MOUNT SHASTA, CALIFORNIA — Making the long trek west to California, the Central College triathlon team took third at the Mount Shasta Tinman Triathlon Sunday.
The University of San Francisco (Calif.) was the team champion with 157 points. It was led by the individual champion Maite Kuestner who finished the course in 57 minutes, 40 seconds. Central's team total was 110.
Competing in their own wave, the collegiate athletes swam 750 yards, biked a difficult but shortened 8.8 miles and ran five kilometers.
"The bike route had a lot of big hills with a lot of curves," coach
Jennie Hedrick-Rozenberg said. "The road was open to the public so they had to ride defensively to avoid cars. The run was pretty hilly and on an unpaved path. It was a little more difficult than anticipated but they all had some good times."
Freshman
Adeline Koritz (Clinton, Ill.) was the top finisher for Central in a time of 1:09.07. She narrowly edged teammate
Luci Laidlaw's (junior, Pella) time of 1:09.46. Koritz placed 16th and Laidlaw was 18th.
"Adeline had a really great first race," Hedrick-Rozenberg said. "It was fun to see her push herself against Division I athletes. Luci had a really good swim."
The rest of Central's five scoring participants were
Grace Benson (junior, Newton) in 21 st place (1:11.18),
Taylor Jones (junior, Knoxville) in 24th place (1:13.30) and
Katelyn Freeman (junior, Castle Rock, Colo., Castle View HS) in 32nd place (1:19.19)
Three additional team members competed with two making their collegiate triathlon debuts. Senior
Sophie Lunning (Mason City) was 34th (1:22.14) while newcomers
Estella Allen (freshman, Newton) and
Sara Sienkiewicz (junior, Plainfield, Ill., Neuqua Valley HS) finished 37th (1:29.32) and 39th (1:32.36), respectively.
"It was really fun to see our newcomers go to their first triathlon and really push each other to do better," Hedrck-Rozenberg said.
Central's next event will be the Gateway Challenge in Marengo on September 14.
