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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Guardsman Wins Triathlon

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
      Mike Calhoon, an Army National Guard captain, used some tactical savvy to win the inaugural Estancia Mini-Ironman triathlon competition Saturday.
    The 45-year-old commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, a unit subordinate to the 1st Battalion of the New Mexico National Guard's 200th Infantry (regiment), earned the men's individual title with a time of 1 hour, 30 minutes and 8 seconds. The event included a 650-yard swim at the Estancia Aquatic Center, a 10-mile bicycle race and a 3-mile run, with each segment beginning and ending at the town's public swimming pool adjacent to Arthur Park.
    Calhoon was one of the last athletes out of the pool after the first phase. He started out using a modified breaststroke, his head above the water, and subsequently switched to a leisurely backstroke for most of the swimming segment.
    “It was by design,” said Calhoon, a 6-foot, 200-pound teacher and assistant track and field coach at Estancia Middle School. “I was conserving energy. I made up a lot of time on the bike.”
    Calhoon ultimately passed 13-year-old Cooper Larson at about the 1-mile mark of the concluding 3-mile run. He then held off Larson, who had led throughout the swimming and biking portions of the race, for the overall title.
    “I went too fast on the bike,” said Larson, an Estancia Middle School eighth-grader-to-be who commenced the run with a walk. “I was trying to come in first in all three.”
    Larson, who was second overall, was the coed youth, 18-and-under individual victor with a clocking of 1:30:53. Noah Sedillo was second in the 18U category (1:31.21), and David Larson was the runner-up in the men's division (1:40.06).
    “I had fun,” said Sedillo, an Estancia High rising junior. “But I thought I was going to drown a few times.”
    Merry Kotschwar was the fastest female.
    The 43-year-old director of the Estancia Valley Learning Center crossed the final finish line in 1:32:35.
    “It feels great,” Kotschwar said. “I want to do it again — just not today.”
    Renea Calhoon, Mike's spouse, was second overall with a time of 1:48:11.
    Brian Wilson, a sophomore 110-meter hurdler for the University of New Mexico men's track and field team, anchored the winning men's relay team on Saturday. But Wilson, who won the state Class 2A boys 110- and 300-meter hurdles crowns in 2007 while at Estancia High, is a sprinter by trade.
    The 3-mile distance in the hot sun took its toll. Wilson slumped to his knees and eagerly gulped water from a bottle immediately after finishing.
    Wilson and his teammates, swimmer Pedro Nandino and bicyclist Daniel Chavez, had a cumulative time of 1:22:45. Nandino is a 28-year-old well driller who said he has a bachelor's degree in studio art, and Chavez, 47, is the town's director of public works.
    The women were paced by the team of Janice Barela (swim), Doreen Winn (bike) and Laci Lockwood (run), with a combined time of 1:26:08. Barela, a former Estancia High volleyball coach, is the administrative assistant to Winn, the EHS principal, and Lockwood is the Lady Bears' track and field coach.
    “It isn't any harder than it once was,” said Lockwood, who still holds the Class 5A state record in the girls 800-meter run (2:13.39) “It's just not as fast.”
    The standard was set under her maiden name of Jackson during her prep days at Hobbs High in 1999.
    The all-girl trio of Kaili Larson (swim), Mikayla Calhoon (bike) and Rachel Ness (run) was the best coed youth team Saturday. They were clocked in 1:30:28.
    “I'm getting a lot of positive feedback so I do think we'll try to do it again next year,” said event coordinator Jody Weidner. “I think we had a good turnout (24 participants) for the first time. A lot of them wanted to know their times so they could try to shave off their times for next year.”
    Weidner reduced the swimming length from the originally planned half-mile.
    “I think I'm going to keep the swim length the same (at 650 yards),” she said. “We don't have a lot of adult swimmers in the Estancia area with experience. The pool wasn't here when they were young. The first two out of the pool (Saturday) were swim club members, Cooper Larson and my son, Luke.”
    The proceeds from the Mini-Ironman went to support the 15-swimmer Estancia Bearacudas club, which Jody Weidner coaches.
    The Bearacudas will compete in the first meet of their city of Albuquerque Metro Aquatic League's summer season Saturday at Los Altos Pool. The league championships will be held Aug. 2 at the West Mesa Aquatic Center.
   

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