Grant Schroeder took home first place in the Semana Nautica Biathlon on Thursday at East Beach.
The biathlon kicked off the 80th Semana Nautica summer sports festival. The festival continues this weekend with the 1-mile and 3-mile ocean swims, the Santa Barbara Open men’s and women’s volleyball tournaments in front of the East Beach Bath House and masters and youth age-group swim meets at Los Baños del Mar pool.
Schroeder, who just graduated from Cal-Berkeley, competed on the school’s triathlon team, which placed third at the national championships during the spring.
He won the biathlon — a nearly four-mile beach run from the Bath House to the Clark Estate bluffs, back to a flag at West Beach and finishing at the Bath House, followed by a mile ocean swim — in 44 minutes and 38 seconds. Santa Barbara High’s Jake Ballantine was second in 46:03, Stepan Paul was third in 48.35 and multi-time champion Jon Clark fourth in 51:02
Schroeder is a Dos Pueblos alum and went on to play collegiate water polo at Cal for two years before switching to triathlon. His whole family was at the beach supporting him (father Richard, mother Dawn and sister Erica). His mom did one of the swims in the Reef and Run Series.
Schroeder was leading the pack of competitors on the run.
“I’ve been working on my running, so I probably pushed that harder today. I’m happy with that,” he said. “Coming back was really nice. After going under the pier, I think I really found my rhythm there. I was right with a guy at the turn-around and was able to engage a gap before hitting the water.”
Schroeder had at least an 80-meter lead, but lost most of it when he retrieved his swim cap and goggle, which he placed high up onto the beach. He was overtaken by one contestant when they entered the water. They swam into a crowd of people doing the Reef and Run event. At that point, Schroeder said: “I put my head down and muscled through it.”
He reclaimed the lead and won going away in his first Semana Nautica biathlon
The first women to finish was Ruby Singh, 17, a Santa Barbara High swimmer and water polo player.
— Noozhawk intern Blythe Hastings can be reached at sports@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawksports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.