Race Previews

Bennett, Scotty & Christina....

Wednesday, 06 June 2012 02:30

ED. Liberty will be contested at Lake Rebecca in Rockford, not Lake Independence. It's a construction deal.

(Photo - One of these girls is Christina Roberts, who hopes to repeat as Liberty Olympic champion next Saturday. She just might do that. The other girl is probably one of Christina's friends.)

Race Preview - Yesterday we wrote about the epic battle that should unfold between Michelle Andres and Kortney Haag at this weekend's Liberty Half. Today we'll preview the dude's half and the Olympic race.

The usual elite suspects will not be on hand this year. We're talking about past LH champions, Dan Arlandson, Josh Riff, Devon Palmer, Jon Balabuck, you know, the sub-4:15-on-this-tough-course guys. But there is a guy who....

appears ready to join their ranks. He's 2011 Square Lake Half winner (4:10:30) Bennett Isabella, who incidentally, won the Liberty Olympic Tri last year. Yes, we think he will win on Saturday. FYI, Bennett knows more about teeth and dental health than anyone in the field. He's a professional Toothadontist.

Will he be pushed? Hard to say. Is Ross Weinzierl ready to do so? We hope so. (We love Ross. He's a hoot! That's his beloved carbon in the photo below.) His current PR is 4:19. With 4:20s, former South Dakotan Jason Crisp and Windy Citizen Ed Gadient should finish in the Top 5. Jason loves to hunt and fish and enjoys a good comedy. Ed is an Austrian guy who placed 3rd here in 2011 (4:30:32). He enjoys listening to Colin Caulfield, whom we have never heard of, so we listened to one of his tunes on YouTube. It was called "Five," and didn't like it too much. He's probably got other songs that are pretty good, though.

Time now to make Liberty Olympic predictions.

The Top 3 girls from 2011--Christina Roberts, Tracie Kent and Veronica Bond--are back and all have impressive early season performances under their respective number belts. But they'll have to deal with 2010 Master of the Year nominee Julia Weisbecker, who is very proud of her Dartmouth education and the fact that she was on the varsity tennis team, and Lydia Novotny, who pulls her hair back super tight when she races. We wonder if that hurts?

The girl who is ready to pop a 2:15-17 should win on Saturday morning. Of all these girls, Roberts has had the best career results at Olympic distance. We think her chip will beep first. Christina grew up in Nisswa and has read "Kite Runner." She likes "The Fray." Who doesn't? Probably the Austrian guy doesn't?

Okay. Now, who's gonna podium in the men's Olympic tri? Though David Holden was awesome at Buffalo Olympic last Sunday (6th overall / 4th amateur / set Masters Record 2:02:03), we think it'll take a sub-2:02 to win. Scott Penticoff broke-2 in a winning effort here in 2008. He and David are racing very well right now and should take the Top 2 spots, with Scotty overtaking Holden, who should have a large lead out of the water (the guy's a fish!), early in the run. We think that 3rd will go to South Dakotan Justin Manning, who won this race last year (2:03:09) and is a totally nice guy. He has 505 FB friends, which covers just about everyone in SD.

The Liberty races are full, still great events like this one deserve lots of spectators. And a race can never have enough volunteers. We hope to see you all at the event's 2012 venue at Lake Rebecca on Saturday.