NAWILIWILI — Leo McCarthy was the first finisher in the sprint division of the Kaua‘i Loves You! Triathlon that woke up the sleepy Kalapaki Bay area Saturday.
Hosted by Swim Kaua‘i Aquatics, the sprint involved a half-mile swim in the bay, a 12-mile bike ride around the Menehune Fishpond area and a 5k run through the Marriott property. Super sprint participants did half the distance of the sprint athletes.
More than 80 individuals and relay teams splashed into Kalapaki Bay with Aaron Pigott, a swimmer with the SKA program, finishing tops overall with a 45:37 (5:06-24:30-16:01) showing in the super sprint, almost two minutes faster than second-place finisher Rickey Louis (8:50-22:37-15:33=47:00).
Pigott was followed by the relay team — including Tom Potter, Rick Beach and Marie Skello — that completed the course in 1:01.59 (8:43-31:02-22:14).
That finish was interrupted by McCoy, the first finisher in the sprint who crossed at 1:06.30 (9:01-35:08-22:21), his strong showing in the swim phase giving him the edge over second finisher Travis Parker (11:43-35:04-22:10=1:08.57).
Second place in the sprint relay went to the team of Ian Emberson, Neil Stein and George Kruse (9:32-41:39-22:08=1:13.19) followed by the team of Monique Imberski, Peter Williams and Peter Chow (10:22-37:54-27:16=1:15.32).
John Grout, finishing third in the sprint, was right on McCarthy’s heels in the water, emerging on a 9:21 swim, but lost ground in the bicycling (37:09) and the run (25:10) for third place at 1:11:40.
Lois Lutz (11:56-42:01-26:01=1:18:21) was the first female to finish in the sprint, crossing 10th overall, just .20 second back of Brandon Jacinto. Lois Fleming (10:56-44:52-25:37=1:21.25) was the second female finisher, crossing 11th overall.
Leigh Clarke, ending third overall, was the first female to cross in the super sprint (7:05-27:55-15:37=50:37), finishing first out of the water over Louis, but dropping in the bicycling phase.
Second female finisher in the super sprint was Tammy Day-Takekawa (8:36-30:15-17:23=56:14), finishing fifth overall.
Kirsten McCracken, a senior at Kapa‘a High School, finished fourth for females in the super sprint (7:33-35:54-14:46=58:13).
“This is her first triathlon so she’s taking it easy,” said Jaime Pablo, whose wife, Josie, was competing in the sprint (21:35-51:59-30:44=1:44.04).
McCracken had also just come from the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation track and field championships the night before where she represented Kapa‘a in the 800 meter, 1,500 meter and 3,000 meter runs, finishing fourth (2:46.96), fifth (5:43.1) and fourth (13:14.7), respectively.
Anna Quibilan, earning her first gold division title during her participation at the Lani Kai Sprint in mid-April, came back to finish first in her division, 21-30, on a 1:23.22 showing (12:31-43:43-27:08) for her second gold in as many events.
Coming on the heels of Josie Pablo, Kaua‘i Police Department’s Lt. Kaleo Perez finished 1:44:53 (21:35-51:59-30:44).
“This is crazy,” his wife said. “On Friday, he was running with his kids at the Kamehameha Schools’ swim-run biathalon on O‘ahu, and on the way home, said he was going to do this event.”
She said one of Kaleo’s goals is to participate in the Tin Man Triathlon on the Big Island since he was born there, and the KYL is just one more step toward achieving that dream.
