It was short and sweet for Mike Smith on Sunday, as the 45-year-old local won the Santa Barbara Triathlon Co-Ed Sprint Course competition with a time of 35 minutes, 21 seconds. Smith did it by holding off Carpinteria’s Matt Organista, 20, and pulling away in the stretch run.
“It went really well for me. I rested a lot this week and wanted to kind of fire away,” said Smith, who competed in the long course for about a decade and was a multiple-winner. It was his seventh year in the sprint competition.
He described the sprint course as “a whole different animal” compared to the long course.
“In the long course you kind of get into a rhythm and you have a long parameter of where to red-line, whereas this is all red-lining,” he said.
The field featured 349 competitors between the ages of 13-81, who were divided into flights based on age and gender and started about five minutes apart. The top female finisher was another 45-year-old Santa Barbaran, Laurie Sigloch, who clocked in at 43:45.
COMPLETE RESULTS ** PHOTO GALLERY
Smith’s 2-mile run and 6-mile bike portions were the fastest of any competitor, but it was San Diegan Gunnar Granquist, 44, who had the fastest leg in the 500-yard swim.
Immediately after the co-ed race, a women’s only competition was held and drew 295 athletes. Santa Barbara’s Karen Schultz started off with the fastest swim leg, but eventual-winner Stacy Galer of Westlake Village won both the bike and run portions to finish on top with a time of 41:31.
