After coming up short twice before, Matt Organista was nervous as he waited for the official results to come out for the sprint-course race at Sunday’s 13th annual Carpinteria Triathlon.
Organista was relieved and happy when the final results were posted. The former Carpinteria High swimming and water polo star had finaly won his hometown race. He posted a blazing time of 48 minutes, 11 seconds over the .500-meter swim, 15k bike and 5k run on a warm morning.
Danielle Harper of Stevenson Ranch edged out Santa Barbara’s Rowena Spence for the women’s sprint title. Harper hit the finish line at Carpinteria City Beach in 59:29, while Spence came in at 59:56. Emlynn Tursick of Carpinteria was third in 1:02.28.
UCSB triathlete Zack Paris won the Olympic distance race. He did the 1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run in 2:02.24.
The women’s champion was Bishop Diego girls volleyball coach Erika Lilley in 2:28.50.
Organista, who finished second in the sprint race in 2008 and 2006, said he was worried because there might have been a problem on the run portion of the event. But things worked out for the Westmont student.
“I feel I can move on to the Olympic course now,” Organista said. “Finishing second (all those times), I wanted to go back and get that first (win). I think I got it today.”
Sebastian Honig of Santa Barbara took second place in 56:02 and Quanah Ridenour of Ojai was third in 56:14.
Fourth place went to former UCSB swimming All-American Mike Shaffer, who six days earlier was completing a world-record, 202-mile, open-water swim relay down the coast with the Ventura Deep Six Relay Team. The six athletes swam from Ventura Harbor to Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf and then headed south to La Jolla Cove. They did it in 4 1/2 days.
So why did Shaffer do a triathlon after swimming a total of 17 hours on the relay.
“I guess to get a little more pain,” he said with a smile.
Dr. John Chung, another member of the relay, also did the sprint triathlon.
Shaffer said he and Chung had some doubts about doing the race on Monday, “but by the end of the week we said, ‘Let’s do it. We signed up for it and paid for it, so let’s do it.’”
Shaffer, 45, won the sprint race’s Clydesdale (athletes more than 200 pounds) Division.
“I do one triathlon a year and this is it,” the 204-pound Shaffer said. “This is always fun.”
He called the swim “a piece of cake. It was nice to wear a wet suit.”
When he swam the relay through Carpinteria last Thursday, the water temperature was 57 degrees, and they weren’t allowed to wear wetsuits.
“It was a bit chilly,” he recalled.
Shaffer was the first sprint contestant out of the water, doing the 500 meters in 7:44. Organista was second with an 8 minute split.
“I had an OK swim,” the Carpinterian said. “I was with this kid from Santa Barbara and we went too far. We didn’t know where the buoy was because there were so many people.”
The difference in the race for Organista was the bike leg.
“I came in and I had a really good bike. I had a PR of two minutes,” he said.
The bike portion was the key for Paris, too.
“I thought I really crushed the bike,” he said. “I’ve doing a lot of extra bike work. I’ve had an Achilles injury that’s been bugging me for last two years off and on, so I’ve been backing off the run and focusing on the bike.”
Paris did 1:02.42 on the bike ride, the second fastest time. He was first out of the water in 20:23.
Kyle Visin of the Santa Barbara Triathlon Club finished second in the Olympic race in 2:04.55 and Stepen Paul of Goleta was third in 2:05.45.
Lilley said the play of her Bishop Diego girls volleyball team on Saturday in the Carpinteria Invitational inspired her on Sunday.
“The girls played with a lot of heart, so I felt good after Saturday,” she said.
Laura Skeeters of Aliso Viejo placed second in 2:31.06 and Santa Barbara’s Ashley Erickson finished third in 2:34.14.
In the relays, Team Kevin McSheff (Kevin Lewis, Ryan McFadden, Stefanie Scheff) won the coed division in 2:36.30. The Beasts (Grant Schroeder, Ben Barthel, Bryan Fernandez) took the men’s title in 2:00.15. Team Badass (Tina Daly, Jeannette Candau, Leslie Waller) was the first women’s trio in 2:28.07. Santa Barbara Youth Triathlon (Sarah Jamieson, Nicholas Perez, Dylan Zukin) was the top youth squad in 2:20.29.
The warm, hometown spirit of the Carpinteria Triathlon was best exemplified by Diego Ramirez and his family. Ramirez, who now lives in Oxnard, grew up in Carpinteria after migrating with his family from Mexico City.
Six years ago, at age 19 and without any training, he did the sprint triathlon. On Sunday, he completed his first Olympic-distance race. Rooting him on were 12 members of his family and several friends. Family members wore yellow T-shirts emblazoned with individual letters that spelled out G-O D-I-E-G-O.
Ramirez didn’t disappoint. He finished the race under three hours.
