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Josh's Season...

Monday, 10 October 2011 03:00

Minnesota Multisport Awards - The nominees for Most Improved Multisportsman and Multisportswoman will be announced in the coming week. To be considered, an athlete who was not on Team Minnesota * in the past must demonstrate that they either deserve to be on Team Minnesota this year, or are at least flirting with doing so.

Also, athletes who significantly improves their position on Team Minnesota can receive nominations for this award.

Duluth's Josh Blankenheim (photo L) enjoyed tremendous success this year and is receiving serious consideration for a MI nomination. Let's look at his history and see if YOU believe he should receive a nomination....

Josh was nominated for Minnesota Rookie of the Year back in 2006 but has yet to be named to Team MN. He has come close, though (2008 & 2009). Here are his 2011 results:

- 1st @ Lake Marion Olympic

- 1st @ Lakes Country

- 3rd amateur @ Minneman - 57:57

- 3rd amateur @ Brewhouse

- 5th @ Heart of the Lakes

- 5th @ Turtleman Du

- 6th / 4th amateur @ TwinCities Olympic

- 8th @ Lake Waconia

Now let's evaluate each performance. His margin of victory at Lake Marion was 32 seconds over runner-up Kyle Serreyn. Now factor in the fact that Josh zigged when he should have zagged and rode approximately 3K to long.

Next, his margin at Lakes Country over 2nd-placing Marcus Stromberg, who had a breakout season in 2011, was 16 seconds. Josh's time was the 2nd fastest in race history and a huge time improvement over his 3rd place effort the last time he raced there, which was in 2008.

As for Minneman, his time was very fast, his splits were impressive and the guys who beat him were perennial stars, Patrick Parish and Kevin O'Connor.

At Brewhouse he was beaten by Jon Balabuck and Brian Bich. No disgrace there.

At HOLT, Josh was beaten by Hedgecock, Parish, Bich and O'Connor. He beat Sander, Bonner, Grossinger, Millner et al. In other words, he was Barkin' with the Big Dogs that day.

At TCTri he was beaten by two pros--Devon Palmer and Ryan Guiliano (IL)--and star amateurs Patrick Parish and Matthew Payne. He was also beaten by Steve Sander, who, like Josh, is a Team Minnesota hopeful.

His Waconia results don't tell us much.The field was strong and his effort was solid, but finishing out of the Top 5 does not enhance a Team MN-worthy scorecard. The good news is that and he only did so once in seven starts.