Florida Region Athletes at USAT Youth/Junior Elite Nationals

  The Florida region had a strong showing of young talent this past weekend at the  2011 USAT Youth and Junior Elite National Championship in addition to the USAT Youth National Championship.

The race winners Lukas Verzbicas and Kelly Whitley captured USA Triathlon Junior Elite National titles Saturday while Tamara Gorman successfully defended her Youth Elite title. Sawyer Willingham won the Youth Elite race for the men.

The 16- to 19-year-old junior elites covered a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike and a 5-kilometer run while the 13-15-year-old youth elites did a 375m swim, 10k bike and 2.5k run at the Chula Vista Harbor.

Congratulations to the following Florida region athletes on their participation and accomplishments this past weekend at Nationals.

Youth Elite Female

12^th Ciara Hopkins

13^th Summer Kanstoroom

19^th Kaileah Blazek

31^st Caroline Condon

Youth Elite Male

9^th Caleb Hudak

15^th Tristan Rhodes

44^th Graham Pimental

51^st Zack Quilty

63^rd Kyle Deschenes

65^th Marcel Jane

Junior Elite Female

14^th Savannah Dearden

26^th Sarah Sykes

Junior Elite Male

33^rd Shane Deeley

43^rd John Gerard Farese

On Sunday, a draft-legal team relay was held for athletes ages 13-19. All athletes — in teams of three with at least one female competitor — will complete a 250m swim, a 5k bike and a 1.2k run. Field size was 55 teams.

Congratulations to the Regional High Performances Teams of Triton Elite Multisport (TEM) and Tampa Bay Tri Sports (TBTS) who had five teams combined on the start line!

Team relay results were:

11^th TEM Jr Elites             Dearden/Farese/Deeley

21^st TBTS Gold                Kanstoroom/Hudak/Pimental

27^th TEM Youth Elite       Hopkins/Gillem (VA)/Rhodes

33^rd TEM                         Sykes/Gillem (VA)/ Rollo (CA)

43^rd TBTS Silver               Condon/ Quilty/ Deschenes

In the nondrafting Youth National Championship, the FL Region would like to congratulate the following youth athletes on their performances: 

Lawson McLoud -   1st place 7 yr. old boys
Lauren Benedict -    3rd place - 9 yr. old girls
Taylor Benedict -     5th place - 9 yr. old girls
Coleman Inglima-  1st place - 9 yr. old boys
Kaitlin Glidersleeve- 4th place- 10 yr. girls 
Lachian Hovius-       6th place- 10 yr. old boys
Jared Kanstoroom - 14th place - 10 yr old boys
Reagan Quilty -       4th place - 11 yr old girls
Timothy Glidersleeve- 17th place - 12 yr. boys

If someone has been left out please email the RADC and I will update this list