Mountaineers Finish Sixth at NCAAs

By Kelly Tuckwiller for MSNsportsNET.com

November 22, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Seniors Clara Grandt, Keri Bland and Marie-Louise Asselin raced to All-American honors today as they led the West Virginia University cross country team to a sixth-place finish at the 2009 Division I Championship in Terre Haute, Ind.

"This group came into nationals weaker than we wanted to be, but found a way to return home with great pride in their performance," coach Sean Cleary says. "WVU, the state of West Virginia and all of our fans should be very proud of what these girls have accomplished."

BIG EAST foe Villanova took the title (86), while Florida State took second (133), Washington third (188), Texas Tech fourth (191), Princeton fifth (251) and WVU sixth (259).

Grandt, a West Union, W.Va., native, was the first Mountaineer to cross the line in 13th place (20:19) as she earned her first-ever All-America honors in cross country.

"Clara Grandt after coming so close to All-America status last season saved her best for last," Cleary says. "Words cannot describe how proud I am of her and the team she led today."

Asselin and Bland became WVU’s first-ever three-time All-Americans in cross country, finshing 31st (20:43) and 34th (20:45) respectively.

Sophomores Kaylyn Christopher and Kate Harrison also had excellent races, as Christopher finished 87th (21:21) and Harrison crossed the line in 94th place (21:25).

Sarah-Anne Brault finished 145th (21:54) and Ahna Lewis finished 174th (22:13).

Illinois senior Angela Bizzarri took the top spot, finishing with a time of 19:47, leading her team to the 12th overall team spot.

This year’s finish is the Mountaineers second-highest finish at NCAAs in school history, behind last season’s fourth-place showing.

For complete results, visit NCAA.com

Awesome race Sarah!!

Coaching Manitoba Coach of the Month and other news

Well its been along time since we updated this but there wasn't very much going on in our Pre-Base period, but now as things are picking up there is more to tell about.

First off congratulations to our head coach Gary Pallett who was named Coaching Manitoba Coach of the Month for September. There is a video about Gary's coaching and our program here.

As well this year has been getting off to a good start for the program. There are a number of new athletes joining our program this year so welcome to Kaitlyn, Janessa, Hannah, Ashlyn, Tyler, Ben, Charles, Riley U., and Darian.

Manitoba High School Cross Country provincials took place last Wednesday and a number of MNTC team members took part. In the Junior Varsity Girls two new athletes took part and Janessa finished in 26th place and Kaitlyn in 38th. In Varsity boys Charles was the first MNTC athlete running into 6th, Riley MacCharles was 7th, Riley Unger around 11th, and Ben 20th. (note: the varsity boys results were messed up so these are what we think is right). New Athlete Tyler Mislawchuk ran a very strong race to win the Junior Varsity boys provincial championships. Tyler ran over 30 second ahead of the 2nd place finisher and ran a time which was very close to the Varsity Boys winner.

This week almost all of MNTC will be doing lab tests on the bike as we start into our base training period. Also some people are running age-class provincials on Saturday the 31st.

Paul Short Run - Sarah-Anne

Sarah-anne is down in West Virginia running this winter and ran in the Paul Short Run Cross-country meet yesterday. Looks like she is doing great! Congratulations!!!

This is a video of the womens race:



Heres a interview with Flo Track:

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

THANK YOU!!!!

Three medals made for quite a successful week for the Manitoba triathlon team; this was almost half of the seven medals that Manitoba had won in week 1, and the overall ranking of Manitoba in triathlon was 2nd for the girls and 3rd for the guys.

The races were very well run and we are all very appreciative of the hard work the volunteers, officials, race directors and host society put in to make the whole week such an enjoyable and memorable experience for everyone.

Thank you to all our parents who made the trip out to PEI to cheer us on! We definitely had the loudest fans out there.

As well we owe Jeanne Kaye a huge thank you for all the hard work she put in as our Mission Staff. You were a essential part of our team and thank you for all the kindness and generosity you showed to all of us!

Another important thank-you to Kari Schneider who was our team manager for the week in PEI, she has also been our strength coach for the many years and she has done an excellent job with our team and wish her all the best with her future endeavors.

