A former NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse champion outpaced more than one hundred other competitors to win the Pemaquid Beach Triathlon during pleasant summer weather on Sunday, Aug. 25 in Bristol. Sidney Swormstedt of Laconia, NH became the first female to win the overall race championship. Her blazing time of 1:18:48 beat the closest competitor by more than two minutes. Swormstedt was a member of the 2016 women’s lacrosse team at the University of North Carolina that won the national championship during her freshman season.
“I don’t play contact sports anymore due to previous injuries, so triathlons and ironman competitions have become my passion,” said Swormstedt, whom was a girl’s lacrosse high school All-American in New Hampshire before a knee injury curtailed her college career at North Carolina. Nowadays, Swormstedt scratches her itch for elite competition by racing in triathlons and ironman events across the country.
Swormstedt had the fastest running time and the fastest biking time of any competitor in the Pemaquid Beach Triathlon, and her swim time was fourth to help propel her to an impressive victory. “I decided to compete in this race because I was visiting family in nearby Thomaston and I heard that it’s a beautiful course,” said Swormstedt.
Competitors swam 400 yards off Pemaquid Beach to begin the race, biked 17 miles around the Pemaquid Peninsula and then ran three miles along the Pemaquid Trail coastline to complete the triathlon.
Rounding out the top five overall racers were Kyle Long of Portland (1:21:12), Stuart Olsen of Newburyport, MA (1:22:09), Curtis Bentley of Cushing (1:22:32), and August Avantaggio of Damariscotta (1:23:19).
In addition to the triathlon race for individuals, there were 19 relay teams with 54 relay teammates that participated in a leg or two of the triathlon while vying for a team relay championship. The top three relay teams in order were: Team Honey Badger (Beck Welling and Doug Welling); Not Gonna Pemiquit (Evan Heidtmann and Lucy Cohen); and Tri-Harder (Miriam La Noue, Bob Conger, and Warren Busteed).
Results for all participants in the Pemaquid Beach Triathlon were published in the Thursday, Aug. 29 print edition of the Lincoln County News.
