Huntsville Sprint Triathlon Features 74 From Madison
HUNTSVILLE- With absolutely stunning weather conditions, the 37th Huntsville Sprint Triathlon was recently held in the Rocket City with the three-sport event including 73 participants from Madison. Overall, there were 354 finishers of the 400-meter swim, 7-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run with start and finish held at the Huntsville Natatorium.
“The tri was absolutely amazing with the opening transition to the very last award being handed out, the support and energy provided by race coordinators, volunteers, Huntsville police and participants was phenomenal,” said Stephanie Cashin of Madison, who along with her father, Tom Cashin, participated in her first triathlon after going through a 14-week training program at FleetFeet of Huntsville.
The overall race winner was Jonathan Krichev of Huntsville. The 40-year old finished the event with a time of 43-minutes, 57-seconds. The top Madison athlete was Mark Hudnall, 42, who finished 18th overall with a time of 54:03. The top female finisher from Madison was Jessica Ahrens. She completed the course at 55:18. She was the sixth overall female finisher as Huntsville’s Vanessa Holland, 35, was tops with a time of 49:36.
“This race was my first triathlon or race of any kind seven years ago and I was truly bitten by the race bug,” said Ahrens, who is now among the coaching staff of the Tri 101 training program and has completed over 50 triathlons since her first triathlon in 2010. “I won the female masters division in the race, but my real satisfaction is found in coaching first-time triathletes. Seeing them accomplish a goal they never thought possible.”
Tom Cashin completed the swim portion of the race in a slower time than he had hoped, but his overall goal of beating a previous practice time of 1:20:00 became reality as he posted a finish time of 1:17:33. “Yes, Stephanie did win the overall race between the two of us, but I look forward to competing against her and myself in the future,” added Tom Cashin, 59. “Seeing all of our coaches early in the morning just solidified that our training for the triathlon was over and it was race time. Having family and friends cheer us on as we crossed the finish line made the day even more special.”
The breakdown of males and females from Madison was pretty even as 35 of the 74 from the city were females.
Here are the age group winners from Madison: Female Masters- Jessica Aherns, 42, 55:18; Female 15-19- Victoria Weston, 17, 1:02:52; Male 40-44- Mark Hudnall, 42, 54:03; Male 50-54- James Daniel, 52, 55:27; Female 55-59- Karen Paulukaitis, 57, 1:09:15; Male 60-64- Rick Grief, 64, 1:00:48; Clydesdale- Jordan Leo, 36, 1:03:49. In addition, two relays teams from Madison picked up first place awards. The team of “3 Old Guys” took the Relay-Male division, 47:41 and the “Krings Family” walked away with the Relay Family division, 57:05.
“I had a good race as I did the best I could, had fun, didn’t get hurt, got to see a lot of wonderful friends and made a few new friends, too,” said Paulukaitis, who first ran in the triathlon in 2012. “According to my fancy Garmin watch, I burned 707 calories in 69 minutes. What is truly special about the Huntsville Sprint Triathlon is that it is a beginner friendly race.”
“My dad and I have already saved the date of Aug. 11, 2018 on our calendars for next year’s triathlon,” added Stephanie Cashin.