Also thanks to the Canadian Sport Centre – Manitoba for all of the services then give to all of us, especially the expertise of Daryl Hurrie our sports Physiologist and Adrienne Leslie-Toogood our sports psychologist.

As well thanks to our swim coach Craig McCormick who does a great job in getting the best out of all of us and making sure we do all the hard work to get ready!

And of course Thank-you to Gary Pallett our head coach for Team Manitoba Triathlon as well as the MNTC. He has worked hard with all of us to bring us to this point and we continue to look to him to bring us to the next level!

This is the end of the Season for all of us with the exception of Rachael who is heading off to Worlds on the Gold Coast in Australia. We also say good luck to her as she will be leaving Winnipeg to begin training with the NTC in Victoria!

2009 Canada Games PEI - Team Relay

We had 2 days completely off between our two races. On the Wednesday we went to watch some beach volleyball where we saw Manitoba lose a tough one in 3 sets to Quebec. Thursday we went to the race course to practice tag offs and running and diving in of the pontoon which is really different then anything else that we were used to so it was good to practice.

Friday was the day for the team relay, which is a really fun event. For anybody who doesn’t know it is a relay where each team member completes a mini triathlon of 300m swim, 6.67 km bike, and 2km run and then tags off to the next member of there team. The weather was once again very hot for the race and there was some wind but not enough to have any major effect on the race.

In the girls relay Sarah went first followed by Stevie then Rachael. Sarah stayed on the lead swimmers and made the lead pack. Sarah then had a seven second lead out of T2 on B.C. She then ran strong to have a five second lead into the tag off. Stevie started running in the tag off zone to early and they touched out of the zone so they had to come back into the zone to tag off. This made B.C’s Christine Ridenour and Stevie swim together till the final buoy then Stevie slipped on the ramp coming out of the water and missed getting on Christine’s wheel on the bike, so they both time trialed where Stevie made up a little bit of time. Stevie ran well only letting the gap grow to 30 seconds into the last tag off. Rachael raced hard and held on strong to keep Team Manitoba girls second place all the way to the finish. Third was Ontario.

In the guys relay Josh went first to give Manitoba a strong start by swimming in the lead pack and working hard on the bike and running strong to keep us in 5th place right behind Team Saskatchewan. Mark swam fast and quickly got rid of Team Saskatchewan, leaving B.C., Ontario, and Nova Scotia ahead of us. Mark worked hard on the bike and run to close down the gap on Nova Scotia before handing off to Riley for the final leg. The final Ontario and Nova Scotia athlete collided as they were getting on their bikes causing the Nova Scotia athlete’s chain to fall off. This mishap allowed Manitoba to move into 3rd place. Once into 3rd place Riley held on strong to ensure another Medal for Manitoba.

Here are some pictures from the relay:

2009 Canada Games PEI - Individual Race

A little late, but we just got back last night from Canada Games in Summerside, PEI.

We flew into Summerside Friday night where the team was welcomed by many volunteers into the athletes’ village where there was an orientation slideshow and H1N1 screening. The athletes’ village was located in an old air force base in Slemon Park just north of Summerside. The accommodations were quite cozy with 8 athletes to small sized hotel room. The boys room didn’t have air conditioning for the first couple of nights which made for warm, uncomfortable sleeping with the very hot weather. Fortunately they worked that out and gave us air conditioners making sleeping more bearable. The food was pretty good with 3 meals a day and food available all the time.

Saturday was the opening ceremonies but before we went to them we went for a swim in the morning at a beach nearby the racecourse. We rode down to the beach, then swam around for a while but had trouble finding water deep enough to swim in. Then we went back to the village where we got ready and met up with the rest of Team Manitoba to take the bus to the opening ceremonies. The opening ceremonies took place at Credit Union Place, which was a big venue for the games with beach volleyball, soccer, and basketball taking place there. We were the 4th province to enter the arena and since Sarah was our flag bearer we got to go right at the front of Team Manitoba. The Governor General, Prime Minister, Premier and many other honorary guests were in attendance and took time to address the athletes. Following this there were many performances by PEI performers. Then we went back to the village and went for a short run.

