Race Previews

Lakes Country Turns Seventeen...

Thursday, 25 August 2016 23:10

LAKES COUNTRY TRIATHLON - WADE CRUSER will be going for his 5th victory of the season at LCT this Sunday and we predict he will not only win, but demolish the CR. His 2nd place (by 2 seconds!) effort here in 2015 marked his emergence as a star in our region, and he has been even impressiver ever since.

How fast will he go? Our guess is that he will pop a time in the 58-flat area.

And he'll be pushed by another guy who is enjoying a breakout season in 2016: CASEY MILLER. Thus far this season, Casey's scorecard features three wins and three seconds....

In our opinion, the race for the final podium spot will be exciting, with at least three guys in contention. Last year's bronze medalist THOMAS ANDERSON III will be  in the mix, though he will have raced the day before at Maple Grove Sprint. Then there's Hoot Lake winner TRAVIS MILLER, and COREY KUGLIN, who was impressive against a strong field at Brewhouse Olympic on August 7.

The women's race for 1st place should be a hard-fought battle between 2013 winner SARA SAMPSELL-JONES and elite teen LAUREN STEINKE, whose PR here is 42 seconds faster than SSJ's. We think that the 16-year-old will prevail, though not by much, on Sunday.  Also, a fine performance would almost ensure another Junior of the Year nomination for the St. Cloud resident.

As with the men, the race for third should be a hotly contested battle between KJERSTEN BUZEK and TARA MAKINEN. Makinen has podiumed in her three prior starts this season, and should keep that streak alive on Sunday.

It should be noted that the entrants list we saw did not include last year's men's winner (LARRY HOSCH) or the top two women (OLIVIA BAGNALL and JACQUELYN BACIGALUPI). It's certainly possible that these athletes will be late registrants. If so, we think the gimpy (achilles deal) Hosch will vy for a bronze medal. If Olivia, winner last weekend at rain-drenched Lake Marion, and Jacquelyn, winner at Walker, decide to race, we could see them going 1-2 again, with Steinke taking 3rd and Samsell-Jones finishing 4th.

Well, there you have it: our predictions, the goal of which is to generate chatter about the race. We're anxious to see how things turn out. RACE WEBSITE