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University of Maine faculty and students joined forces to compete in the Maine Day Triathlon Wednesday.
Athletes competed in a race that consisted of a 3.1-mile run, a 1-mile canoe race and a 6.1-mile bike race.
The field consisted of both four- member teams and individual participants. The event is in its 15th year and is organized by Campus Recreation.
Top race finishers included first- place team S2C2, which included Jeff Hunt and Eric Hanson in the canoe. Rounding out the team was Scott O’Connor running and Scott Forrestall on the bike. The team completed the course in 45:30.
Top finisher for individuals and fourth overall was Matthew Dura in 52:20.4.
The race began at 2 p.m. at the Steam Plant parking lot. Runners began on College Avenue and did a 3.1 mile loop around the UMaine campus. The runners turned up the hill by the Alfond Arena, up to Hilltop, toward Public Safety, then continued onto Park Street in Orono where they later turned back on College Avenue. The runners tagged off to the canoe leg of the race. The canoes traveled down Stillwater River then back upstream to loop back to the boat landing area. The athletes then tagged their teammates or jumped on the bikes themselves. The bikers traveled the same course as the runners, but made two trips around the loop.
Team Sig Ep had almost a two-minute lead over second-place team S2C2 at the end of the running leg of the triathlon. S2C2 canoe team members made up almost two minutes and 30 seconds in the 1-mile canoe race coming out with a 30-second lead headed into the bike leg of the event.
Hunt said the team’s strategy was to go the shortest distance of the course. The S2C2 boat cut off the Sig Ep canoe, which went closer to the shoreline while S2C2 was more in the center of the river.
“We had the guns in the front,” Hunt said in reference to Hanson, who was in the bow of the canoe.
Dura said he enjoyed the extra challenge of competing by himself. He noted he got to have someone accompany him in the canoe leg of the race.
The finishers were first S2C2, 45:30; second Sig Ep, 46:24; third Intensive English Rockets, 52:20; fourth Matthew Dura, 52:20.5; fifth Ryan MacDonald, 57:57; sixth Zach Gray, 1:03:25; seventh Dave Arena, 1:06:59. Times for Susan March and Shannon Coiley were unavailable at press time.
