Race Previews

Duckies & Swannies...

Tuesday, 02 June 2015 02:10

BUFFALO PREVIEW - The 11th annual Buffalo Olympic and 12th annual Buffalo Sprint Triathlons will take place on Sunday. These are great events and you can still get in. RACE WEBSITE.

Saturday and Sunday will be insanely busy, with five races, and we predict that, with 1000ish participants, Buff will be the best-attended event on the weekend schedule. We also have several other predictions we'd like to share. Check them out:

- The swim courses will be marked with inflatable duckies and swannies. Okay, blow-up birds have been a signature of this race since the beginning.

- The water temperature will be brisk.

- The event will draw hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more, spectators. It always does....

- ELAINE NELSON will win the women's Olympic title for the second straight year, and she'll better her PR here (2:12:41).

- Going out on a BIG limb here: The rest of the women's Top 10 will look something like this: 2. CHRISTINA ROBERTS, 3. KORTNEY HAAG, 4. HEINEY (Nicole Heininger), 5.KELLY TROM, 6. SHEENA DAUER, 7. CATHERINE LEE, 8. SARA CARLSON, 9. SARAH BERGER, 10.JACQUELYN BACIGALUPI. Or it will be entirely different. We're hoping to be 50% right.

- The men's race will be won by DYLAN GILLESPIE in 1:58ish.

- 2014 Rookie of the Year NICK NYGAARD and his buddie MIKE WARD will fill out the men's podium and crack two hours.

- When MANDY STOESZ (photo R) finishes, she will hear her name correctly pronounced. (Stayz, not Stowz)

- NICK KLONNE, 18, will slice more than four minutes off of Luke Gruhlke's 2010 Junior Course Record.

- 2014 US Grand Master of the Year GREG TAYLOR will torch Ben Ewers 60-64 CR (2:21:24) by almost ten minutes. It will be the masters performance of the day.

- DEB ROBERTS will lower her own 60-64W record. Our fingers are crossed. We hope she cracks the three hour mark.

- The Buffalo Sprint race will be won by GREB (Jeff Grebner) and LAURA SWARTZ, unless CHERYL ZITUR decides to race.

We're looking forward to another classic race in Buffalo.