25th Annual Valley of the Sun Triathlon

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July 8, 2007

Duathlon Results

Complete Duathlon Individual Results - by Age Group [ PDF 9KB]

Medals, Medals, Medals

If you weren't able to stay for the awards ceremony to receive your medal, please contact Candie Turner and she will send the medal to you.

Local newspaper coverage of this year's race:

VValley of the Sun - Surprises keep coming during race

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Surprise, surprise.

That, in a repetitive nutshell and in so many ways, is perhaps the best way to describe Sunday's 25th annual Valley of the Sun Triathlon.

Surprise No. 1: After all of the official hand-wringing over the last-minute need to reroute the bicycle stage, everything in this anniversary race came off without a hitch.

Surprise No. 2: Nobody fried like bacon in the heat, because the sizzling 90-plus temperatures of some recent years were replaced by a relatively pleasant 80 or so for the latter part of Sunday's race.

Surprise No. 3: Yes, a couple of people got sidetracked during the bicycle leg - it invariably happens - but neither of them was Michael Bergquist, the 34-year-old Air Force tech sergeant based at Spokane's Geiger Field who had twice seen a possible Valley of the Sun victory derailed by a wrong turn on the bike course.

No wrong turns, no problem: After three third-place finishes at Valley of the Sun, Bergquist crossed the line first in one hour, 54 minutes and 46 seconds.

And he did it by - surprise - keeping pace on the bicycle stage with brilliant cyclist Scott Steinman, the former Moxee and now Bend, Ore., resident who - surprise - has in the last year gone transformed himself in the water from a flailing splasher to a stellar stroker. Steinman actually came out of the 1-kilometer Lake Aspen swim first, with Bergquist - a two-time member of the U.S. all-military team vying for a third trip to the world military championships later this summer - hot on his heels.

Bergquist ended up coming from behind on the finishing seven-mile run after - surprise - he and Steinman were both passed by Ryan Brown of Richland on the 22-mile bike stage, despite the fact that they were flying along at a good clip.

"I was really surprised to see him. And he just blew by," said Steinman, who at an Oregon triathlon two weeks earlier had the fastest bike split out of 435 entrants. "I tried to pick it up another level, but I couldn't do it. He was smokin'."

"That's my strength," said Brown, 31, who was - yes - surprised when he overcame the nearly one-minute Steinman and Bergquist had on him coming out of the water. "It took me forever to spot them. I was riding solo for the longest time thinking, am I ever going to catch those guys?"

That he did catch and pass them didn't surprise Bergquist, who figured Brown was the man to beat. But Bergquist surprised himself, just 2 1/2 weeks after minor knee surgery and barely two weeks after subsequently injuring his hamstring while overcompensating for the knee.

"I know Ryan's a strong runner, so I wasn't too confident about catching him," said Bergquist, who began the run about 15 seconds behind Steinman and more than a half-minute behind Brown. "But I came into this race with an open mind, a lot more relaxed. If I get beat, that's OK, no sweat. And I figured today it would be Ryan Brown. I figured he'd win it."

Surprise, surprise. Bergquist caught Brown barely two miles into the seven-mile run, and after that there was no stopping him. "I tried to hang with him for about a quarter-mile," Brown said, "and then I just had to let him go."

Women's winner Robyn Poulson, a 31-year-old from Richland, surprised many spectators who had come out expecting to see Cary Steinman - Scott's wife, also now of Bend, Ore. - win her fourth Valley of the Sun title. But Steinman was surprising herself simply by racing. Nine days earlier, she had suffered a horrific fall while bicycle training; the physical trauma from the tumble left her near virtually bed-ridden for days, not to mention the 10 inches of road rash scarring her right thigh.

"When we came home (after the accident) to clean up all of that skin and blood, I was in so much pain I was just writhing," said Cary Steinman, who hadn't been able to train since the June 29 accident. "I've pretty much just been sleeping all week, in a lot of pain. But come Friday, I was feeling pretty good and decided to give it a try."

Steinman actually had a great race, and was having a solid bike stage when Poulson tore past. "She was hauling butt on that bike," said Steinman, who finished in 2:18:39, second among women but well behind Poulson's 2:15:58. "I've been bike-racing all year, and she was fantastic, because I was not going slow at all."

Poulson, a South African native who now works in accounting for the Bechtel Corporation in Richland, had grown up playing field hockey all the way through high school and university. Four years ago, though, she began doing triathlons, and bicycling has become her strongest leg. Not that it was easy going into a powerful headwind all the way to the turnaround at Naches.

"Going into the wind was a challenge," she said, then added with a big grin, "but coming back from town (Naches) was fun - the wind just pushes you back in."

Sunday was even a surprise for duathlon winner David Denier of Yakima, a 41-year-old who had never done a triathlon or duathlon and who, until last year, hadn't even been much of a runner. But some friends were training for this past April's Yakima River Canyon Marathon and so he did it, finishing in a very creditable three hours and 37 minutes. Then a week ago he heard about the Valley of the Sun, and decided to give the duathlon a try.

With all of the passing going on with the duathletes and triathletes doing different running courses but finishing at the same place, Denier didn't even know he'd won the duathlon until well after he'd finished.

