Race Coverage

Guenther & LaFrance Are National Champs...Again!

Monday, 18 March 2019 23:10

MINNEAPOLIS — Twenty athletes earned age-group national titles Sunday at the USA Triathlon Winter Triathlon National Championships, held as part of the Loppet Foundation’s Loppet Winter Triathlon at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Jan Guenther (Long Lake, Minn.) and Joel LaFrance (Plymouth, Minn.) led the way, claiming the overall women’s and men’s national titles respectively....

Athletes enjoyed temperatures in the upper 20s with light snow as they covered a 6-kilometer Nordic ski, 18-kilometer mountain bike and 5-kilometer trail run through the Theodore Wirth trail system. Winter triathlon is typically held as a run-bike-ski, but order of disciplines was reversed for 2019 to ensure best-possible snow conditions by holding the ski portion earlier in the day. 

Guenther, 60, was the women’s overall champion in 2016 and 2017 and earned the runner-up spot in 2018. She covered the course Sunday in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 38 seconds, more than 10 minutes ahead of her closest competitor. 

Minneapolis native Andrea Tremaine, 32, placed second for women in 1:57:28. Rounding out the overall podium was 40-year-old Tara Makinen (Grand Rapids, Minn.) in 2:00:05. Each of the overall medalists also earned national titles in their respective age groups. 

Guenther said she enjoyed the reversed order of Sunday’s race....READ MORE

PHOTO R - Junior National Champion Noah Billings. PHOTO BELOW - Great Skinnyski.com pic of Jan Guenther.