On Sunday, May 15th in Riverside, CA, four TEAM members competed in the USA 15km RW Championships. In a cloudy and rainy day the racewalkers completed 8.75 laps of 1.709km per lap to finish the 15km distance. This is an odd distance for them to race since they usually compete over 20km's but it was a good indicator as to what kind of fitness they are in leading up to the National Championships in just over a month. In the men's race we had returning 15km Champion, Coach Tim, and his Junior prodigy, Trevor. They started the race off together for 2 laps until Trevor took off and pounded the laps and finished in a great time of 1:03:37 which is a new USA Junior Record by 8.5 minutes, incredible. Coach Tim struggled through the rest of the race with some knee pain that he has been having for a few months now. He still finished 2nd in a time of 1:09:15. Trevor took his 2nd USA National Title.
On the women's side we had Rachel and Lauren. The plan was for Rachel to pace Lauren through a sub-1:15:00 15km. They started off on a good pace and continued to get stronger. In the last 5km's Lauren started to fade a bit but still finished up in a great time of 1:14:15, a huge PR. Rachel stayed with Lauren throughout the whole race until the last lap when she took off and finished in a time of 1:14:02 to finish slightly ahead. This was Lauren's first USA National Championships title. Big things to come for her in Eugene at the USA Track and Field Championships in a month. You can listen to an interview from Racewalk Planet Radio on both girls here. Next up for the TEAM is the NAIA Championships in a week. We have Chris, Katie and Janelle competing over 5000m's. All three are NAIA Indoor Championship medalists and they hope to get on the podium once again. Best of luck!
Stay tuned!
TEAM
(Photos Courtesy of Yvonne Grudzina-Glaser, Thanks!!!)
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