Ben Kanute of the University of Arizona and Erin Jones of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs won the inaugural sprint distance Draft-Legal Collegiate Championship at Tempe, Arizona Friday.
Men
Kanute posted the fastest swim and run to win the half-Olympic distance event in 58 minutes and 26 seconds. Kanute finished with a 14-seconds advantage on runner-up Luke Farkas of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and 40 seconds on 3rd-place finisher Yoni Doron-Peters of the University of California-Berkeley.
Kanute and Purdue’s Ryan Frederickson led the swim, emerged within 2 seconds of each other and worked together to forge a lead on the bike. By lap 3 of 4 on the bike, Farkas and Doron-Peters made it a four-man crew.
On the run, Kanute took control halfway through the 5k run. “It went perfectly,” Kanute, who will race tomorrow at the USA Triathlon Collegiate Championship, told USA Triathlon media. "We had a really good group that worked together and gave us enough time on everybody else. [On the run] I was cruising a little bit, and got to think about tomorrow a little, too."
Women
Former Oregon State runner Jones finished the swim just a few seconds behind University of Colorado-Colorado Springs teammate Avery Evenson. On the bike, Evenson jetted out front while Jones, fellow UCCS teammate Johanna Gartman and Erika Erickson of Cal Berkeley used the draft-legal format to work together to form a chase pack. The trio caught Evenson on the last lap of the bike. Thge leading quartet took off together on the run, which Jones dominated to take the win.
Jones hit the tape first in 1:04:00, followed 23 seconds later by runner-up Erickson. Gartman finished 38 seconds behind the winner in 3rd place.
"I started out with her (Erickson) and she helped me a lot," Jones told USA Triathlon media. "I'm so grateful and humbled to be the first winner of the [Draft-Legal] triathlon here.”
A total of 72 athletes – 44 men and 24 women – finished the inaugural draft- legal event which opened the Collegiate Nationals weekend. Saturday, more than 1,000 athletes will compete in the Olympic distance championship. The men’s race will begin at 7:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time and the women’s event will begin at 10:50 AM PDT.
USA Triathlon Draft-Legal Collegiate Championship
Tempe, Arizona
April 12, 2013
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k
Results
Men’s Overall
1. Ben Kanute (Arizona) 58:26
2. Luke Farkas (UCCS) 58:40
3. Yoni Doron-Peters (Cal Berkeley) 59:06
Women’s Overall
1. Erin Jones (UCCS) 1:04:00
2. Erika Erickson (Cal Berkeley) 1:04:23
3. Johanna Gartman (UCCS) 1:04:38
