E3 Endurance athletes Ben Resler, Lucy Eggleston win High Point Sprint Triathlon

E3 Endurance athletes Ben Resler, Lucy Eggleston win High Point Sprint Triathlon
Oak Hollow Lake in High Point provided the venue for the 500-meter swim that kicked off Trivium Racing's High Point Sprint Triathlon (Eddie Wooten photo).

Two of E3 Endurance's top teen athletes claimed their first adult sprint victories in Saturday's High Point Sprint Triathlon.

Ben Resler during the 5K portion of the High Point Sprint Triathlon (photo courtesy of Trivium Racing on Facebook).

Ben Resler, 17, a Cornerstone Charter Academy student from Greensboro, took the men's open division in 58 minutes and 26.4 seconds in Trivium Racing's 500-meter swim, 12.4-mile bicycle ride and 5K run.

Lucy Eggleston during the second discipline of the High Point Sprint Triathlon (photo courtesy of Trivium Racing on Facebook).

And Resler's teammate, 14-year-old Lucy Eggleston of Randleman, won the women's open division in 1:09:32.1. Eggleston attends Greensboro Day School.

Both athletes are among a handful who are coached by E3 Endurance owner Matt Clancy and who performed well Saturday. They've also competed this summer in the USA Triathlon Junior Nationals in West Chester, Ohio.

"Really proud of Ben and Lucy for winning today," Clancy said.

Competitors completing the opening swim of the High Point Sprint Triathlon (photo courtesy of Trivium Racing on Facebook).

Competition at Oak Hollow Marina, which featured 202 finishers in an event sanctioned by USA Triathlon, began about 7:45 a.m. with temperatures in the mid-70s and humidity at nearly 90 percent. While we're accustomed to humidity and August heat, Saturday's combo nevertheless ramped up the challenge.

So a welcome relief in the middle of the two-loop 5K final leg of the triathlon came when Edie Barker, the wife of Triad endurance community favorite Jeff Keezer, and their grandson CJ handed out iced towels to the athletes.

"Those were a game-changer," said Michael O'Dwyer, a Las Vegas resident and no stranger to a very different kind of heat – 87 degrees at 8 a.m. in Vegas, by the way, with 39 percent humidity.

O'Dwyer is a senior vice president of marketing for Wyndham Destinations, and he's in town for the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship. Not only did O'Dwyer take towels all four times on the two-loop 5K course, but he praised Trivium Racing's management of the event and hopes the triathlon will coincide with Greensboro's Wyndham weekend again in 2022.

Besides Resler, men's runner-up Sean Zaidi, 21, competed on E3 Endurance's second-place team at the USA Triathlon High School National Championships in April 2019 in Tempe, Ariz. And third-place finisher Sterling Sharpe, 16, has been a part of Clancy's program since he was 5.

Women's runner-up Amanda Holder is the mother of a 9-year-old, Avery, who is an E3 Endurance athlete and will compete in E3's 7.03 Junior Tri Series finale next weekend.

The High Point Sprint Triathlon's top finishers and their times:

Men's open

1. Ben Resler, 17, Greensboro, 58:26.4

2. Sean Zaidi, 21, Kernersville, 58:37.7

3. Sterling Sharpe, 16, Greensboro, 59:29.6

Women's open

1. Lucy Eggleston, 14, Randleman, 1:09:32.1

2. Amanda Holder, 41, Summerfield, 1:11.31.8

3. Tristan Pike, 29, Winston-Salem, 1:11:35.4

Click here to find and sort full results for the High Point Sprint Triathlon.

Click here to find photos at Trivium Racing's Facebook page.