 2nd at Square Lake 70.3.

Brett Lovaas, 51, Minnetonka

Brett's 2026 resume consists of podiums at Lake Rebecca and Hopkins, plus a 6th at Average Jo.

Steven Voss, 41, Osseo

Steven's 2026 scorecard: 2nd at Big Lake Olympic, 5th at Buffalo Olympic and 6th at Maple Grove Olympic.

Adeline, Trevor, Corbin & Kyler...

Tuesday, 06 October 2026 00:10

By Rocky

As MMH season ramps up, Bullwinkle and I are in the process of reviewing race resumes for several categories of athletes, including the category of Junior of the Year (JOY). Below are some of the 19 and under athletes whose results impressed us in 2026:

Adeline Althaus-Kotila, 17, Minneapolis. Adeline reached the overall podium in all 3 of her starts this season, including a 3rd at Lake Rebecca, 2nd at the YWCA Women’s Tri, and 2nd at Maple Grove Sprint.

Trevor Bauer, 17, Eau Claire. Trevor was not on our radar last year but improved this season. His 2026 resume includes 4 overall podiums in his 6 starts, with his podiums including Shell Lake, Fairmont Sprint, Maple Grove Sprint, and Turtleman Sprint.

Corbin Deichman, 18, Mankato. Corbin, a two-time Junior of the Year, reached the top step of the overall podium in 3 of his 6 races, including the Kansas City Tri Sprint, Trinona Sprint, and Brewhouse/Buzz Ryan Sprint. He also placed 5th in his age group at Sprint Nationals.

Kyler Williams, 17, Zimmerman. Kyler had solid results in 2025, but his performances exploded in 2026. He placed 13th overall and won his age group at Olympic Nationals in a time of 1:58:49, and he won overall at Maple Grove Sprint in a speedy 56:21. 

"Wowzer!"

Saturday, 03 October 2026 00:10

By Tiffany Kari Cizmas

USAT World Championship Recap from Spain!  - Made it to Spain on Wednesday with a lot of luck! Delays, missed connections, and dropped flights added some stress but we rolled with it and somehow still arrived on time with our luggage! A little airport espresso and we were good to go. 

I felt great going into Saturdays race. Can’t always say that. The race consisted of a 1500 meter salty river swim, 40k hilly bike, and 10k hilly run in the beautiful city of Pontevedra.

The nerves built as I walked out on the pontoon to line up. I slid in somewhere close to the middle of 68 woman representing 23 counties and said good luck to the lady next to me. Before I knew it we were in the water and the clock was ticking down on the loud speaker. I pushed off with the plan to swim hard for the first 100 to 200 then ease into a sustainable rhythm. I was on some feet for the first 50-100 but around 500 yards I found myself totally alone. We had a nice current on the way out but had to push it on the way back. There can be better lines to choose where the current is less harsh but without really knowing I just held my line and hoped for the best. The gals I was with swam toward the center of the river then launched ahead. Maybe I should’ve gone with but it wasn’t an easy call. I came out in 18th. Lower than my typical placement but not bad. I was still encouraged. 

T1 went smooth. I booked it to my bike. We had 1/4th mile to run to get there and every second counts. The wetsuit came off fast and I was soon on my bike. 

The 40k bike course was great with two five mile climbs and two fast descents. Perfect for a mountain biker with descending skills. I practiced a couple days earlier but still worried a bit about the descent at high speeds with other riders around me. Not sure if I could stay down in my drops for the steep parts but come race day the mountain skills paid off. I was able to stay aero and give it full gas. I moved up to around 7th place with the 3rd fastest bike time. 

T2 was luckily also very smooth. Once my running shoes were on I worked to relax as I exited transition and hit the course. 

I love this run course. It consists of four loops with about a 1/2 mile steep climb and 1/2 mile descent through the twisting small ancient city streets and about a mile 1/2 mile of flatter surface running. I looked forward to the uphill on each lap as I believed I could put some distance on the others on the climb and looked forward to the downhill. I would settle in at the top and then put the gas back on for the descent. Running downhill is an easy place to accidentally lose speed after a climb. The hardest parts were actually the flat sections as I tried to hold on to my downhill speed and effort until I hit the climb again. No chance to actually recover. Just worked the mind games telling myself I would recover on the descents somewhere if needed. 

