Mills, Lion Win XTERRA Panther Creek

By Gary Harris, XTERRA Rep

Panther Creek State Park is home to an assortment of wild life, warm fresh water lakes and fast flowing trails; in other words it's the perfect for an XTERRA. Ed, Laura and the gang from River Sports Adventures do have a great venue, add an exceptionally helpful Park Ranger staff; a super enthusiastic local high school cross country team for volunteers, a perfect Tennessee Sunday morning and you have XTERRA paradise. 

Early race day the clouds parted with a sun rise that lit up the Smokey Mountain sky, athletes and their families scurried about the boat launch in anticipation of the day's events. Locals and travelers from all over the south east gathered in transition; bikes shoes, sun block and laughter fill the air.

The swim started with a bang as the hungry crew chased, or shall I say tried to chase, Tennessee's Bruce Gennari the whole way. Bruce was so fast moving through the glassy water he was making waves in a no wake zone. Bruce smoked the swim in 11:20, with William Pirtle almost a minute behind.

Raleigh NC's Alisha Lion torpedoed her way around the swim in 14:11 coming in about six and a half minutes ahead of second place Melanie Black who chased hard on the bike making up six minutes, but in the end just could not hold on.

As the bike cruised on for the men, Montgomery Alabama's Scott Mills and Atlanta's Mark Rudder rolled together like a team; pushing, jeering and cheering each other over Panther Creek's technical climbs and tricky rock gardens. Together the two made up just less than four and a half minutes on Bruce passing him on the second lap and starting the run a mere 32 seconds ahead.

Well, Mills and Rudder awoke something inside of Gennari, some sort of sleeping bear lead chase and caught the duo before the 2 mile marker causing the threesome to race, maneuver, and push for the win.

Now I have been going to, racing and working XTERRA's since 2003. Five years of amazing events in some of the most beautiful places on earth. In all that time I have NEVER seen a finish like this. From 200 yards out you could see Mills, Gennari and Rudder sprinting for the finish line. Each one a contradiction in terms as they drive the pace while stalling to see who was going to make a move.

In the end, the final sprint to the boat ramp finish line Mills held off 2nd place Gennari with third place Rudder all finishing within 2 seconds of each other.

"That was so much fun I want to do it again" said Mills as he cooled off at the foot of the ramp.

"In the end I was flat out and I didn't have any more to give" Gennari said. "My hats off to both Scott and Mark, they could have folded when I caught them on the run, but they didn't.  They hung tough and made it a memorable race.

"Great race, this whole place is a blast" exclaimed rudder.

"That was a classic battle for the XTERRA ages" remarked South East Points Champion Jeff Richards. "That Panther Creek course is a fantastic venue.  The mountain biking was epic and the trail running was perfect."

Thank You Laura.

Thank You Ed.

Huge Thanks to all the Panther Creek Park Rangers.

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