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Sophomore Success Stories...

Monday, 13 April 2015 00:10

In 2010, first-year triathletes Dan Hedgecock and Claire Bootsma were outshined by fellow ROY nominees Jenny Shaughnessy and Sam Janicki. The MTN Guys did not predict that Hedge and Claire would achieve stardom in their sophomore seasons. In 2011, they were their respective gender's Triathletes of the Year. Hedge even earned a USAT AOY HM. Boots was considered for the same honor as well, but did not make the final cut. Claire did however end Cathy Yndestad's four-year reign atop Team Minnesota.

In 2003, CY was nominated for ROY. We did not foresee her winning the Most Improved award the next year, but she did.

Similarly, we did not predict Heather Lendway's mercurial ascension from MN Rookie of the Year in 2012 to arguably the the best female amateur triathlete that America has ever produced in just a year's time. In her first three seasons, ...

she had won 22 of the 29 triathlons she had entered, most in course record time. Her wins included back-to-back National Championships and a win at Worlds. She's a pro now, and has already finished on a podium.

Who could have predicted this stuff?

What we've learned along the way is that, very often, the rookies with the least fanfare later emerge as the brightest stars. Some who weren't even nominated for ROY suprise us with national-level efforts in their second and third seasons. Look at the competitive histories of Patrick Parish (ROY nominee in 2008) and un-nominated Matt Payne. PP is now a four-time National Champion and M-Pain was named US Duathlete of the Year and AOY HM in 2014.

It's fun and inspiring to watch this stuff from the sidelines.

Now let's talk about last year's rookies. ROY Nick Nygaard and ROY-runner-up Kelly Trom had awesome seasons are expected to challenge the best athletes in the region, if not the entire country this year.

What about less-heralded ROY nominees Emy Everhart (photo above) and Laura Greer? History tells us that one or both of them will surprise us with their sophomore improvements. We also have a feeling about Erin Klegstad. We predict big things for her in 2015, too.

We asked animal-lover Emy--We don't know Laura and can't find her on Facebook.She may work at Life Time, but we're not sure--to share her 2015 racing schedule with MTN's readers. Unfortunately, we inadvertently deleted the email. We do that sometimes. We know she's going to do a lot of Life Time events. We're anxious to see how she fares this season. We think she'll rock socks.