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Brown wins women's triathlon race

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POLSON - Two- hours, 10-minutes and fifty-seconds is all it took for triathlete Joel Bischoff to outpace thirty-seven other competitors and secure the overall victory during Saturday’s 2019 Polson Triathlon. 

Bischoff swam approximately one-mile in the open, choppy water of Flathead Lake; biked twenty-five miles through scenic Valley View roads in headwinds gusting upwards of fifteen miles per hour; and ended with a six-mile run through the streets of Polson.

As a member of the Air Force Triathlon Team, Bischoff competes yearly during the World Military Triathlon Championships as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces Triathlon Team and finished the 2017 Polson Triathlon as the top male competitor. 

Bischoff’s time was a little more than eight minutes faster than the 02:19:20 time of overall runner up Jake Windauer. With a time of 02:22:14 Michael Windauer was third, fourth place went to Sam Nelson with a time of 02:23:19, and with a time of 02:23:41 Ed Eberhardy claimed fifth place. 

In the women’s race, Polson’s very own Jenni Brown outdistanced the competition by nearly fifteen minutes for the win with a time of 02:44:34.

“I kind of can’t believe I won it this year,” said Brown. “For so many years, I have trained hard for this event just to end up in third place.” 

Nicole Baker claimed second with a time of 02:59:10. Rounding out the top five lady finishers were Casey Teska with third, Guerin Platte in fourth and Bonnie Doerfler in fifth.

Along with earning bragging rights as this year’s overall top male and female competitors, both Bischoff and Brown won cash prizes of $500. 

Proceeds from the Polson triathlon are used to support numerous community organizations. The Polson High School cross country team was this year’s beneficiary. “Our team worked all the aid stations and cheered on the runners,” said Brown, who is also a coach for the cross-country squad. “It was fun to be in the reverse situation where I was in the race and they were cheering me on.” 

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