Tuesday was the day of the individual race, and it would turn out to be a very hot day. It was pretty windy so the water was quite rough for the girls race at 10 but it calmed down a bit for the guys race at noon. The water temperature was 23 degrees so no wetsuits allowed. Both races had pretty small fields with under 30 competitors each.

In the girls race Sarah swam on Stevie’s feet to get into the lead pack on the bike, but Rachael didn’t quite make lead pack and got caught by the chase pack at the start of the bike. In this situation we decided to use team tactics to ensure the best possible results for Team Manitoba. Rachael helped the team immensely by sacrificing her own race to help out her teammates. Sarah and Stevie were in the lead pack and came off the bike 2.5 mins ahead of the chase pack. Sarah then ran strongly ended up 2nd to Alison Hooper of team B.C. Stevie finished 7th and Rachael 10th.

So after all of the excitement of Sarah’s silver medal it was the guys turn to race. Josh just missed the lead pack and ended up biking with Mark and one other guy, well Riley was in the next pack behind them. The strong lead group of 7 or 8 rode strong and worked well together to put time on both of the chasing groups by the end of the bike. Josh and Mark both ran fairly well ending up in 7th and 8th. Riley had an ok run ending up in 16th place.

Here are some pictures from Tuesday:

Team Manitoba Flag Bearer - Sarah-Anne Brault

Triathlete thrilled about Canada Games Carrying flag for Manitoba

By: On The Home Front / Ashley Prest

Sarah-Anne Brault's athletic resume includes two junior triathlon championships. She competes in cross-country and 5,000-metre races at West Virginia University.

Sarah-Anne Brault loves blazing a trail and the 19-year-old triathlon athlete from Winnipeg will do just that for Team Manitoba at the 2009 Canada Games.

Brault will be Manitoba's flag-bearer and lead the parade of about 400 athletes, coaches and managers during the opening ceremonies of the multi-sport games for youth athletes, which will unfold in Summerside, P.E.I., from Aug. 15-29.

"It's such an honour to be chosen and I'm really excited to go," said Brault, who competed in athletics at the 2005 Canada Summer Games in Regina and won a silver medal in the 5,000-metre race.

"When I went in 2005, I remember it as one of the best experiences of my life. That race was amazing. I wasn't expecting anything out of it and it just shows that anything can happen.

"I've never been anywhere with the same spirit and the same atmosphere. I don't know really what it is, but it's really something special to experience."

Brault, a bilingual graduate of College Louis Riel, is a student athlete at West Virginia University, where she is a varsity athlete in cross country and the 5,000 metres.

Though she competed in athletics four years ago, this time she will compete in triathlon, where she has already had considerable international success.

Brault has been a member of Canada's national junior triathlon team for the past three years, she was the 2007 national junior champion and won the 2008 Pan American Continental Junior Triathlon Championship in Mexico.

Triathlon is a new sport at the 2009 Canada Games.

"To be competing in triathlon, it's special because it's the first time," said Brault, now in her first year in triathlon's under-23 age category. "Representing Manitoba, it might be a bit more pressure, but at the same time, it's really cool to have a team like this. Triathlon is really individual, usually. You race against your teammates that you train with, but this time there will be points (in the overall team category), so we'll all be part of Team Manitoba."

The Canada Games, held every two years and alternating summer and winter, are designed to assist the development of amateur athletes across the country. About 4,400 athletes from the 10 provinces, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut will compete in these games in18 sports during the two-week event.

Team Manitoba's honorary captains are two athletes who competed for Team Manitoba at previous Canada Games and went on to represent Canada at the Olympics. Michelle Sawatzky-Koop competed in the 1989 Canada Games in volleyball and went on to compete for Canada in the 1996 Olympics. Jay Lyon competed in the 2003 Canada Games in archery and just last year placed 10th at the 2008 Olympics, Canada's best-ever Olympic result in archery.

Man-Sask Youth Regional Championships

The 2009 Manitoba / Saskatchewan Region Youth Championship was held in Duck Mountain Provincial Park at Madge Lake in Saskatchewan on Sunday July 26th. Two MNTC team members, Shayna and Roseria, took part in this event. Congratulations to Shayna who was 1st place in the 12-13 year old girls race, and to Roseria who was 2nd place in the 14-15 girls race. Also congraulations to all of Team Manitoba for winning the Man-Sask Challange!

