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Five Minnesotans Honored...Clarification...

Thursday, 13 April 2017 06:10

ED. MTN thanks Du MOY Thomas Woods for clarifying some information. MTN picked Lee Piercy as our DOY and MOY. It turns out that he is a British citizen, thus ineligible for inclusion here. So, that elevates MATTHEW PAYNE to DOY on our list, and Woods to MOY. (Thomas was first HM on our original list.)

The 2016 USA Triathlon Duathletes of the Year and honorable mention selections were posted on the USAT website yesterday. We are reposting the list here with our comments.

Men’s Elite Duathlete of the Year: PATRICK PARISH (Bloomington, Minn. - photo)

COMMENT: We're very happy that PP was selected. He's deserved this accolade in the past, but wasn't honored.

Women’s Elite Duathlete of the Year: Alycia Hill (Tacoma, Wash.)
Honorable Mention: Sarah Graves

COMMENT: We're totally cool with Hill's pick.

Men’s Age-Group Duathlete of the Year: Keith Jackson (Englewood, Colo.)
Honorable Mention: Jesse Dunn, Jason Karavidas, MATTHEW PAYNE  ...

COMMENT: Jackson had a good season, but didn't even make HM on our list. In our view, he didn't face the quality of competition that the others encountered. Our list: MOY - Lee Piercy (CA) - The 43-year-old placed 2nd overall at Du Nationals and Du Worlds and won the Oakland Olympic Du. HM - Matthew Payne (MN), Wade Cruser (MN), Jesse Dunn (UT). Though Dunn won at Nationals, his two other wins were in tiny races against thin fields. In our opinion, Apple was the most competitive du of the year, and both Payne (1st) and Cruser (3rd) excelled there. 

Women’s Age-Group Duathlete of the Year: Kirsten Sass (McKenzie, Tenn.)
Honorable Mention: JENNIFER SCUDIERO, Kaytlynn Welsch, Courtney Wiseman

COMMENT: We like USAT's list. Our only difference was that we had Celia Davis-Hayes (NY), who won Long Course Du Nationals and the Maryland Du, as our third HM, with Scudiero ranked fourth. However, we are very happy that USAT included Jenn in their HMs.

Men’s Masters Duathlete of the Year: Thomas Woods (Lincoln, Neb.)
Honorable Mention: Kerry Farrell, DEREK HAGER, Dave Slavinski

COMMENT: Wow! Our list only includes one of the guys that USAT honored. We respect their picks but couldn't disagree more with them. We had Lee Piercy as both our DOY and our MOY, and USAT did not have him ranked in either of those categories. Strange. Here are our picks: MOY - Lee Piercy (CA), HM - Thomas Woods (NE), JAMES HANNON (MN), Tom Resh (CA).

Women’s Masters Duathlete of the Year: MANUELA KNISPEL (Shorewood, Minn. - photo R with Coach Buenting)
Honorable Mention: Celia Dubey, Rachel Wheeler-Northup, Laura Wiley

COMMENT: Once again, we have major disagreements, but we are thrilled that, like us, USAT selected Maneula Knispel as the MOY. Here are our picks:  MOY - MANUELA KNISPEL, HM - Laura Wiley (OR), Virginia Wheeler-Northup (VA), Erica Ruge (NY)

Men’s Grand Masters Duathlete of the Year: Bob Becker (Richmond, Va.)
Honorable Mention: Keith Woodward, Mike McCarty, Wolf Hillesheim

COMMENT: We totally agree with Becker's selection, but question USAT HM selections. Our #1 HM was Frank Nicolosi (76, Port Charlotte, FL). Our other two HM picks are Bob Rosemeyer (62, CA) and Kerry Mayer (70, WI)

Women’s Grand Masters Duathlete of the Year: Kristin Allyne (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Honorable Mention: Colleen Rebant, Diane Travis, Valerie Eipper

COMMENT: Our picks: GMOY - Kristin Allyn (NC), HMs - Collen Rebant (TX), Patty Peoples-Resh (CA), Patricia Driscoll (VT)

Men’s Junior Duathlete of the Year: Patrick Wells (Burbank, Calif.)
Honorable Mention: Timothy Wells

COMMENT:  Full agreement here.

Women’s Junior Duathlete of the Year: Kaytlynn Welsch (Alvin, Texas)
Honorable Mention: Jane Tullis

COMMENT: Complete agreement. Welsh, 16, is a phenom, good enough to be named overall HM on both USAT's and our lists. Tullis, 15, is also destined for stardom.

For the entire USAT post, link HERE.

RECAP: Here are the five Minnesotans who were honored: PATRICK PARISH (Elite DOY), MANUELA KNISPEL (MOY). MATTHEW PAYNE (DOY HM), JENN SCUDIERO (DOY HM), DEREK HAGER (MOY HM). California tied with Minnesota for the most honorees.