Four summers ago, Ashley Ackerman competed in his first triathlon — a Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series race.

The former Georgetown resident, who now lives in Charlotte, considers it his "hometown triathlon" and has competed in at least one every year, partly as a benchmark race. Sunday's race proved he's come a long way.

The 30-year-old not only won his first CSTS race but set the fastest time, so far, in the first three of four in this summer's series. Ackerman finished in a time of 56 minutes, 48 seconds — more than a minute faster than second-place finisher, Czech native and Savannah resident Radek Parnica.

Ironically, Ackerman didn't care about his splits during the race. He didn't wear a watch.

"I was just racing for place," says Ackerman. "A lot of time, you get caught up with your time and it ruins your race."

Ackerman came out of the .3-mile swim as the fourth male, caught everyone during the 13-mile bike ride and put an exclamation point on his performance by running five kilometers in 17:32, the fastest run split of the day among a record participant field of 340.

Meanwhile, among females, Navy nuclear instructor Jenny McDonagh won her second of two triathlons in the series with a time of 1:02:37 — not only the fastest females of this year's series but also good enough for 11th place overall.

McDonagh has emerged as the top female triathlete in Charleston this summer after coming off an international military triathlon earlier this summer, and after breaking her back in a boating accident last summer.

Another performance of note was by Dawson Cherry, his first triathlon since getting hit by a car while leading the Kiawah Island Triathlon last September. Cherry, 44, of Mount Pleasant, finished fourth overall with a time of 1:00:33. He plans to compete in the fourth and final race Aug. 10.

Race director Paul King had to disqualify one participant for drafting behind another cyclist. Since a controversy arose in the first race, King has made sure draft marshals were on the course in the second and third events. The competitor was warned first about the drafting, but continued to do it and was reported to King.