Victoria Training Camp!

It has been a long time since our last post, but we have been very busy training hard, so now that we are bringing it down we will tell you what we’ve been up to. After

Nationals we started our last hard block of training heading into Canada Summer Games, which consisted of two solid weeks of training at home including a weekend training camp at Riley's cottage, then off to Victoria for a training camp with the NTC.

We got there on Saturday July 25th and got straight to work with a hilly bike ride that afternoon with some 10 minute intervals.
Sunday we did an open water swim race for MS at Thetis Lake. We all did the 1.5 km distance, and did well considering the travel day before. Results can be found here. After the swim we did a track workout in the afternoon with a mix of

200s and 800s. Monday we did a swim workout at the Commonwealth Pool followed by good-bye breakfast for Kirsten Sweetland, as she was heading back to Australia.
Tuesday, we had a hard swim in the morning with fast 100s on 1:30, base run, and then a hard bike with 4 x the Waddling Dog loop, which is about 9 km. The last one we did as an individual time trial.
On Wednesday we did an open water swim at Thetis Lake in the morning where Gary tipped over the kayak in the lake and lost his Oakleys, and then in the afternoon we did a very very hot track workout with 6x 1km on 5 minutes and then a 90 minute bike ride with 3x up Mt. Tolmie.
Thursday was a recovery day with just a technical swim and easy bike or run.
Friday we went to Elk Lake and did 3 mini tris, with the third one was a relay. Also on Friday we had a 90 min base ride on our own.Saturday was the day before the race so we just had race prep at Elk Lake.
Sunday was the Self Transcendence Triathlon at Elk Lake; it was the first year that they hosted a sprint distance race for the youth athletes. This race was non-drafting and the bike was very hilly so it made for a tough race. We all raced well to finish off our hard block of training. You can find the results here. Sunday night, Alison Hooper had a BBQ at her house for the Manitoba and the B.C athletes. We would like to thank her family for hosting it. We had lots of fun!
Monday was a recovery day with just swimming in the morning. Gary went salmon fishing and caught a big fish. Tuesday was a travel day as we returned to Winnipeg.

Thank you to all of the parents and athletes in Victoria that provided us a place to stay and took such good care of us. We all had a great time and really appreciate your kindness.

Now only 7 more days till we leave for Canada Games in PEI. Everyone is looking forward to the games and is ready for some fast racing!

Junior Nationals Race Report

Last weekend we headed over to Gatineau, Quebec for the 2009 Junior National Championships. The weather was not ideal, the temp. was around 20 degrees with some thunder showers and hard rain. This made for some slippery conditions on the bike and a change in the run course. Early in the day the age group race had about 15 crashes so we knew we had to take the corners carefully. Despite the weather difficulties the races still ran smoothly with only minor delays to the start times.

The junior girls race started at 1:15. BC’s Hillary Wille was first out of the water, followed 18 seconds later by a group of six including Stevie. Then a group of four ten seconds later and a group of 7 including Racheal. Early on in the bike Stevie broke away with Christine from BC and opened up a 40 sec gap between them and the chase pack. Racheals was in the forth pack but worked on the bike to move her and her pack to the chase pack. The run consisted of two 2.5km loops. Racheal caught Stevie shortly after the 1.25km turn around but Stevie stayed with her until the final sprint where Racheal just beat Stevie to the line making them 10^th and 11^th place.

The junior guys race started around 2:00, and just like most races this year a lead group of 4 formed in the water and lead the way on to the bike. Josh and Mark were in 9^th and 10^th place out of the water, and were into a small chase pack behind the leaders. Riley was 2 packs behind that and then Trevor and Charles came out with the pack behind him. Unfortunately early into the first lap Mark got a flat and his day was done, and just a little later going around the turn around by transistion Riley took the corner too fast and crashed, ending his day. The group Josh was in got caught by the large pack behind him and after Cole Stewart crashed in the lead group and got back into the chase pack they closed the gap on the leaders down to 10 seconds on the last lap. So Josh came off the bike just a few seconds behind the leaders and Trevor about 1:30 back with Charles just a little bit further back. After the run Josh ended up in 16^th place overall Trevor 29^th and Charles 35^th.

