Race Previews

Square Lake & IMOO Notes...

Tuesday, 03 September 2019 23:10

SQUARE LAKE WEEKEND PREVIEW (Sort of) – The Square Lake Short Course Triathlon will celebrate its 20th anniversary next Sunday. The Square Long Course race, now a full 70.3, will turn 19 on Saturday.

We have not seen an entrant list for the shorter race, thus we cannot comment on the competition.

We haven't seen a list of 70.3 participants either, but we know that three of state's true elites will be competing, two of which—JOSH MORK (photo) and KORTNEY HAAG--are coming off huge victories at Chisago, and the other –BECKY YOUNGBERG—has been the runner-up at Chisago the last two years.

Josh's breakout 4:09:52 back on July 28 puts a target on his back. Though he probably won't be able to match that time on Square Lake's seriously challenge course, he can be expected to beat last year's winning time, JESSON KEENE's 4:22:21. But, by how much? We predict a 7-10 minute lowering.

Becky had this to say, via Messenger, about her match-up with Kortney:

“...to beat her she needs to swim bad and I need to have a great day in all 3 disciplines 'cause I can’t match her on the bike, and 56 miles is a long way. If it’s cool weather I race really good though! Should be a good one. We have had some epic battles over the years!

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We're anxious to watch Becky and Kort square off at Square Lake. Though it won't be easy, both women are capable of cracking 4:45 on Saturday. A win for Haag would be the 23rd of her triathlon career, and landmark 10th at the half IM distance. A victory for Youngberg, who has won past editions of Pigman Half and Racine 70.3, would be her seventh of the 2019 season, and 47th of her career.

UPDATE: KORTNEY HAAG will not be racing on Saturday (See COMMENT below), but we just learned that KELLY TROM will. A former Chisago winner, Kelly has podiumed in five of the seven halves she's done. (She placed 4th in the other two.)

IRONMAN WISCONSIN NOTES – As always, we are anxious to see how Minnesotans fare at this annual classic, which in our opinion, is second only to Kona on the list of America's best Ironman races.

When glancing at the start list, we became especially excited about the women's field. Here's some thoughts:

- It's possible that two Minnesota ladies will podium in the 60-64 age group. We're pulling hard for RHIANNON O'CONNOR (photo R) and BETH HASSLER.

- A handful of Minnesota women are on the verge of breaking the magical 11-hour hour mark. MEGHAN HENRY and KATIE DEREGNIER are two of the women who could make that happen on Sunday.

- We will be closely following the IM debuts of CARYN HERRICK and RACHEL ZILINKAS. Both of these women have serious potential, and we'd be surprised if they didn't place among the overall Top 10 women, perhaps even the Top 5. 

We'll closely follow Minnesota's men, too, e.g. SPENCER SYVERTSON, ROSS GOLLA, KYLE KRAUSE, PETER WIKMAN, RYAN COLLISON, KAI SILL, JEFFREY WARSHAW, JEFF GILMER and KEN HOLA.

(Our vision blurred as we scoured IMOO's lengthy bib list for Minnesotans, so, yes, we have missed a lot of folks. Sorry 'bout that.)