Race Coverage

Olivia is Ready For the "Elite" Wave....

Sunday, 11 August 2019 23:10

NORTHWOODS TRIATHLON - Conditions were perfect on Saturday for the 17th edition of this great event. The swim course was a tad long, thus few PRs were set.

Still, almost 400 athletes finished the race with smiles on their faces and the desire to return in 2010. Northwoods does, along with the YWCA's Women's Triathlon, have the highest brand loyalty of any tri in the state. Truly, the majority of participants are what we affectionatley refer to as "recidivists." ...

A while BROOKS GROSSINGER won here for the 15th time, and DAVID LEWIS, husband of NANCY, the event's awesome Race Director, placed 2nd for the 6th time, neither were able to break the magical 1-hour mark. A true quarter-mile swim would have remedied that.

Among the few PRs that were set were those turned in by the Top Two women, both of whom have improved significantly over the last year. Bemidji's JESSIE MAHER was first to cross, her 1:11:29 being 6:41 faster than her 13th-place 2018 clocking. 

Jessie started in the first, i.e. "Elite," wave, thus she had a bit of a wait before her victory could be officialized. Eleven minutes and 47-seconds later, however, OLIVIA BERG crossed the  finish line, robbing Maher of her second W of the 2019 season by a 13-second margin. Berg, coming off a 3rd place effort at Graniteman Big Lake Olympic the week before, was 2nd here in 2018, and her time on Saturday, thanks largely to her humongous bike split, was five seconds better than a year before. However, it was estimated that the 2019 swim course was at least 1:30- 2-minutes long. 

Despite the elongated swim, two AG records were rewritten, the first by DAVID LEWIS, who lowered the 45-49M course record from 1:04:51 to 1:02:06; the second by ROBIN TEDLUND, 60, whose 1:13:07, which landed her in 6th place overall in the women's race, was 14:43 faster than the prior 60-64W's best. Tedlund, a two-time Worlds medalist, now owns three divisional records at Northwoods.

The day's overall bronzed medalists were RYAN ROGERS (1:07:42), and CHRISTINE MITCHELL, 50, who now owns four Northwoods podiums, and a total of 9 Top 5s.   RESULTS

ED. Most of this week's content will be devoted to coverage of last weekend's races.