Compared to the Palisades- Will Rogers 5/10K, the Palisades Youth Triathlon is still in its infancy. Yet, in just four years, it has emerged as one of the “cool things to do” for local youth on July 4. While a number of records were broken at this year’s competition, the number Triathlon founder and organizer Deborah Hafford is most proud of is 160. That is the number of young athletes ages 5-15 who participated in Tuesday morning’s event, which began with a three-mile bike ride through Huntington Palisades, continued with a one-mile run through the Village and ended with a 150-yard swim at the Palisades-YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon. Fourteen-year-old Willy MacMiller, who had finished third overall the previous two years, set a blistering pace on his bike that distanced him from the pack and he went on to win the event with a time of 19:43, breaking the record of 21:22 set by Jared Brown in 2005. MacMiller lives in the San Fernando Valley, but his uncle Jim lives in the Palisades. Willy, who will be attending Crespi High in Encino in the fall, runs for the West Valley Eagles Track Club. “The 3,000 meters is my best event,” he said. “I do it in around 9:59. I usually do mountain biking in the San Fernando Hills. But I need to work on swimming.” The second finisher overall was Jimmy De Mayo, also in the 13-15 age group, who completed the three phases in 21.02. Finishing third, also in the 13-15 age group, was David Hafford. The first female finisher was 14-year-old Natalie Farnham, who won for the second straight year and, in the process, knocked almost two seconds off of last year’s winning time. Farnham completed the event in 23:08, bettering the previous course record of 23:30 set two years ago by Courtney Knapp. “The training helps,” said Farnham, who went to three of the four clinics offered by the YMCA and directed by Hafford to prepare participants for Tuesday’s triathlon. Allison Merz, also 14, took second in 23:34. “It was hard,” she admitted. “I did zero training. The worst was going uphill on the bike.” Sitting next to Merz was Alexandra Edel who confessed: “I should have tried the bike before the race. It was like 30 years old and it wouldn’t shift.” Finishing third in the girls’ 13-15 category was Vianey Barrios, who was the second girl to begin the pool phase but was passed after several laps by Merz, who swims for the Palisades-Malibu YMCA team. Barrios had run the Palisades-Will Rogers 5K in 27 minutes, finishing about an hour before the start of the Youth Triathlon. She would have run faster had she not missed the 5/10K turnaround point and been forced to run back up the hill. Barrios is part of Exceeding Expectations headed by Cherie Grunfeld who trains youths in San Bernadino who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This year she brought 14 athletes all of whom competed in the 5K and the triathlon. “I really like this,” Barrios said, “It keeps you out of drugs and keeps you healthy.” Barrios is planning to run cross country at Redlands East Valley High next year. Cody O’Connell was a repeat winner in the boys’ 11-12 age group. He took first place last year in 24:26. This year, he set a new record of 23:11. Second place was Alex MacMiller and third was Dylan Rees. Mara Silka repeated in the girls’ 11-12 age group and her time of 23:46 was the third fastest overall. She eclipsed last year’s time of 25.38 and set a new age group record. Second place was Emily Berkin and third was Lucy Tilton. Winning the boys’ 9-10 age group was Alec Wilimovsky with a time of 27:52, followed by Joe Rosenbaum and Michael Beutner. In the girls division, Kjahna O took first place for the second time in 27:39. MacKenzie Gray was second and Rachel Martin third. Tommy Lutz set a new boys’ 6-8 record with a time of 31:22, ahead of second place finisher and previous record-holder Joe Walker. Third went to Collin McCarthy. A record also dropped in the female 6-8 category as Courtney Corrin finished in 30:58. Finishing second was Aralely Juarez and third went to Jacylin Inclan. The last triathlete to complete the course was six-year-old Sarah Kitay. Four members of her Brownie troop jumped into the pool and swam with her, cheering her on until she touched the wall. Nine-year-old Veronica Ramos, one of the students from Ninth Street Elementary in Santa Monica who had come to the Palisades to train for the previous last four Saturdays was the last place finisher in 2005. Part of the problem in that race was she hadn’t quite mastered the bicycle and did the course on training wheels, was ecstatic this year. She told Hafford, “I was last last year and this year there were tons of kids behind me.”
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