April 20, 2008 (Wenatchee, WA) – The US XC Ski Team’s Torin Koos from Leavenworth, Washington defended his Ironman title winning the 5-sport Ridge to River Run in 2 hours and 7 minutes last weekend over Darrell Sofield of Bellingham who was 15 minutes back. Cora Sturzl of Malaga took the women’s race in 2:48.02 over Jolene Gosselin of Rock Island at 2:54.18. The event features downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, running, biking and paddling.

Koos recently won silver at the 50km classic at the 2008 USSA Distance Nationals. “I used to be a runner but I don’t run much now, and it’s really hard on me to run downhill like that,” said Koos in a Wenatchee World report. “I get really cramped up and stuff so I have to kind of throttle it back a little bit and run more conservative than I’d like on the downhill instead of really letting it rip.

Koos plans to be back to defend his title in 2009. “It’s a pretty cool event in that it tests everything. There’s people that can ski, there’s people that can bike and run, but to have someone that can ski, bike and run, and then paddle on top of that, really it’s the ultimate test.”

For the Wenatchee World report.