Highlights from the Dave Reynolds Biathlon

The 29th annual Dave Reynolds Biathlon and Two-Mile Walk has become a summer favorite among the multi-sport athletes focused on swimming and running. A half-mile ocean swim followed by a 5K run is the main event, while the team relay division and two-mile memory walk give athletes plenty to choose from.

The Rehoboth Beach Patrol keeps athletes safe in the water, while Rehoboth Police keep the athletes safe on the roads.

Harry Nothacker won the 70-74 age group in 45:12, more than six minutes ahead of the second-place finisher in his age group. Nothacker always sports the inaugural shirt and has competed in 29 events in a row.

Seventh-place finisher Margaret Colvin of Rehoboth Beach won the female masters in a time of 42:36. She had a great 46-second transition and had the third-fastest female run split of the event at 23:36. The interesting stat I took was that Colvin is at least twice the age of all but one female in the top 10 overall.

Former Cape swim standout Molly Weeks finished in the top 10 overall and had the third-fastest swim of 13:59.

Cape runner and swimmer Olivia Brozefsky finished 10th overall and fourth in her age group with a time of 43:51 and the fourth-fastest run in the event of 23:42.

The top three finishers in the 50-54 age group were only 15 seconds apart, as Liz Guida of Lewes won the title in 45:39, edging Marybeth Evans of Rehoboth Beach in 45:42 and Diane Ward in 45:54. Guida had the fastest swim of 16:34, while Evans was over two minutes back in 18:40 and Ward another 1:41 back in 20:21. Ward had a great 43-second transition time and picked up a minute on Evans (1:30 transition) and Guida (1:42 transition). Guida left the transition to begin the run with a 1:50 lead on Evans and a 2:33 lead on Ward. Ward put together the fastest run of the threesome in 24:51, while Evans turned in a 25:33, and Guida hung on for a 27:24 5K for the win. A great threesome competition in a tough age group. If it was 3.2 miles instead of 3.1, who knows what would have happened!

A tough swim of 15:30 ranked Nancy Panagacos of Millsboro as the eighth-best swim split of the event; she crossed the finish in 44:42 to win her 60-64 age group by more than 23 minutes.

On the male side of the action, Rehoboth Beach Patrol athlete Xander Geiersbach of Middletown dominated the swim in a time of 12:03, more than a minute ahead of the next-fastest swimmer in the event. Geiersbach had the sixth-fastest transition of 39 seconds and the fourth-fastest run of 20:18, hitting the finish in 32:59. Geiersbach was second overall last year to former Dover High standout runner Sean Saxton.

Multi-winner Kevin Danahy had the fastest run of the event in 19:06 and finished third overall and as the top masters winner. In 2017, Geiersbach also won the event with Danahy and Saxton second and third overall.

Geiersbach won the Dave Reynolds Spirit Award on the male side, while Elizabeth Klingensmith won the Spirit Award on the female side.

After 29 years of a great small hometown event, the biathlon has turned into the popular Cheers theme ... “where everybody knows your name.”

Lainey Shockro at VaultWorX

Local Lainey Shockro, a rising eighth-grader at Beacon Middle School, spent a week recently at the popular pole vault camp VaultWorX. Shockro will not vault officially until high school, but she has enjoyed two straight years at the camp. I am a fan of VaultWorX because of the philosophy and vision they have for each athlete. One thing I learned over the years coaching kids is that each athlete is different; each athlete has a different talent level and different level of mental preparation for each event. Your job as a coach is to bring out the best performance in each athlete you coach. This past indoor season at Cape Henlopen with the girls’ team, I was fortunate to have a group of hardworking girls with more than 90 percent of them improving throughout the season and racing their best at the end when it counts the most.

According to the VaultWorX website, “VaultWorX is committed and passionate about developing athletes at all levels in a safe and supportive environment. We subscribe to a defined systematic approach to coaching, designed to take athletes of all levels to new heights. We encourage an environment of hard work, goal setting and achievement that carries through to all areas of athletes’ lives. We believe that great performances, no matter what the event, are more likely due to hard work and preparation than to natural ability or inspired performance.”

Legendary coach Ed Temple

Seashore Striders runner Shiloh O’Grady, an All-American youth cross country runner last season, recently posed for a photo at the site of the statue of coach Ed Temple in Nashville. Edward Stanley "Ed" Temple was a women's track and field pioneer and coach. Temple was head women's track and field coach at Nashville's Tennessee State University for 44 years and was head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women's Track and Field Team twice, in 1960 and 1964, and assistant coach in 1980.