Montana's Hoffman Outrides the Field; Cal Dominates Men's Team Competition

By Brain Metzler
Staff Writer

Sparks, NV (April 22) — Training in the hills and mountains near Missoula, Montana, has given Ben Hoffman huge quads. On Saturday at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships, he had those pistons pumping at full speed.

Several months of arduous training in cold weather paid off for Hoffman on Saturday, when the University of Montana senior brought won the modified national championship duathlon race at Sparks Marina just east of Reno.

Because of cold water and air temperatures, race officials decided to remove the 1.5K swim portion of the race and replace it with a 3K run. The rest of the course included the original 40K bike and 10K run.

Hoffman would have preferred to do the race with the swim, especially because he and his teammates had been swimming in 45-degree Franktown Pond in recent weeks.

"I would have been in the mix, but I don't want to speculate how I would have done," he said. "But I'm not complaining because it worked out pretty well for me."

Hoffman, a senior Spanish major, started conservatively on the first run, but then really poured it on during the bike leg. He took the lead early on the bike and was never challenged the rest of the way after clocking the fastest bike split (1:00:53) of the day.

Although Hoffman had a big lead, Justin Laue of Cal-Berkeley, one of the fastest runners in the field, was hot on his tail. But Hoffman ran fast enough (37:35) during the 10K that a mad dash to the finish line wasn't necessary.

Laue, a senior majoring in political economics, finished 17 seconds back in second place (1:46:29) after running a blazing 33:09 10K.

"I think if there was another 1K, I would have caught him," says Laue, who finished 26th at last year's Collegiate National Championships in Lake Havasu, Arizona. "My goal on the bike was to stay with the lead pack and to see where they were going and what they were doing. I knew if I was with the main pack coming out of T2, I'd be able to pick it up and do really well."

Laue led a 2-3-4 finish by California athletes as James Duff placed third in 1:47:29 and John Dahlz was fourth in 1:48:51. That trio gave the Bears a team score of 9 points, one of the lowest ever in the collegiate championships, and easily clinched the 2006 men's team title.

Runner-up Montana totaled 19 points behind Hoffman's win, Adam Jensen's sixth- place finish and a 12th-place showing from Brendan Halpin. Montana got some consolation by winning the overall co-ed title.

This year's collegiate championships featured a record turnout, with more than 700 athletes representing 50 schools.

The race might have turned out completely different had the swimming section remained in the race, but that's the nature of triathlon in the springtime. Last year's race in Arizona was marred by big rainstorms.

"I was bummed for the team that we didn't have a swim, because I think our team might have been even stronger," Laue said. "But personally, I'm more of a duathlete, so I think it benefited me better."

Catch the action from all of the events on several College Sports TV and CBS platforms beginning April 30 as part of the CSTV Collegiate Nationals, a collection of college championship events showcasing more than 2,000 athletes from more than 40 colleges. Seven sports are included in the inaugural Collegiate Nationals — boxing, snowboarding, beach volleyball, triathlon, paintball, wakeboarding and whitewater kayaking.

CSTV Networks Inc. is the leading digital sports media company, connecting more fans to more college sports than any other company. Its many platforms for programming distribution include CSTV: College Sports TV, televising regular season and championship events for 35 men's and women's college sports; CSTV.com and its network of nearly 250 official athletic sites; CSTV All Access, broadband subscription packages providing live audio and video of more than 7,000 events annually; as well as satellite television and radio, in-flight entertainment, wireless networks and more. In November, CBS announced plans to acquire the company in January 2006. For more information, go to www.CSTV.com.

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