HARVEYS LAKE — Thomas Doran missed a buoy on his swim, accidentally adding about 200 yards to his leg. Then, a lost straw rendered his water bottle essentially useless on the bike ride.
It didn’t really seem to matter for the 19-year-old, who shattered the course record on his way to a Back Mountain Triathlon victory.
Doran’s final time of 1:58.42 cleared the record set last year by over six minutes, making his triathlon debut a day to remember as he cleared the rest of the Men’s Olympic course field to win on Sunday.
“It was really stressful,” Doran joked, referring to his missing straw and his accidental detour in the lake. “I kept feeling like there was someone right behind me, so I kept putting on and on. … I went all out.”
Doran finished nearly seven minutes ahead of the field, with second-place finisher Chris Hetro reaching the finish line in 2:05.40. Matthew Martino took third place with a time of 2:08.45.
No stranger to swimming for distance, Doran finished sixth in the state in the 500 freestyle his junior year at Dallas, and he swims the mile at the collegiate level.
It certainly paid off, as Doran managed to turn in a swim time of 21:23 despite the missed buoy. He had a solid lead out of the water, and only added to it over the course of the bike ride and the run.
In total, 71 men clocked in at the finish line to complete the Men’s Olympic Triathlon on Sunday. The youngest was 16-year-old Jack Kashatus; the oldest was Sid Halsor, who finished in 3:09.16 at the age of 69.
The field featured a good mix of ages and of experience level; Doran wasn’t the only competitor making their triathlon debut in the Back Mountain this weekend.
“My dad and my Uncle Joe, they’ve been doing triathlons for probably the last 30 years,” said Angelo Zarola, completing his first triathlon at the ripe old age of 20. “I made it my goal this summer, I wanted to do it.”
Zarola, from Dallas, has a background as a runner already, so he put in the work to nail down his swimming and biking in order to tackle the Back Mountain Triathlon.
In his first time tackling an Olympic distance, Zarola turned in a time of 3:17.39, which earned him a third-place finish in the Male 20-24 age group behind Trevor Grohowski and Chris Hadsall.
“I was joking with my dad that I spent more time at the gym this summer than I did at my house,” Zarola said. “I had a lot of fun — I’d do it again next weekend if I could.”
With another shot at the Back Mountain course likely in his future, Zarola could certainly be part of a triathlon youth movement that Bass has been hoping to see, and he won’t be alone.
Doran will be back in 2025, gunning to beat his own record and continue adding hardware to his triathlon trophy case. When next year’s race rolls around, Doran still won’t be old enough to legally drink, or to rent a car if need be.
But as everyone learned on Sunday, he’s not too young to win the Back Mountain Triathlon.
“This is such a supportive triathlon community,” Doran said. “This is a good place to get into the sport.”
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