Local triathlete Dawson Cherry may have to be more careful about handing out training advice to friends.

The 43-year-old exercise physiologist won the third of four sprint triathlons in the Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series on Sunday — his first overall victory in the series — but had to keep a close eye on a good friend and training buddy, Mark Rutledge.

Cherry won with a time of 57 minutes, 16 seconds. Rutledge placed second at 57:56.

Rutledge, 41, was participating in only his second triathlon since 1993.

He was winning the triathlon until the start of the run segment of the event at James Island County Park, which features a .3-mile swim, a 12-mile bike (shorter than usual because of a road project), and a 3.1-mile swim.

"Mark's been riding with me," Cherry said, then laughed. "I think that's going to stop next week."

Rutledge, a former collegiate swimmer and a current age group world champion in the breaststroke, had the fastest swim split, putting nearly a minute and a half on Cherry. Then, Cherry, whose forte is cycling, had the fastest bike split and basically caught up with Rutledge, who had the second fastest bike split.

Cherry took charge on the run with a 5K split of 19:46, compared to Rutledge's 20:27.

"I wanted this one," said Cherry, who finished second in the previous two sprint triathlons in the series and is vying for the series championship on Aug. 12.

In the women's open/elite race, 2005 series champion Tracy Mc-Kee easily took her first win of this summer's series, with a sub-par time for her of 1:05:11. McKee, 34, suffered from fatigue in her third place finish in the first triathlon, which she chalked up to overtraining.

She eased off of training and even skipped her goal race of the season, the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon on July 15.

"Today wasn't easy, but I was killing myself either," McKee said. "I'm just trying to get back into shape."

Even with the lackluster season, McKee is in the driver's seat for the series championship, in part, because no one else will have participated in enough races.

Ironman Hawaii-bound triathlete Patt Loggins will not have done the required three of four triathlons and Jenny McDonagh, who placed second and first in the June 17 and July 8 triathlons, broke her back while tubing behind a boat on July 21. McDonagh is walking, but she must wear a back brace and is expected to take about three months to recover from the accident.

There were 335 finishers on Sunday.

Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series (3rd of 4 races). Results at charlestontriathlonclub.com

OVERALL: Male — Dawson Cherry 57:16, Mark Rutledge 57:56, David Thomas 58:27, Anthony Wallace 58:42, Hugh Myrick 59:33. Female — Tracy McKee 1:05:13, Rachel Kozy 1:10:01. MASTERS: Male — Rick James 1:00:53. Female — Caroline Sinkler 1:11:31. Clydesdale (male 200+ pounds) — Peter West 1:02:56. Athena (female 150+) — Melanie Stuart 1:09:10. AGE GROUPS (top male/female): 15-under — Stephen Harvey 1:04:44. Elizabeth Kovarik 1:24:46. 16-19 — Cameron Dorn 1:02:14. Kristen Thomas 1:13:12. 20-24 — Chris Wright 1:03:08. Eleanor Trefzger 1:10:11. 25-29 — Neil McDonagh 1:00:19. Darby Tucker 1:12:38. 30-34 — Clinton Adams 1:02:03. Victoria Whalen 1:07:39. 35-39 — Michael Owens 1:02:25. Heather Smith 1:08:06. 40-44 — Lance Leopold 1:01:48. Mary Timoney 1:14:05. 45-49 — Steve Stubbs 1:04:58. Susan Lipsey 1:11:37. 50-54 — Tim Wallace 1:06:43. Janet Thiel 1:14:44. 55-59 — Rick Widman 1:10:07 Judy Greenhill 1:23:33. 60-64 — Neil Jacobs 1:15:58. Anne Boone 1:27:25. 65-69 — Keith Douglas 1:16:11. No female. 70-74 — No participants. 75-79 — William Boulter 1:23:24. No female.