"Boy, those triathletes are in great shape. They go by on the bike like they're on motorcycles," he said. "This is a fun event. It's fun to be around all these people, having people rooting you on."

Especially when you're surprising yourself.

Course: 1K swim, 35K bike, 11K run

TOP 10

Men

1, Michael Bergquist (34, Medical Lake) 1:54:46; 2, Ryan Brown (31, Richland) 1:57:12; 3, Kendall Townsend (46, Sedro Woolley) 1:59:18; 4, Scott Steinman (36, Bend, Ore.) 2:01:59; 5, Chad McBride (37, Wenatchee) 2:02:44; 6, Brian Schur (33, Kennewick) 2:04:40; 7, Mark Skiffington (25, Pasco) 2:06:07; 8, Steven Wade (48, Burlington) 2:06:55; 9, Dan Elsom (40, Walla Walla) 2:09:10; 10, Tim Pritchard (Naches) 2:12:35.

Women

1, Robyn Poulson (31, Richland, 15th overall) 2:15:58; 2, Cary Steinman (41, Bend, Ore., 17th) 2:18:39; 3, Sonia Tonnemaker (46, Royal City, 18th) 2:19:38; 4, Karin Kupp (38, Yakima, 19th) 2:20:00; 5, Amanda Bergquist (23, Medical Lake, 23rd) 2:23:11; 6, Kristin Anderson (49, Pasco, 24th) 2:23:16; 7, Donna Nettleship (45, Selah, 30th) 2:28:33; 8, Adrienne Farabee (30, Richland, 32nd) 2:31:18; 9, Jill Brandon (38, Richland, 34th) 2:32:34; 10, Shelly Cody (37, Clovis, Calif., 35th) 2:32:57.

Other locals

(Listed by overall place)

16, Brad Vaux (43, Yakima) 2:15:59; 22, Jeffrey Van Troba (34, Yakima) 2:22:05; 26, Greg Barstad (45, Yakima) 2:25:10; 27, Ethan Bergman (55, Ellensburg) 2:26:00; 33, Casey Ford (29, Yakima) 2:31:21; 36, Kenn Zahn (59, Yakima) 2:33:06; 37, Kellee Montmeny (39, Yakima) 2:33:13; 39, Nick VanTress (28, Grandview) 2:33:41; 40, Roger Rowles (60, Yakima) 2:34:48; 42, Mike McCutchen (60, Yakima) 2:37:05; 44, JoDee Peterson (44, Yakima) 2:38:34; 51, Kiki Graf (45, Selah) 2:47:49); 54. Crystal Towne (38, Yakima) 2:51:24; 56. Ryan Landvoy (38, Yakima) 2:52:58; 57. Kevin Good (21, Yakima) 2:54:06; 58. Brian Kulik, (41, Ellensburg) 2:55:41; 60. Ricardo Betancourt (23, Yakima) 2:56:32; 63. Timothy Brown (33, Yakima) 3:09:41; 64. Terry Cooper (50, Yakima) 3:17:15; 65. Court Jones (71, Ellensburg) 3:20:43; 66. Karen Christopherson (56, Yakima) 3:30:19.

Duathlon

1. Dave Denier (42, Yakima) 1:31:40; 2. Patrick Miller (56, Yakima) 1:32:25; 3. George Weiss (56, Bellevue) 1:34:09; 4. Tucker Peterson (42, Yakima) 1:35:28; 5. Joey Wallberg (32, Selah) 1:39:27; 6. C J Swan (45, Yakima) 1:41:05; 7. Frank Covelli (49, Yakima) 1:44:57; 8. Ilene Gerardi (46, Yakima) 1:46:59; 9. Leon Willey (40, Renton) 1:49:26; 10. Emily Urlacher (22, Yakima) 1:49:57; 11. Rocky Roybal (41, Yakima) 1:52:36; 12. Lisa Willey (37, Selah) 1:53:07; 13. Dennis Higbee (66, Selah) 1:56:54; 14. Richard Betancourt (??, Yakima) 2:08:41.

Teams

Women

1. Blonde Amazons (Cathy Lightly, Melissa Lemp, Diane McDevitt), 2:41:33.

Men

1. Team Heat (Richard Foreman, Troy Simmons, Alfredo Villasenor), 2:16:02; 2. Superhombres (Ike Sturges, Jeff Smith, Ben Sturges) 2:30:28.

Mixed

1. Team WSDOT (Tanya Lamb, Larry Mattson, John Stimberis), 2:14:35; 2. Team Holtzinger (Christy Holtzinger, Mark Holtzinger, Sara Holtzinger), 2:16:50; 3. Thriving (Beth Poston, Barry James), 2:19:14; 4. Sizzlin Sage Brush (Holly Boob, Andrew Stone, Todd Pappas), 2:33:32; 5. Graf-3rd Power (Linda Graf, John Graf, McKenzie Graf), 2:41:19; 6. Team Financially Fit (Tammy Lester, Daniel Jiyamapa, Kevin Thelen), 3:01:23.

Copyright, 2007, Yakima Herald-Republic. All Rights Reserved.

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