It's all downhill from here!

After a mid-summer break, the series picked back up with the Hoot Lake Triathlon, and things are shaping up for a great race to the finish.

David Jensen reclaimed the top spot after a second place finish that had him swapping places with the 2013 second place Hoot Lake finisher Matthew Burrell. Fargo athlete Sam Petersen finds himself in a Jensen sandwich, as he slips to second place in the series, nine points behind Dave and 30 ahead of a rapidly-gaining Nathan.

Petersen leads a group of strong competitors (Larry Bethel, Jacob Gustafson, and Craig Knodle, among others) who are a perfect 4/4 in series attendance, which means that races 5 and 6 are gravy on top for them, as they will now receive bonus points for future events attended, and any higher score earned at either the Viking Challenge or Turkey Trot will replace a lower score received in a previous race.

On the women's side of the ledger, it's a four-way race between Amanda Wach, Debbie Wellman, Renae Sell-Lindgren and Nicole Kjesbo. Sell-Lindgren slipped from her position at the top of the leaderboard to third place after opting to participate as part of a team, while Wach, Wellman, and Kjesbo all turned in strong individual performances to make this a tight race. It's anybody's game, as only 14 points separate these four ladies.

The next series event is the Viking Challenge and Crusade on September 20. Are you looking to super-charge your points? The Viking Challenge is our 2 in 1 event! If you register for, and finish, both the 10k (8:00 a.m. start) and the 5k (10:00 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. wave starts), you will receive points for both events! Note, however, that the Viking Challenge still only counts as one race towards your four race series total.