Sorenson, Coutinho Win XTERRA Charlottesville

By Scott Scudamore, XTERRA Rep

Unlike previous years the XTERRA Charlottesville race weather was perfect.  Low humidity and about 70 degrees at the 7:30am start.  Water temp was a balmy 75 degrees so everyone swam without a wetsuit.  The first wave of 3 went out promptly at 7:30 with Chris Hobert of Virginia Beach out of the water first  in a little over 16 minutes followed closely by Cyrus Dreyer of Charlottesville and Johan Duba from Herndon VA.  Because of the wave starts a few of the strong swimmers in the 2nd and 3rd wave had to battle through the swim crowd.  Eric Sorenson from Falls Church VA was in the 2nd swim wave but came out the water about 6 people back overall.  Peter Hufnagel from Crozet VA came into transition from the very rocky rooty almost all singletrack mountain bike course first, about 5 minutes ahead Eric on the clock.  XTERRA Ambassador Frank Febbraro from Falls Church,  was only about 20 seconds behind Eric.  Going out onto the 4 mile run, Peter Hufnagel was the first to cross the finish line followed by Eric Sorenson and Frank Febbraro.  But since Peter was in the first wave he lost the overall to Eric by 1 min 7 sec.  Eric's time was 1:50:46.  Frank was also in the 2nd wave but missed 2nd by 13 seconds.

On the women's side Alisa Lion a Pro from Raleigh NC was 2nd out of the water about a minute behind Alicia Markey from Newark DE followed 2 minutes later  by Elizabeth Lohr from Charleston SC.    Although she was 21st out of the water, Kathy Coutinho from Fairfax Station VA set a blistering 1:14 on the bike to take the lead over all the women including Pro Alisha Lion coming into T2.  Over 6 minutes faster than the 2nd fastest woman on the bike course Kate Lucas from Richmond VA.  Emily Bashton from Richmond Virginia was about a minute behind Alisha and Kate coming into T2.  Alisha Lion did cross the finish line almost a minute ahead of Kathy but since she started in the earlier wave, Kathy was the overall winner in 2:14:23 followed by Alisha and Kate Lucas a mere 22 seconds behind Alisha. Irene Biere was 3rd age group woman  and was 5 minutes back of Kate.

This was a very fast course with no major injuries or issues with the heat. This was Ed Stockwell's  first time being an XTERRA Race Director but he handled it like a seasoned Pro. 

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