Beckley Team Wins Mayor’s Cup

A Mountain State University/YMCA Triathlon team won the Mayor’s Cup at the recent 5th Annual St. Mary’s Medical Center Tri-State Triathlon in Huntington, West Virginia. The triathlon included both Sprint and Olympic distance events. In the Sprint distance, including a ½ mile swim in Beech Fork Lake, a 25 mile bike leg and a 3.1 mile run, the team athletes were local YMCA triathlon legend Tom Hamilton and MSU’s Oscar Grambling. In the Olympic distance, a 1K swim, 40K bike and 10K run, the athletes were Brumley Smith, visiting from Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, and Dave Robbins from Mountain State. The final element of the Mayor’s Cup team was the Relay Team, including swimmer Christiana Robbins, cyclist Jim Kandrach and runner Megan Constantino.

The Olympic distance athletes were the first to start the race as they dove into the warm waters of Beech Fork Lake for their 1K swim. Five minutes later the sprint distance and relay swimmers followed for their ½ mile effort. Less then 16 minutes later Christiana Robbins and Tom Hamilton ran into the transition only 1 second apart and in the top 10% of the field. Oscar Grambling followed at 22 minutes and then 1K swimmers Smith and Robbins came in at 27 and 30 minutes.

Jim Kandrach led the team out of T1 for what proved to be a blazingly fast 25 mile bike leg. Average bike speeds for the team ranged from 15 to 20 mph on the twisting and rolling bike course.

There was no rest for the athletes as they came back to T2 at Beach Fork Lake and started the run. Megan Constantino turned in the fastest run time of anyone one on the team, cranking out sub seven minute miles over the hilly 3.1 mile course. Tom Hamilton and Brumley Smith held tough on the run to capture 4th and 5th in their age groups and lead the team to the Mayor’s Cup victory. Dave Robbins finished 4 minutes behind Brumley to win the 50-59 Olympic distance age group.

The team members had a fantastic weekend the Huntington and are already training for the defense of the cup at next year’s race. They are also seeking additional team members, both individual triathletes and relay team members, to join in the competition.