July 15,2009 - Wednesday Night Racing

Madison! Need I say more? Tonight the Madison (aka – Tag Team) Champions received their belts – the racing was a lot of fun and the events are exciting, mainly because of the relay pushes. The Madison is only contested by the Cat 1 and 2 skaters.

Cat 2
With Andrew Hansen and Doug Hansen winning the first Madison of the evening in a commanding fashion – it appeared as though the Championship was already decided going into the last event. However, the longer relay distance took its toll on the pair and they we faded to second at the hands of John Schulte and Greg Miller. With the top two teams tied in points officials needed to invoke the rule a standing rule that states – “In the event of a tie in points, the tie is broken by the athlete or team with the highest place finish in the longest distance contested”. That being said, the winners were the team of John Schulte and Greg Miller. They were awarded the first ever Tag Team Championship presented at the John Rose Oval by some lovely podium girls!

Cat 1
The Cat 1 races were over the same distance as the Cat 2’s (4000m and 6000m). The race format is the same as well: all skaters start at the same start line, all skaters must stay on the race track (don’t go in the warm-up lane or the inner oval), all skaters must skate in a counter clock wise direction, and relay tags are permitted at anytime. Next season a rule change is proposed so that the Madison partners are permitted to start on the opposite side of the track (across from the start line). The Madison is a relay event – teams are encouraged to arrange their pair well before race day and practice their exchanges. Next season there will be specific Madison practices at the oval to prepare for this event. The first event saw some changes in team pairings with David Sarmiento (Adams Inline) working with Paul Meyering (Team Aloe-up), this was a change for both David and Paul. The 6000m event was the most thrilling. The pair of Danny and Mike opened up a large gap and the race for second place between Sarmiento/Meyering and the Pierce duo of Tony Fiorillo and Ovid Westin was very exciting. Tony and Ovid had gotten a about 50m on Sarmiento/Meyering – then with about 600m to skate – Sarmiento stayed on the track and passed on an tag and closed the gap for the second place win. Great strategy by the Adam’s/Aloe-up team! The team of Mike Anderson and Danny Frederick won both races and were awarded the Championship Belts (it is possible that Danny is still wearing his).

Women / Rec
It was great to see Carla Langenthal in town and competing at the oval. She is normally only here when there is ice, so it was great to see her in shorts and a t-shirt! She is training is Milwaukee with the Swift team (www.swiftspeedskating.com). No big surprise here though, Kari kicked everyone’s butt.

Junior
There were two new racers out this week and we hope to see them again next time.

Races continue next week with Match Sprints and Miss and Outs. Only two weeks left so get to the oval!