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Friday, 31 October 2014 01:10

Minnesota Multisport Awards - Here's a cursory explanation of how the women's MOST IMPROVED winner was determined.

DANI FISCHER won the award. 

In 2013, the Wausau, Wisconsin pharmacist won a number of small events--Devil's Challenge, Woodson, Pardeeville, Unite Duathlon--in her adopted home state (she's originally from Rochester, MN) and placed 20th overall / 9th in her AG at Nationals. A pair of Wisconsin women--Cindi Bannink and Bailey Hinz--were on the national radar, but Fischer was not.

This year Dani is in the running for both the USAT AOY and DOY. She'll probably win the DOY and finish 2nd to St. Paul's Heather Lendway for the AOY. Additionally, she is ranked 2nd on Team Minnesota 2014. In ...

less than a year, she went from being a regional elite to being a national and international star.

Check out her brilliant resume:

2014:

1st @ USAT Long Course Nationals - 4:23:37 (Fastest 70.3 time for a US female amateur in 2014)

1st @ Best of the US Championship

1st @ Chicago World Triathlon

1st amateur @ Apple Duathlon

1st @ Green Bay Triathlon

1st @ Badger State Games Duathlon

1st @ Woodson Triathlon

2nd @ USAT Duathlon Nationals

2nd overall @ USAT Olympic Nationals

2nd @ USAT Sprint Nationals

3rd @ Edmonton World Championships

3rd @ Life Time Tri - Minneapolis

Also enjoying breakout seasons and richly deserving their MI nominations were GABY BUNTEN (Final Team MN Rank: 12th), CHRISTINA ROBERTS (Final Rank: 9th) and 2014 Master of the Year CHERYL ZITUR (Final Rank: 14th).

NOTE: Female MI was one of the most controversial categories, as eight women were considered for the four nominations. The other four were LISA LENDWAY (Final Rank: 11th *), BRIDGET McCOY(Final Rank: 10th*), NICOLE CUENO (Final Rank: 13th) and SARAH BERGER (Final Ranking Range: 16th-17th).

* Lisa and Bridget did not receive nominations this year because they earned MI nominations in 2013 and were ranked in the 11th-13th range. Bunten and Zitur, on the other hand, were not on the MI radar in 2013, thus their emergence was more dramatic. Roberts had never been on Team MN, but had come very close in 2011 (Rank: 11th). She received a nomination because every selector had her on their respective 2014 Team MN lists.