Piersanti relay team competes in triathlon

Unfortunately, Vince Piersanti saw one of his big fears become reality Saturday when he took a spill on his recumbent cycle during in the Pyramid Lake Triathlon. Fortunately, that didn't prevent the 23-year-old Carson City man from achieving his ultimate goal to finish the 12-mile leg during the triathlon relay race.

For Piersanti, it was the first athletic competition since he sustained life-threatening injuries in a 2001 automobile accident, and he finished the 12-mile cycling leg in a time of 59 minutes.

"I fell down and crashed, so my time was not as fast as I would have liked," Piersanti said. "It wasn't anything serious, just some scrapes and cuts."

His teammates competed well in the race: Joyce Keith finished the half-mile swim in less than 17 minutes and Tony Piersanti finished the three-mile run in 21 minutes.

Piersanti, who was Dayton High School's Athlete of the Year in 1998-99, was in a coma for three weeks after his accident in the fall of 2001. Now, he's even ready to try another race.

"I found where there's another triathlon near Sonora in California in October," Piersanti said. "I'm going to see if Joyce and my brother want to do that one. I think I will do better next time with a little more experience."