Annapolis resident Brian Hetherington led a team that performed extremely well in the Race Across America, an annual endurance cycling event.
Hetherington served as captain and lead organizer for Team One Life, which set a Race Across America record in the four-person mixed, 55-59 age group. Other members of the team were Rick Phelan (Waxahachie, Texas) along with the husband-wife duo of Amy Hite and Dave Lundberg (Cottage Grove, Minnesota).
That foursome completed the 3,061-mile race with an adjusted time of 6 days 12 hours and 11 minutes. They posted an average speed of 19.62 MPH, beating the previous record of 19.4 MPH.
Team One Life finished fourth out of 11 four-person teams. They were beaten by three all male teams, two of which competed in the under-50 age group.
“We were extremely pleased with our performance. Our team consisted entirely of rookies. None of the riders or crew had previously done the Race Across America,” Hetherington said. “We realized when we were halfway across the country that the team was on a record pace, so we kept pushing.”
This year’s Race Across America started as usual in Oceanside, California, on June 15. However, this year’s race finished in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after previously concluding in downtown Annapolis.
Hetherington lives off Generals Highway, roughly 1 mile from the Rams Head Roadhouse, which was the final time stop for the Race Across America when it finished in Annapolis. After learning more about the event, he was determined to compete.
Hetherington grew up in Montgomery County and was a cross country and middle distance runner at Quince Orchard. He continued his cross country/track and field career at Georgia Tech.
After moving to the Annapolis area, Hetherington joined the Severn Sailing Association and began racing Snipe and Laser designs. He pulled back on sailing a few years back to pursue endurance sports and became a member of the Sheehy Lexus triathlon team, completing the Ironman Arizona last September.
Hetherington serves on the board of directors for the Special Love organization that supports children with cancer and their families. After deciding to enter a team in the 2024 Race Across America, he designated Special Love as the fundraising beneficiary.
“It was important to me that we were doing something to inspire kids,” said Hetherington, noting that Team One Life was able to donate $55,000 to Special Love.
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It cost an equal amount to fund the race campaign and the largest sponsor of Team One Life was Bion Mechanical. Local sponsors included Sheehy Lexus and Bike Doctor Arnold, the latter of which primarily provided replacement parts.
Hetherington is trained by Alyssa Godesky of Biscay Coaching. Godesky, a Severna Park native who is a professional endurance athlete, agreed to serve as crew chief for the campaign.
All four members of Team One Life got together in Minnesota this past September for a training camp of sorts and to make sure they got along and were aligned in terms of goals.
“In talking to people who had done the Race Across America, the consistent advice was to find a team that would work well together. We were fortunate to have great chemistry and camaraderie among the four riders,” Hetherington said.
Race Across America, which was first held in 1982, has been described as the world’s toughest bicycle race and annually attracts top-tier talent. Hetherington noted that many of the participating teams consist entirely of professional endurance athletes.
“I’m a competitive and serious athlete, but I’m not a professional,” he said. “We weren’t entering just to finish the race, but at the same time winning wasn’t the sole goal.”
Race Across America is essentially a complex relay with the team of riders on the road 24 hours a day from start to finish. Team One Life divided into groups of two with Hetherington paired with Phelan. Each group takes shifts of four to six hours with each rider giving maximum effort for 20- to 30-minute sessions.
“If you want to be competitive it all comes down to pace,” Hetherington said. “We had a strong group of riders that did a tremendous job of hitting our goal of averaging 20 MPH.”
Hetherington said one of the most difficult portions of the race came in western Kansas when the riders had to deal with 30 MPH crosswinds. It was so grueling that each rider had to reduce their shift to less than 20 minutes to maintain optimal speed.
Annapolis resident Ted Morgan was one of 10 members of the support crew, serving as the transfer vehicle driver and team photographer.
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Team USA members
USA Lacrosse recently announced the roster for the women’s under-20 national team as well as the initial training team for the U20 men’s squad.
Severn resident Kori Edmonson was one of 22 players selected to represent the United States in the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s Under-20 Championships, being held in Hong Kong from Aug. 15-24. The McDonogh graduate is one of 11 midfielders on the team.
Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller will direct the American squad, which is seeking its sixth gold medal after previously winning the tournament in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019 when it was an under-19 event.
Edmondson just completed her sophomore season at Maryland and was a repeat selection as second team All-Big Ten Conference. She started all 20 games and ranked second on the team with 38 goals, after scoring 41 as a freshman.
Meanwhile, Navy faceoff specialist Zach Hayashi was among 42 players to receive a training camp invitation for the U.S. under-20 men’s national team. Hayashi made the cut after participating in a three-day tryout held recently at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks.
Four faceoff specialists will be vying to make the final Team USA roster with Hayashi battling with Sean Creter (Maryland), Griff Meyer (Virginia) and Brady Wambach (North Carolina).
Hayashi is coming off a sensational freshman season when he set the Navy single-season record with 214 faceoff wins. The McDonogh graduate was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year after ranking second in the conference and 18th nationally with a .575 winning percentage.
The North Potomac resident also set a single-season school record by gobbling up 105 ground balls.
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Drive for show
Kyle Berkshire won the Rocky Mountains stop of the World Long Drive Tour, unleashing an absolute bomb when the pressure was on.
Berkshire only put one drive on the grid, but it was the longest of the contest. The Crofton native unleashed a 450-yard drive on his second-to-last attempt to earn his first victory of the 2024 season.
Berkshire, the world’s top-ranked long driver, averaged 432 yards per drive on the grid in beating eighth-ranked Jack Smith in the final held at Bigfoot Turf Farms in LaSalle, Colorado. The Archbishop Spalding product also beat Kolton Castro and Joseph Kavanaugh en route to the title.
Pasadena power
Martin Wolfe delivered an impressive performance in just his second powerlifting competition. The Pasadena resident set several state records in capturing the championship of the 220-pound weight class of the Master’s 50-59 age division.
Wolfe put up 281 pounds in the bench press and 385 pounds in the deadlift, both of which are new Maryland records for that weight class and age category. The Department of Defense employee at Fort Meade trains in the basement gym of Severna Park resident Cecil Woodard, a fellow powerlift competitor who holds three state records in the 90-kilogram class for the 75-79 age group.