Congratulations to all the athletes from other provinces who put on strong performances especially Allison Hooper 1^st, Gabrielle Edwards 2^nd and Marianne Hogan 3^rd in the Junior Girls, and Connor Hammond 1^st, Matt Vierula 2^nd and Marc-Antoine Christin 3^rd in the Junior Guys.

The team is now looking forward to there Canada Games training camp in Victoria to train with the BC team starting July 25^th which will lead them into their final race’s of the year which is Canada Games which takes place between August 15^th – 22^nd.

You can see some great pictures of the race here taken by Mark Bates from the BC team.

Quick Junior National Update

Here's a quick update from today's Junior race. We woke up to dark skys and by 11 o'clock the rain was pouring on and off with some thunder rumbling in the distance. In the Junior girls race Racheal placed 10th and Stevie placed 11th. In the Junior Guy's race Josh placed 16th, Trevor placed 29th and Charles placed 34th in his first ever junior draft legal race. Mark flatted less than a kilometer in to the bike. Riley crashed going into his second lap on the bike. Results are here: guys and girls.

Here is a video of Riley crashing

Past couple of weeks and Canada Games Team announced

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks since we got back from Montreal. When we returned we got right back into training to get ready for Nationals which is coming up next weekend in Gatineau, Quebec. We returned from Montreal on Monday and some of the highlights of the next week included 6 x 1km around 5km pace, tempo/threshold run workout and swim/bike brick at Bird's Hill, and later on in the week mini tris back at Bird's Hill.

On June 28th Sarah-anne competed at the Hy-Vee ITU Elite Cup in Des Moines, Iowa. She also competed in the Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Team World Championships, which took place the following day. Both races were very exciting to watch with a incredible sprint finish by Simon Whitfield to take the win, Andrew McCartney from B.C winning the swim prime, Lauren Groves running up from the chase pack to 3rd and the relay team of Lauren Groves, Brent McMahon, Kathy Tremblay, and Simon Whitfield winning the bronze medal. The next week we kept up the training with bike testing including a 16.5 km time trial, 6 x 1km, and mini tris at Bird’s Hill.

So heading into Nationals, Mark is ranked 3rd in the Junior Series, Riley tied for 18th , Trevor and Josh just outside of the top 20. On the girls side Rachael is ranked 6th and Stevie 7th.

Just today Stevie ran a new personal best in the 5km at the Athletics Manitoba Provincial Championships / CSG trials.

The Canada Games selection has finally been made. The games will be held in Summerside Prince Edward Island, with the Individual Sprint Triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) being held on August 18th and the Team Triathlon (300m swim, 7km bike, 2km Run) being held on August 21st. The Manitoba triathlon Roster for the 2009 Canada Games is:
Female
Sarah-anne Brault
Rachael Edwards
Stevie Moore

Male
Joshua Drad
Riley MacCharles
Mark Okany
Alternate - Trevor Penner

Team Manitoba Girls

Sarah-anne Brault

Rachael Edwards

Stevie Moore

Team Manitoba Guys

Joshua Drad

Riley MacCharles

Mark Okany

Alternate - Trevor Penner

Coteau du Lac - Junior Race #2

The second Junior Series race was this weekend in Coteau du Lac just outside of Montreal. After our plane got delayed for 2 hours we finally arrived in Montreal on Wednesday evening. On Thursday we went out to the race site and checked out the course. Friday we went swimming in the river with team Ontario and B.C. in the morning and then went back for the pre-race meeting in the afternoon. The race was on Saturday, and Roseria started off the day with an impressive first place finish in the U15 category. A little later on the junior guys started at 11:30 and the junior girls an hour later, followed by the elite races in the afternoon. The course was flat for both the bike and run and the swim had a dive start from a pontoon. In the guys race a lead pack of 6 or 7 formed shortly out of transition with a few small groups following them. By the end of the bike a very big chase pack had formed and included all of the Manitoba guys and they came into transition about 45 seconds behind the leaders. None the Manitoba guys had great runs but Mark’s was fairly good and he finished 11^th, Riley ended up in 24^th, with Trevor in 27^th and Josh in 30^th. Not quite the results they had been hoping for but they all gave a great effort! Next up was the junior girls race sort of like the guys race a lead pack of 5 formed at the start of the bike and Stevie was in this pack and a bigger chase pack was behind them and Rachael was in that pack. On the last lap the lead pack shrunk to 3 and coming off the bike they had about 30 seconds on the girls who got dropped from there pack and about a minute on the chase pack. Stevie was the first off the bike but didn’t have the run she was looking for at all and finished 10^th and Rachael ran up from the second pack to end up in 8^th. Sarah raced in the Elite women’s category and after just a few weeks back training for triathlon ended up in 11^th

