Santa Cruz’s Sean Lang runs Western States 100 miler in just over 22 hours

Santa Cruz resident Sean Lang earned his silver belt buckle — and bragging rights — after finishing the Western States 100, an ultramarathon from Squaw Valley to Auburn, on the last weekend in June.

Lang, 33, averaged 13-minute, 20-second miles en route to his overall time of 22:13:24, which was good enough for 76th place out of 316 finishers. He placed 30th in his division.

“Sean has been running ultras (distances ranging from 50k to 100 miles) for 6 years, with a goal of eventually running Western States,” relative Heidi Lang wrote in an email. “Finally getting out there onto the course was a dream come true for him.”

Timothy Olson of Ashland, Ore., won the event [14:46:44] and Ellie Greenwood of Banff, Canada, was the first female finisher [16:47:19] in 14th overall.

Results in this report are from Heidi Lang and www.WS100.com.

– Christina Gullickson, on Twitter @CGullTweets

Capitola’s Steffen Andersen, Santa Cruz’s Tobin Ortenblad take silver at MTB cross country nationals

Two junior racers from Santa Cruz County earned silver, and a handful of other mountain bikers secured top-10 finishes, at the 2012 USA Cycling MTB Cross Country Nationals in Sun Valley, Idaho, on June 5-8.

On the opening day of racing Thursday, Capitola’s Steffen Andersen finished runner-up in the junior men’s Cat 3 15-18 age division, crossing the finish line of the cross country race in 1:51:03. Daniel Riley of Park City, Utah, won in 1:46:16.

And on the closing day Sunday, Santa Cruz’s Tobin Ortenblad [Ritte Elite U23 Development Team] finished runner-up to another Park City product, Keegan Swenson, in short track cross country action. Ortenblad crossed the finish line of the junior men’s Cat 1 15-18 age division race in 31:42.7, and Swenson clocked in at 31:19.4.

Ortenblad also earned a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s junior men’s 18-and-under Super-D for what was his second top-10 finish at nationals following a DNF on Friday. He had a time of 23:06.6. Swenson also won that race, crossing the finish line in 21:57.1.

Ortenblad wasn’t the only Santa Cruz County product to secure two top-10 finishes. Soquel’s Jacob Albrecht [Whole Athlete] also managed the feat with two sixth-place finishes. One was in the junior men’s Cat 1 15-18 age division race, and the other was in the junior men’s Cat 1 17-18 age division race Friday, where he finished in 1:20:56. Swenson [Cannondale Factory Racing] again won, taking that race in 1:17:08.

Several other county racer earned top-10 finishes. They were as follows:

• Santa Cruz’s Loren Gregg placed seventh in the women’s under-23 cross country race[1:44:05]. Fairfax’s Lauren Catlin [Durango Devo] won in 1:32:48.
• Capitola’s Richard Latorraca [unattached] placed 10th in the master men’s 60-64 cross country race, which was won by Montana Velo’s Randy Beckner of Helena, Mont., in 1:52:50.
• Aptos’ Ron Riley [Bike Station Aptos] placed seventh in the master men’s 77-and-over cross country race [3:12:40]. Sun Valley’s Hans Muehlegger [Durance-Colnago] won in 2:10:39.

Results included in this report are from USACycling.com.

– Christina Gullickson, on Twitter @CGullTweets