Travis Mecklenburg and Logan Mynar pulled away from the field around Goodyear Lake and took the pro-class title by nearly three minutes as the 63rd General Clinton Regatta field made the best of shallow water and rainy conditions Sunday, May 24.
Mecklenburg, 23, from Grayling, Mich., and Mynar, 34, from New Braunfels, Texas, finished in 7:46:36, almost three minutes better than Michael Davis and Guillaume Blais, last year’s winners, who finished in 7:49:8.
“It was kind of a packed race until about Goodyear,” Mecklenburg said in an interview with Paddler Media. “That’s pretty typical for this race. We had a good portage at Goodyear and were able to create a gap. We were able to get a bit of a gap, not much, but we carried that down to the next dam at Southside. We kind of put a little more (distance) there and just kept going.”
Mount Upton native Ryan Zaveral and his partner Weston Willoughby placed third in 7:50:46.
“We were all together. They everyone separated once we put it,” Zaveral told Paddler Media. “Trav and Logan put in first, so they kind of got away from us. We saw them in sight for a while.”
Mecklenburg and Mynar said they plan to continue to paddle together, and will take on the second leg of the paddling triple crown, the AuSable River Marathon, in Michigan in late July.
The Mixed Division was won by Eve Chamberland and Vincent Bellemare from Quebec in 8:16:35.
The Women’s Division was won by Rebecca Davis and Cecili Bugge from Michigan in 8:28:53, topping their Michigan rivals, Mary Schlimmer-Willoughby and Mandy Trudgeon, who finished in 8:34:48.
The C4 Endurance Class was won in 7:57:33 by team Four Banger, Kyle Stonehouse, Richard Lauth, Sean Brabant and Jason Sharpe, who are all from Michigan. They beat a local team, ZRE/Table Rock Fitness, Bob Zaveral, John Young, Melissa Swislosky and Jeff Shultis, who placed second in 8:27:13.
The C4 Stock Endurance Class was won in 8:17:08 by Ripple FX H2O, Chris Prater, Dean Brown, Keir Johnston and David Johnston, who are all from Ontario.
In the C1 Pro class, Michael Schlimmer from Cortland won in 8:56:30, topping locals Zachary Craft from Unadilla (8:59:24) and Steve Bachorik from Hartwick (8:59:24).
The Hermannators from Oneonta, Steve Herrmann and Valerie Maddalone won the Mixed/Women NYMCRA Stock Endurance in 10:12:10.
The Men’s NYMCRA Stock Endurance class also went to local winners, as Team Wells Bridge, Jeff Newman from Unadilla, and Dale Beckwith from Sidney, won in 9:23.38. They beat out Team WCDO, Nate Lull and Brett Sherwood, who placed second in 9:32:43.
In the Open Stock Aluminum Endurance class, Team Penobscot, Chip Loring and Rick Gause, won in 10:33:57. Second place went to Cooperstown’s Colliers, father Steve Collier and son Todd Collier, who finished in 11:32:04.
The Griffin Fisher Touring Open Endurance class, was won by locals, as the Mud Shovlers, Gunner Ives from Bainbridge and Zachary Wheeler from Sidney finished in 10:03:33.
The Amateur Mixed Endurance class was won by Dean Coulson and Audra Nicholson from Ontario in 8:57:05.
The Men’s Amateur Endurance class was won by Dennis Carey and Kyle Simmington from Massachusetts.
Alex Ciampa from Massachusetts won the Kayak Endurance class in 9:52:54.
The 50 and over Endurance class was won by Brayton Palmer of Greenfield Center in 9:23:44, while the 50 and under was won by Zane Baker from Pennsylvania in 9:26:33.
Go to www.canoeregatta.org/race-results.php to see the full results.