Scott Swanson
Kambria Schumacher of Crawfordsville was the women’s winner Saturday in the Sprint Triathlon portion of the Best in the West Triathlon Festival held over the weekend at Lewis Creek Park.
The two-day festival, which included half-Ironman and Olympic-length races in addition to the sprint event, drew a total of 210 competitors, most of them in the shorter sprint race, which included a 600-meter swim, a 14-mile bike ride and a 5K (3.1-mile) run. Schumacher finished the women’s race in 1:08.58, six minutes ahead of her closest competition, Michele Gladieux of Eugene.
Schumacher, a former Sweet Home High School runner, who went on to compete in cross-country for Oregon State University, was fifth out of the water and rode the third-fastest bike leg before blowing away the field with a 19:23 5K, which was faster than all but two of the men in the race.
The men’s winner was John Howe of Eugene, who finished in 1:03:47, three minutes ahead of Jeff Boyd of Corvallis (1:06:45), both of whom competed in the 35-39 age division. Ivan Wolthuis of Sweet Home finished in 1:24.44 to take 27th in the field of 45.
Several local athletes were among the women’s finishers: Rebecca Wolthuis of Sweet home, who was 10th (1:24.14), Melanie Jones of Sweet Home, who was 20th (1:28:30), Chris Hiaasen of Sweet Home, who was 28th (1:30:58), Tavia Thornton of Brownsville, who was 37th (1:37:15) and Mary Pyle of Sweet Home, who was 44th (2:01:35).
The half-Ironman involved a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1 (half-marathon) run. The men’s winner, in a field of 33, was John Craft of Bend (35-39) in 4:22:10, ahead of Ben Metcalfe of Pleasant Hill in 4:25.42. The women’s winner, in a field of seven, was Mariko Yokote of Salem in 5:10:13, ahead of Pam Fairchild of Portland in 5:16:26, who held off a fast-closing Stephanie Snyder of Salem on the run to take second by 33 seconds.
The only Sweet Home finisher was Chris Wingo, who was 30th in the men’s race, in 6:31:58. Two Albany women were among the female finishers: Angela Smith, fourth in 5:21:36, and Heather Clark, seventh in 6:45:06.
The Olympic event, held Sunday morning, was composed of a 1.5-kilometer (just under a mile) swim, a 40-kilometer (24.8 mile) ride, and a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) run.
Winners were Daniel Hough of Corvallis, who won the men’s race in 2:07.06, beating runner-up Joseph Keegan of Salem by nearly 10 minutes (2:16:53) and Angie Smith of Salem in the women’s race (2:18:43), ahead of Ashley Keegan of Salem (2:19:51).
Ken Bronson was the only Sweet Home finisher, clocking 2:57:04 to finish 29th. Marla McKee of Albany was 23th for the women in 3:43:49.
Race director Blair Bronson, 23, an Oregon State University senior (and Ken Bronson’s son) who started planning the event as a class project, said he was pleased with the turnout, which included approxiamately 125 volunteers who manned water stations along the routes and helped direct traffic
“I was happy with it, given that it was a first-year event and the budget I was operating on,” he said, noting that he had “about $12” in his checking account – enough to register a business name and open a checking account – when he started planning.
He said he recently helped with a triathlon in Eugene, operated by a company called Pacific Sports, which had strong financial backing and was heavily publicized.
“They had a little under 200 participants and they were calling theirs a success,” he said. “We had 210. They didn’t have the great support we got from the community. We had more folks and Sweet Home isn’t as convenient a drive for people living in Eugene, though it’s a whole lot prettier.”
A few “kinks” on Saturday got worked out in time for Sunday’s race – most due to not having enough volunteers, Bronson said.
He said the Schumacher family was particularly helpful after some other volunteers didn’t make it.
“The Schumachers came up big for me,” he said. “We had a couple folks back out at the last minute. They ended up bringing out kayaks for us and they were there for both days, all four daughters and the parents.”
Bronson, who has 12 units left to complete a degree in public health, promotion and behavior, had previous experience directing the Beaver Freezer sprint triathlon held on the OSU campus by the OSU Triathlon Club, which he leads. The event funds most of the club’s activities and drew just over 600 participants this year – a turnout that has doubled the size of the triathlon , which will celebrate its 20th year next spring.
“We had to cap the registration at that level,” he said, noting that the event, the largest indoor pool triathlon in North America, sold out in an hour and a half and had a wait list of 100.
Race Director Blair Bronsen, left, embraces his dad, Ken Bronsen of Sweet Home, after Ken finished the Olympic triathlon race Sunday.
A triathlete himself, Bronson is conference commissioner for the Northwest Collegiate Triathlon Conference and competed in August at the Age Group Nationals, where he qualified for the Age Group World Championships to be held in October 2012, “after next year’s triathlon.”
He said he has high hopes of doing the Best of the West races again next year.
“The first year is always the hardest,” he said. “This year we were kind of getting our ducks in a row, so to speak. Each year you can kind of fine-tune it.”
He said he would like to see the event become similar to the Wildflower Triathlon held at Lake San Antonio in Central California.
“If I could ever grow the Best in the West to be like the Wildflower, that lake is transformed into a massive active community of racing and camping,” he said. “If I could pull that off, bringing people in from all over Oregon, all over the U.S., that would be awesome.”