SARASOTA, Fla. — U.S. elite triathlete Summer Cook ran to her first career ITU win on Saturday at the Sarasota CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run). Cook (Thornton, Colo.) held her position in the lead from start to finish, posting a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 5 seconds on the 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike, 5-kilometer run course. This was Cook’s first win in an ITU event after finishing second in the Clermont CAMTRI Sprint Triathlon American Cup last weekend. Mexico’s Vanessa De La Torre was second in 1:03:14, and Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.) finished third in 1:03:23 for her second ITU Continental Cup podium of the season.
Cook led the way for the women early on, exiting the water nearly 20 seconds ahead of the field. She then fell back to ride in the lead bike pack with De La Torre and fellow Americans Spivey, Nicole Truxes (Tempe, Ariz.), Julie Stupp (Austin, Texas), Heather Lendway (St. Paul, Minn.) and Brianna Baird (Boston, Mass.), keeping a gap of more than 1 minute up on the chase pack. Then Cook, who ran collegiately at Villanova University, made an early move on the run to put more than a minute between her and the chasing duo of De La Torre and Spivey.
In the men’s race, Lagerstrom (Portland, Ore.) broke away from the field on the run to capture the top spot on the podium for the first time in an ITU event with a time of 54:32. Eli Hemming (Kiowa, Colo.) finished just behind Lagerstrom for the second weekend in a row, picking up second place in 54:42, and Jason West (State College, Pa.) was third for a U.S. podium sweep in 54:50.
Lagerstrom trailed a lead group that included Hunter Lussi (Kensington, Md.), Ian Boggs (Zionsville, Ind.) and Hunter Kemper (Colorado Springs, Colo.) on the swim. Over the course of the 20k bike, Lagerstrom and the rest of the chase pack chipped away at the lead group to form one large pack heading into the second transition. Lagerstrom then burst out of the transition area and took the lead within the first 400 meters, holding off the rest of the field all the way to the finish.
Elite Women
- Summer Cook (Thornton, Colo.), 1:02:05
- Vanessa De La Torre (MEX), 1:03:14
- Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.), 1:03:23
- Calah Schlabach (Arlington, Va.), 1:03:38
- Nicole Truxes (Tempe, Ariz.), 1:03:52
- Julie Stupp (Austin, Texas), 1:04:23
- Heather Lendway (St. Paul, Minn.), 1:04:32
- Brianna Baird (Boston, Mass.), 1:04:40
- Sinead O’Dwyer (Boulder, Colo.), 1:07:05
- Bria Edwards (State College, Pa.), 1:09:20
Elite Men
- Eric Lagerstrom (Portland, Ore.), 54:32
- Eli Hemming (Kiowa, Colo.), 54:42
- Jason West (State College, Pa.), 54:50
- Hunter Kemper (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 54:59
- Alex Libin (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 55:31
- Mike Meehan (Allison Park, Pa.), 55:57
- Jason Pedersen (Simi Valley, Calif.), 56:48
- Sam Holmes (Denver, Colo.), 56:49
- Nicholas Sterghos (West Point, N.Y.), 57:37
- Hunter Lussi (Kensington, Md.), 58:00
- Brian MacArthur (Tucson, Ariz.), 58:14
- Dylan Sorensen (Scottsdale, Ariz.), 59:36
- Spenser Popeson (Brooklyn, N.Y.), 1:00:23
- William Jurkowski (Boulder, Colo.), 1:00:25
- Jack St. Marie (Charlottesville, Va.), 1:02:01
- Andrew Roos (Redwood City, Calif.), 1:02:44
- Cody Bohachek (Lebanon, Ohio), 1:04:37
Source/Photo: USA Triathlon
