Joey Payeur
Wendy Tilbury is a woman of few words, at least when it comes to interviews.
She let her triathlon skills speak volumes for her this past Saturday.
The Fort Frances resident was victorious in the female 40-44 sprint distance category at the inaugural Sioux Narrows Paradise Triathlon, making her one of only two local participants to capture a division.
Tilbury covered the 750m swim, 20.5 km cycling portion and the 5-km run in a time of 1:33.48, also good enough for 27th overall out of 58 competitors in the female sprint category. That put her a whopping 8:22 ahead of second-place Ayn Wilcox in the five-person group, while Tina Rawn of the Fort was third in 1:44.41.
Another Fort entrant, Christine Visser, placed fifth in the group in 2:30.04.
“It felt great. It always feels good to get done,” said Tilbury, who was awestruck by the beauty of the Sioux Narrows course and commended the organizers of the first-time event.
“I was a little surprised with my swim time being as good as it was (15:29), especially because it felt like I was struggling a bit,” she added.
Tilbury’s husband, Jeff, also made his mark in the Sioux with a second-place outing in the male 45-49 sprint division.
“I was shooting for top 20 overall and I came in 10th,” said Jeff, whose clocking of 1:19.40 put him 6:45 back of winner Marc Fournier (1:12.55).
“I had a good swim and bike time and not a bad run. It was a pretty challenging course. It was very hilly for the bike and run portions,” he added.
Fort Frances High School student Hailey Beaudry was the other division winner, as she competed unopposed in the female 18 to 24 Olympic distance triathlon group. The Muskie athlete took 4:05.40 to get through her 1,500m swim, 40-km bike ride and 10-km run.
Beaudry’s mother, Kim Beaudry, also participated in the Sioux in the female 45-49 sprint class, coming in seventh with a mark of 2;06.39.
Two other local area residents were in the same group, with Emo’s Sandra Drennan claiming fourth spot in 1:51.57, while the Fort’s Penny Knapp was fifth in 1:51.57.
Cherrie Fournier was the division champion with a time of 1:21.03.
The Fort’s Kerry Canfield battled her way to second place in the female 30-34 sprint class with a mark of 1:33.12. Amanda Lieverse claimed the category with her clocking of 1;29.23.
Gaydonna Baker of Emo put in a great effort against her only division rival, Lana Marcine of Kenora, in the female 65-69 sprint division. Marcine ended up crossing the finish line first in 1:40.51, with Baker taking second in 1:48.44.
In the male 35-39 sprint division, the Devlin duo of Brett Gauthier and Peter Fuhrer came in sixth and seventh, respectively, in their eight-man class which was won by Greg Penner in 1:06.22.
Gauthier clocked in at 1:33.31, while Fuhrer was another 50 seconds back in 1:34.21.
The solid local results came on the heels of a trio of Fort residents taking part in the Brewhouse Triathlon in Duluth on Aug. 4.
Lori Green took first place in the female age 50-54 Olympic distance category with a time of 2:33.47.
Green swam 1.5 km in 27;48 and cycled the 40-km portion in 1:11.35, both fastest in her four-person division, before holding on with the third-fastest 10-km run in 50:10 to defeat Mary Moline of Duluth (total time of 2:44.52) by more than 11 minutes.
In the Sprint distance category, the Fort’s Natasha Shack placed 13th in the 27-person female age 30-34 class with a clocking of 1:41.15.
In the female age 35-39 division, Lonna Oster of the Fort came in 14th out of 27 competitors with a mark of 1:40.44.
