First up, LT Nick Dason. Nick was the team captain of the 2008 West Point Team and is currently flying Huey’s in Afghanistan.

Randy Wintermantel is a 2009 West Point Grad and was a staple on the USMA Team. I fully expect her to be a lifetime endurance athlete – before she left for Afghanistan, she ran her first 50km trail race. Randy is attached to an engineer unit.

More to come…

Professional Triathlete, Nick Vandam placed 9th overall at the Coteau-du-Lac Continental Cup in Montreal, Canada. Nick’s on the world circuit earning ITU points for US Olympic Trials in 2012.

Lots of Boulder Peak Triathlon Racers last weekend:

Gerry Kim competed in her first Olympic distance event last weekend at the Boulder Peak Triathlon. Welcome to the club Gerry and congrats on what was a very hot day to be outside, let alone race.

Jesse Bolton also competed in the Boulder Peak Triathlon and placed 175th overall out of over 1800 athletes. Well done Jesse.

Darren Rappaport had a strong finish at Boulder Peak as well and is right on track for his primary goal this fall – Ironman Arizona.

Kenny Withrow rocked a solid Boulder race as well as he continues to build his peak towards the Boulder 70.3.

Major Andy Caine qualified for 70.3 World Championships at the Rhode Island 70.3 – Congrats Andy!

John Carroll won his age group and placed 4th overall at the Saratoga 12 hour bike race. The object was to go as far as you could in the time alloted. John’s goal for 2011 will be to chase the course record. Congrats john.

The season is in full swing now and lots of racing and results coming through. I’m trying to convince athletes to send in photos so I can post them, but short of me flying all over the country to snap photos, this is it. Congrats to everyone, and keep up the hard work!

Congrats to Raul Tejada who didn’t just win his age group at Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake, but destroyed the field. Raul qualifed for his first ever Ironman World Championships in Kona this October – see ya in October Raul. Nicely done. Raul’s splits are below – notable, is his 5 min drop in his swim time from his last half ironman effort in Florida – hard work paying off!

Also, congrats to AG Giles, who joined a very elite club over the weekend as he completed Ironman France. Congrats AG, all the sacrifice was worth it. Only you and I know just how much it took to get you there. Job well done. Waiting on photos. You accomplished the most important goals of the first Ironman – Having fun and finishing – great Job.

Finally, congrats to professional, Nick Vandam, who earned valuable points at the Coteau-du-Lac ITU event in Canada over the weekend. Nick placed 9th in a professional field of over 70 athletes. This event also acted as the Under 23 World Championships Qualifier event, which Nick qualified for the second straight year. Under 23 World Championships are in Budapest this Septemer. This is all the more impressive since Nick is also a lieutenant in the US Army during the weekdays. Nick spent his free time this weekend studying for a test and will be back at officer training on Monday. In a few week’s time however, Nick will get a chance at living the dream, as the US Army has selected Nick to join the WCAP (World Class Athlete Program) in Colorado Springs, CO.

Nick spoke up on his blog about what it meant to him to finally have a chance to train properly as a professional:

“I finally made it into the World Class Athlete Program! It has taken me 5 years and a tremendous amount of work, but I will finally get a shot at being a real professional athlete. I will still be on active duty and still serving my commitment incurred from graduating from West Point, so I really can’t ask for a better deal. I will be moving to Colorado Springs July 16th and will for sure be there until October 2012. I will be focusing on ITU racing and doing everything I can to attain Olympic points so that I will have a shot at racing in the Olympic Trials. I really enjoy racing non drafting racing so I will continue to try and squeeze in some US short course racing when it fits into the schedule. I’m very excited that I will have a real chance to go through a proper training cycle. Lately it’s been just shoot from the hip and race what I can when I can and just build fitness from the races. This is pretty much a dream come true for me, and judging by the gains I had last time I went to CO I’m very excited to get faster and be a force to reckon with on the race course.”

Nick will be racing the Military Championships this weekend along with fellow DeBoom Athlete & US Army LT. and former West Point Team mate, Nick Dason. Military Champs are ITU style racing, so good opportunities for old teammates to work together. Good luck guys!

We received this photo from DeBoom athlete, Jeff Peterson. Jeff escaped from Alcatraz over the weekend with a little help from the West Point Team, as they ran into one another out on the course and cheered each other on. Nice to see our athletes support one another. The good news is that all 4 cadets pictured will be returning to a West Point Men’s Team that was the National Runner Up at Collegiate Nat’s a couple weeks ago. Great experience for some youngsters.

Mr Peterson (see if you can figure out which one is Jeff), used Alcatraz to launch his professional triathlete debut – congrats Jeff! Jeff is also the owner of a new social network website for athletes called RunRamsey. Pretty cool site, so be sure to check it out and link up with like minded people.

The race season is in full bloom and many athletes have been toeing the line lately, but we have to recognize the amazing performance of the entire West Point Tri Team at the Collegiate Triathlon and Duathlon National Championships. National Champion Women, National Runner-Up Men at Tri Nat’s and both teams National Champs at Duathlon Nationals. In a sport where it’s hard enough to race well individually, the entire team rose to the occasion and achieved a goal that they trained long and hard for. Congrats to the West Point Tri Team – April Animal of the Month.

Looks like another dominating performance by the West Point Triathlon Team at the National Duathlon Championships in Richmond today. No official word as of yet, but it looks like another National Title for the team in just over a week (USMA women won a collegiate triathlon national title last week and the USMA Men were National Runner-Ups).



Army Men Leading From the Front



USMA Standout Ashley Morgan enroute to a National Title Performance and 2nd Overall

More Info Coming..