By Mike Reeder
Contributing Writer

The third time proved a charm for hometown favorite Travis Decker, who won Sunday’s Small Texan Triathlon at Boerne City Lake on his third try while dominating a 200-plus field that included many older and more experienced athletes.

The incoming Boerne-Samuel V. Champion High School senior’s time of 2:07:58 was more than four minutes faster than his nearest competitor and nine minutes faster than his time at last year’s race, when he finished second overall. Decker had finished sixth overall and first in his age group when he first ran the Small Texan in 2006.

This time, the 18-year-old Decker led from wire-to-wire. For all practical purposes, everyone else was competing for second place after Decker emerged from the first leg of the event with a two-minute advantage following a 9:54 time in the half-mile swim. He stretched his lead with a blistering 1:17:24 in the 30-mile bike leg and completed the race with a number one time of 40:12 in the 6.2-mile run.

“I knew I had a pretty good lead after the swim so I just pounded the bike as hard as I could,” Decker said. “Then I just sort of hung on. Coming off the first turn in the run I started to get dizzy in the heat so I had to tone it down a little.”

Decker has competed for Team USA at two world championships since running his first Small Texan Triathlon as a fresh-faced 16-year-old in 2006.

He went into this year’s world triathlons in Vancouver as the number-one seed in his age division after winning the national qualifier in Alabama and plans to compete in the national championships in Colorado Springs on Aug. 7, assuming he can raise enough money for the trip.

Decker’s ultimate goal is the 2012 Olympics. When he crossed the finish line Sunday morning at Boerne City Lake, the public address announcer called him the “future of triathlon” in the United States. Despite his already impressive accomplishments, Decker said competing and winning his hometown triathlon remained one of his top goals.

“The world championships are first, but I can’t think of any other race I’d rather run than the Small Texan,” Decker said.

Youth was also served in the Small Texan’s women’s division, as 21-year-old Trinity University student-athlete D’Ann Arthur finished better than 2 minutes in front of three-time defending women’s division champion Julie Mosier Crosno. Arthur also finished fourth overall while the 37-year-old Crosno took sixth in the overall standings.

“I knew Julie was 40 seconds ahead of me coming out of the water,” said Arthur, a member of Trinity’s cross country team and the 2007 Division III South/Southeast Regional Runner of the Year. “Somehow I passed her on the run, around mile two or three, and then I just kept building a lead.”

“The pressure’s off now,” Crosno said with a laugh after seeing her winning streak snapped.

“She’s young so I guess that’s going to happen. I think this was actually my best time, but she just had a great run. We just love this race. When you look at the overall (standings), we both finished in the top six with the boys, which is really good.” Arthur finished with an overall time of 2:15:32 to Crosno’s 2:17:59.

David Benac, who graduated from Boerne High School this spring, finished 10th overall with a total time of 2:24:57. Benac completed the swim in 11:55, the bike ride in 1:29:24 and the run in 42:59.