I learned I was 45 seconds down from 3rd place going into lap three. Hard to know for sure if I could bridge that. I didn’t actually know if I was gaining or if she was pulling away. Typically I have one of the faster run times so I was optimistic I was gaining. Prior to this information I accepted I was probably coming in 5th. I was overjoyed to learn I may make the podium! I wasn’t certain when or if I passed her with all the bodies out there. At this point I was also lapping runners in my age group however when I started my 4th lap I soon learned I was 15 seconds from 2nd place. Wow! I couldn’t believe it! Very soon after I saw her. A gal from Switzerland. She looked like a badass. Super fit and fast. I picked up the pace slightly to discourage her from trying to go with me. Luckily the big climb was coming and believed I would extend the gap with some ease. I never looked back just held the gas. My legs felt like jelly. Something I’ve rarely experienced but blocked it out. Just had 1 mile to run. With 1/4 mile to go someone reassured me that I had locked in 2nd place. I had put 45 seconds on her. I grabbed the American flag from our team USA captain and ran it in. I was so relieved to be done and elated to had pulled off 2nd in the world for team USA, 45-49 year old gals! Wowzer! What an amazing blessing!

Thank you SkiHut and running coach Tony Stensland for all the support. Ali for joining me on the journey to Spain and being my Sherpa. Big thanks of course my husband Dave for the love and encouragement as well as my family, friends, and crazy training partners. You make life so much more fun. 

2026's Grand Masters...

Thursday, 01 October 2026 00:10

By Bullwinkle

2026 Grand Master of the Year Notes - Jan Guenther has been named Grand Master of the Year five times. Tim Brown is a three-time GMOY, Cheryl Zitur has earned this honor twice, and Luke Harned ran away with the men's GMOY last year. What these national-class athletes have in common this year is that they are all ineligible for this recognition in 2026. We know that all but Harned are injured, and Luke is taking tim eoff to travel and do fun stuff. 

What this means in that most of the eventual GMOY nominees will be first-timers. Of this list we are sharing here, only Julia Weisbecker, Rod Raymond and Christel Kippenhan have has been nominated in the past. 

Here, in alpha order, are the athletes being considered for GMOY nominations:

Men:

Jeff Gilmer, 66, Annandale

Jeff has ten (!) AG wins this year, a half dozen of them in out of state races. 

Chuck Hengel, 62, Wayzata

Chuck's 2026 highlights include big AG wins: Buffalo Olymic, Timberman Olympic and Maple Grove Olympic.

Rod Raymond, 61, Duluth

In three regional races, Rod has one overall 6th and two 7ths, one of which yielded a AG record.

Keith Tufte, 66, Wayzata

Top 10 overall finishes at Turtleman Sprint and Chisago Sprint, plus AG wins at Sprint Nationals and Maple Grove Sprint are Keith's 2026 racing highlights.

Women:

Mary Deeg, 64, Annandale

2026 competitive highlights include five out-of-state AG wins, and divisional wins at Timberman Sprint, Big Lake and Lakes Country.

Christel Kippenhan, 61, Bemidji

Christel rocked in the women's overall finishes at Timberman Sprint (2nd!), Maple Grove Sprint (4th) and Buffalo Sprint (6th). She also placed 2nd at Sprint Nationals. She also won her AG at DL Sprint Nationals.

Julia Weisbecker, 60, St. Paul

With AG-record 70.3 wins at Oceanside and Muncie (4:59:48!), ulia established herself as our country's premier 60+ half iron female racer. She also was the overall women's winner at Buffalo Olympic and cracked the overall women's Top 5 at Maple Grove (2:14:47). won Buffalo Olympic women's title. Yes, her local wins produced AGRs.

This list may not include everyone who deserves mention, and we will update as needed.

It Didn't Happen By Accident...

Monday, 28 September 2026 00:10

By Micah Warning

Michigan 70.3 Report - 

A result I couldn’t be more proud of. Third overall in a time of 3:55. Top 4 guys broke the previous age group course record! Course record at an Ironman event is a win in itself! Beat my previous best time at this course by over 20 minutes. It didn’t happen by accident.. hard work has finally payed off.

This is what a PR day looks like: 

Swim - 27:29 - the best 70.3 swim of my career in all aspects, sighting, race tactics, and pace. (Could still be better) but I’ll take it!

Bike - 2:09:25 - Best power avg (317 watt avg) and best speed 26.02 for 56 miles. Very good day on the bike!

Run - 1:14:08 - 1st overall runner on the day.. The story of my 70.3 career has been the collapse of my runs. I think my best avg is 6:30 per mile. Going into today I was hopeful to average somewhere around low 6:00 pace, NOPE. 5:38 per mile sounded way better! I knew my past results where not indication of my ability and I finally was able to show it today. From a 1:25 run at Omaha to a 1:14 today at Michigan is an absolute win!

In short.. today was everything I could have asked for. I’m grateful to those who have reached out before I raced and after. It truly doesn’t go unnoticed. 

And thank you TerraLocoMN for your continued support.

ED. Micah - So you know, the previous best 70.3 time by a Minnesota amateur triathlete is 4:02 (Matt Payne and Kevin O'Connor)