Race Previews

Square Lake Stuff...& Fun Facts...

Friday, 09 September 2011 03:00

(Photos - Chris Sachs and Jeff Grebner's dog.)

Square Lake Short Course Review - This year's women's race promises to be very cool and exciting, with 7-8 girls battling over the silver and bronze podium spots. The gold step appears to be reserved for clear favorite, Becky Youngberg, who is expected to collect her 8th win of the season tomorrow. (COOL FACT: Becky is between 5'1" and 5'9" tall.)

Can Beck lower Marnie Walth's rather stratospheric race record 1:30:53, which the pretty, mild-mannered North Dakotan set in 2007? (COOL FACT: Marnie's husband Zane, or is it "Shane," owns a porta-potty company.) Becky does possess the event's 2nd fastest women's clocking: 1:32:25 in 2008. And based on the speediosity she...

demonstrated last weekend at Triple V, we think she can do it. It'll require sub-6 minute running miles and even with those, the improvement could only be seconds. (COOL FACT: Triple V stands for the Latin phrase, "Veni, Vidi, Vici." Reportedly, Julius Caesar said this to a guy a long time ago.)

Prediction: Becky goes 1:30:45ish.

The other Top 3 spots will be fought over by Diane Hankee, Tina Welzien, Erica Delin, who can stand on her hands for a really long time, Veronica Bond, Jen Neuman, who likes ZICO Coconut Water, junior star Hannah Strom, who has read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries, and a few others. We think the resurgent Hankee will take 2nd and the blossoming Welzien will place 3rd. (COOL FACT: Jen Neuman's stomach dents inward. She doesn't suck it in. See photo R.)

It should be an exciting contest with small margins separating most of the placings in the Top 10. That's good stuff. A great opportunity for athletes to improve.

As for the dudes, we think that four guys have a shot at the win, starting with 2009 champ Chris Sachs, who is a total hoot. (COOL FACT: Chris won The Koop in the Yupe earlier this season!) We also like the way Jeff Grebner, who has a dog, has raced this year. And the same goes for Luke Nelson and Tom Pettit. Kurt Becker's name should also be added here.

Sachs and Grebner went 1-2 here in '09. We think they'll do likewise on Saturday. For grins, we'll predict a flip-flop, with Grebner coming out on top this time around.

(COOL FACT: SL race director Randy Fulton has never been to Michelle Bachmann's house.)