So at the end of the day not everyone got the results they were looking for but they gave great efforts and are looking forward to Junior Nationals in Gatineau, Quebec on July 11^th. Good Luck to Sarah in Des Moines next weekend for the World Cup and World Team Triathlon Relay Championships.

Congratularions to all the other provinces for a great race! The top 3's ended up like this:

Junior Guys

1. Connor Hammond (Ontario)
2. Tristan Woodfine (Ontario)
3. Marc-Antoine Christian (Quebec)

Results here

Junior Girls

1. Kyla Coates (British Columbia)
2. Joanna Brown (Ontario)
3. Christine Ridenour (British Columbia)

Results here

Training this week...

After the race Sunday, we had a nice recovery day on Monday. Then right back in to hard training Tuesday with a swim in the morning and a practice at Bird’s Hill with a mini tri. Wednesday we started with a swim and then some of us took an opportunity to improve our 5km run times. Good job to Stevie and Josh for having some pretty big PB’s and thanks to Riley and Mark for a wonderful job pacing. Thursday was a swim in the morning and back at Bird’s Hill where we did a mini tri, and then a cycle workout with the MCA team. Practiced echeloning and learned some great tips on the bike. Friday was a day off the bike with a swim in the morning and a speed run workout in the afternoon. Saturday we were at Bird’s Hill once again and we were joined by the Manitoba youth team for a mini tri and a mini duathlon. It was a great practice with solid efforts all around. Overall it was a great week with some hard training as well as some race specific work. Everyone is feeling ready and is looking forward to the second junior elite race in Montreal next Saturday.

Here is a link to the pictures from the race at Bird’s Hill last weekend.

http://www.ryandavidphotography.com/tttc_juniors/pages/044.htm

As well Mark and Trevor became male swim suit models on Friday and have finally figured out their true calling is

Junior Series Race #1 - Bird's Hill

Here is a race report for first junior series race which was held yesterday at Bird's Hill Park. The weather was a cold 12°C and a bit of a wind. The water was 13.5°C which made it wetsuit mandatory swim. The guys race started at 8:00 the start was pretty close together which made for a pretty rough start. Mark and Josh were the first ones out of the water. Mark made the first pack but Josh just missed it. Trevor was in the pack just behind Josh and Riley was in the next one. Mark's pack caught the three leaders from the swim and other then that every stayed in their packs and remained about the same time differences. Onto the run Mark had a great run and ran into 3rd place overall (2nd Junior), Josh was 17th Junior, Riley was 18th and Trevor was 21st. The girls race started at 8:05. Sarah-anne and Stevie were out of the water together and managed to catch the lead girls before the end of the first lap on the bike. Racheal came out of the water a little bit further back and was in the chase pack on the bike. Unforunantly, Marita got sick during the swim and was unable to complete the race. Sarah-anne ended up 3rd overall, Stevie was 7th overall (5th junior), and Racheal was 9th overall (6th junior). Congratulations to Mark for breaking up the BC sweep in the medals. Thank-you to Mrs. Okany and the Triple Threat Triathlon Team for putting on a great race! as well as thank-you to all the volunteers and anyone else who helped out in anyway for making this race a success!

The results are found here.

