By the way, I didn't even know they had state championships for triathlon, which I really don't mean as an insult. I'm just pointing out that that's a bit of an odd thing to hang your hat on. Given the nature of triathlon, especially in the US, most every championship level triathlete came into the game as a novice, unless they are racing on the ITU circuit.
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Reply:

I had the impression that BarryP is/was a high school track coach, and is not a triathlon coach. You've assessed his "level" but don't know who he is? I don't care either way, but your post jumped out as nasty, and now an interesting thread is probably dead.