REGION SPORTS | TRIATHLON

With only a month of quality summer weather remaining, the triathlon season currently is in full swing.

About 120 local athletes competed in two different events on Saturday.

Just across the border in Michigan, 23 area residents completed a grueling half Ironman event, the Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon in St. Joseph. The Steelhead serves as a qualifier for a national half Ironman championship event later this year in Florida.

Mike Pontrelli, 39, of Valparaiso led the local contingent finishing the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 50 seconds. His time was about seven minutes slower than last year, but Pontrelli wasn't too disappointed considering he had back surgery in December.

"I can count my blessings from that side," Pontrelli said Sunday from his home, where he was resting his sore muscles. "I could not be doing triathlons this year."

Pontrelli, who swam collegiately at Eastern Illinois University, cruised through the swim in just over 30 minutes. However, he encountered some problems on the bike about 30 miles into the ride.

"I had a minor wipeout when my spare tire almost got caught in my spokes," Pontrelli said. "I hit some sand and fell over."

The pesky spare continued to be a problem, so he simply rolled it up and put it in his shirt for the rest of the way.

"It was kind of comical," Pontrelli said.

He finished 159th overall out of 1,789 finishers and was 29th out of 289 in the 35-39 age group.

Pontrelli, along with several others from the area, is training for a new Ironman event Aug. 26 in Louisville.

Munster's William Hasse, 51, was the second local finisher, in 4:57:39. He was 205th overall, and was fifth out of 82 in the 50-54 age group.

Chesterton's Cassandra Rozycki was the first area woman, placing 697th in 5:35:11. Valpo mayor Jon Costas was 917th in 5:49:21.

Back in Indiana, nearly 100 local athletes competed in the 28th annual LaPorte Triathlon. That event is considered a sprint triathlon, with distances of 1/4-mile (swim), 12.4 miles (bike) and 3.3 miles (run).

Chris Wickard of Crown Point was the overall women's winner for the third consecutive year. A native of LaPorte, Wickard's winning time was 1:03:45, good enough for ninth place overall.

She also won the Valpo Triathlon in mid-July.

Among other finishers were Valpo's Kirk Martin, 41, who was 17th overall in 1:05:37. He won the men's 40-44 age division which had 39 competitors.

Former Chesterton cross country star Matt Keane was 19th overall in 1:05:47, and 2006 Times Athlete of the Year Sarah Kehe of Chesterton was the second overall female in 1:06:49.

One other local age group winner was Al Mussman, 51, of Ogden Dunes. He won the 50-54 age group in 1:05:47, good enough for 18th overall.