Last little while

So it has been a while since the last update but there is a lot to catch up on. After coming home from PATCO some athletes became sick from something in the water that they swam in but on Tuesday night there was another duathlon at Bird’s Hill which Trevor, Shayna, Stevie and Riley did. It was pretty windy again but it was still a good race. The rest of the week was fairly good with some solid training and working on getting everyone back to full strength. Early this week all the juniors ran a 5 km and congratulations to Mark, Riley, and Marita who all set new personal bests and many others who were very close to doing so. Stevie, Shayna and Roseria did the final duathlon of the series on Tuesday. Good Job to Stevie and Riley who both won the series overall through the 4 races, as well they both move up to 3rd on Gary’s All Time Top Ten Lists for the duathlon results.

Finally on Thursday Mark, Josh, Riley, Stevie, Shayna, Rachael and Roseria did a criterium bike race at Assiniboine Park. It was the first crit race for almost everyone so we didn’t really know what to expect. Shayna and Roseria raced in Cat 5, while everyone else raced Cat 4. Cat 5 went well and in Cat 4 everyone was doing very well for almost the whole race but on the last lap there were a few crashes, and unfortunately Josh went down in the very last corner, and other athletes were very close but managed to get to the finish safely.

On Saturday and Tuesday we went out to Birds Hill to get in the water and workout on the race course for next Sunday's Junior Series Race. Tuesday was sort of interesting with some crazy thunderstorms interrupting the end of our workout.

Here are some pictures from the crit:

Better late then never!...PATCO Race Review

We arrived in Oklahoma on Wednesday the 13th for the race which took place on Saturday the 16th. Wednesday night we got a nice Oklahoma welcome as a number of tornados we're near the hotel. The next 2 days we joined the rest of the Canadian Juniors with race prep for the event. Friday evening we had the race meeting. It was better organized than last year in Mexico but race organization standards almost always seem poorer than they are in Canada, but always a great learning experience for the juniors but always stress out the coaches.The junior women's field had 57 entrants from 16 countries, while the men's race had 72 entrants from 19 countries.

Friday evening we had more storms but the rain stopped at 6 AM and fortunately stayed away for the races.Water temperature was just over the wetsuit cutoff so no wetsuits were allowed. The water was filthy although it was entertaining watching all of the athletes leave the water with mud beards from the dirty water. The girls race started at 8:00 AM. Christine Rideneaur from Canada made a solo break in the swim and left the water with a 20 second lead on a large chase pack. As always in international racing with large fields making the lead pack proved to be the most important part of the race. Marita left the water in 7th place (11:53) only a few seconds behind the 2nd place person. Rachael (12:18) and Stevie (12:22) left the water at the back of this group. I knew watching the race it was going to be tough for them to make the lead group. Rachael had a 48 second transition and Stevie 51 seconds leaving them 7 seconds apart. Both had to ride solo for the next mile to try to catch the pack. Rachael barely made it but Stevie didn't quite get there and once the group gets organized a solo rider doesn't have a chance. By the end of the 20 km bike the lead group of 13 had opened up a 90 second lead on the second group.

Rachael(19:45) had a great transition and made it out onto the run with the lead runners, she had a solid run and ended up 4th. Marita (21:32) had a strong run and held off most of the faster runners from the second pack and finished 14th. Stevie (21:12) came into transition first in her pack and took off running strong, beating most of the runners from her pack, finishing in 18th. In the guys race both Mark and Josh left the water about 30 seconds behind the leaders and both made the second pack. Unlike the women's race the 2nd pack had the better cyclists and managed to ride down all of the leaders except for 2 athletes who held the lead for the entire bike. At about 14 km Mark caught wheels with another Canadian rider and went down. Fortunately he wasn't seriously hurt but his day was over. Josh stayed in the group of 20 and then ran pretty well to finish 18th.

The roads were very poor resulting in a number of bike crashes, unfortunately the results didn't give splits for athletes who completed only part of the event so we have no results for Mark and Josh lost his timing chip in the swim so nothing for him as well. Great results from all of the Manitoban's overall as we managed to place everyone in the top third of starters.

The Canadian team had a lot of success with 4 podium finishes. Kyla Coates won the Junior Girls and Marianne Hogan was third, as well as Connor Hammond placed 2nd in the Junior Guys and Andrew McCartney finished 3rd in U23 Guys.

Click Here for the results http://www.fleetfeettiming.com/results.html

Yes, we swam in this!