Local Athletes Do Well

San Angelo is home to a growing number of good endurance athletes who don’t always get community-wide recognition for their accomplishments, so this week’s column will spotlight some of those individuals and what they have done thus far in 2014.

Give them a big round of applause (and maybe an energy bar or two) the next time you see them out training for an upcoming event.

Triathlon
Local triathlete Sebastian Haynes, a 2013 Ironman World Championship qualifier who is also a very good distance runner, recently posted age group wins at both the Galveston and Marble Falls 70.3 (half Ironman) events.

His first-place finish at Galveston in a time of 4 hours, 25 minutes earned him a trip to the 70.3 World Championships in Canada later this year, and he also placed first in his age group and second overall in the Marble Falls race with a time of 4:26.

 Haynes has steadily improved since racing his first triathlons in 2009 and we will continue to see even better results from this 23-year-old athlete.

Mason Vaughn (Eldorado), Cory Sanders, and Nick Boyter have also turned in some good triathlon results. Vaughn finished the Galveston 70.3 event with a time of 5: 55, and Sanders raced the Marble Falls 70.3, finishing in 5:54. Boyter raced the Olympic distance event in Marble Falls, completing the 1500-meter swim, 40K bike, and 10K run in 2:37 to place 21st overall among 140 competitors.

Distance Running
Runners from the San Angelo area have posted some impressive results in long distance events ranging from the half-marathon (13.1 mile) distance up to ultra trail runs that cover 100 kilometers (62 miles).

 At the half marathon distance, Sebastian Haynes clocked a time of 1:18 to finish fourth in his age group in Austin’s 3M event, and Myrna Lackey did a great job of representing Team RWB in the Abilene Kirk Goodwin Run half marathon with a third-place age group finish in that event.

Team RWB was also well represented in the Army Half Marathon with San Angelo RWB team captain Tim Masshardt running a solid 1:42 race to take fourth in his age group and Sam Spooner clocking a 2-hour time to garner 16th in his category.

Several local runners completed 26.2 mile marathons recently, including Mertzon’s Brian Tillman who ran a 3:15 in the Army Marathon despite the 25-degree wind chill. His time was good enough to place him 10th overall, first in the 40-44 age group, and possibly qualify him for next year’s Boston Marathon. Sebastian Haynes, who qualified for and ran last year’s Boston event, finished the highly competitive Austin Marathon in 2:51 to place 24th overall and fourth in his age group.

Other recent marathon finishers from San Angelo include former ASU athletes Becca Simmons and Trista Box who ran the Big D marathon. Simmons finished the 26.2-mile race in 3:58 with training partner Box turning in a time of 4:08.

Long distance runners from this area have also completed multiple long distance ‘Ultra” runs (typically 50 kilometers and longer). Dean Martin, Mark Huteson, Kent Fish, and Janis Jenkins all finished the Bandera 100K run (62 miles), with their finishing times being 13:50 for Martin, 17:19 for both Fish and Huteson, and 17:29 for Jenkins.

In the Bandera 50K (31 miles), local finishers included Garret Baker (6:08), Mike Buck (7:50), and Cliff DeLaCerda (8:57). Martin, Huteson, Fish, and Buck have completed this year’s Rocky 50, Nueces, and Hell’s Hill 50 mile or 50K trail running events with Martin also adding the Brazos Bend 50-mile run to his list of 2014 accomplishments.

Cycling
Two ‘mature’ cyclists from San Angelo continue to dominate the local time trial events and have also done well in state-wide races. In mountain biking, 57-year-old Tony Studivant continues to dominate the off-road time trial series just as he has done for the past several years.

Studivant posted a very fast time of 22:46 on the rough six mile mountain bike course during race one of the six-event series, and is also currently ranked fourth overall in the 50-59 Category 1 (expert) division of the Texas XC Mountain Bike Championship series.

On the road bike side, 51-year-old Shannon MD Jim Slauson posted the fastest time of the year thus far during the road bike time trial series by completing the 12-mile Susan Peak TT course in a time of 31:02 (23.2 miles/hour average speed). Slauson also recently finished second overall in his category in the three-stage Fort Davis Hammerfest event, which is arguably the most difficult state race in Texas.

The ladies are also turning in some good bike performances. Shannon nurse and Team RWB member Dara Jones has posted the fastest time so far this year in the road TT event finishing the very windy race in a time of 38:39.

Summer Bewick, who races for the San Angelo High School Mountain Bike team, currently holds the lead in the women’s division of the mountain bike time trial series with a time of 29:26. Bewick was the 2103 JV champion in the Texas High School Mountain Bike series and recently placed 4th in the varsity girls division during the 2014 high school series.

Remember - San Angelo is home to some very good endurance athletes.

Upcoming Events

May 15: Mountain bike time trial series, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 5: Road bike time trial series, angelobike.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org
June 14: Tour de Burma, http://angelobike.org/tour-de-burma/
June 21: Stop, Drop and Roll, roadlizards.org