Only one other time in the 18-year history of the Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series has an "age grouper" beaten the field of triathletes registered in the open-elite category.

On Sunday, Georgia Tech engineering student Matthew Hoffman — who just started competing in triathlons in April — unknowingly became the second. He didn't know immediately because racing divisions begin the .3-mile swim at James Island County Park in a staggered start, or waves, and times are adjusted accordingly.

"I thought I had a ways to go before I could compete with the elites," admitted the 20-year-old, who ran a blistering fast 5K run in a time of 16 minutes and 52 seconds to clip the first place open-elite competitor by five seconds.

In triathlon, competitors must declare whether they are competing in the open-elite or age group divisions. Only those capable of winning top overall awards tend to compete in the open-elite.

As a result, Hoffman won the less prestigious 20-24 age group award. First place in open-elite went to 39-year-old Brian Fancher, a veteran of 22 years of triathlon competitions.

Fancher moved back to Charleston after retiring from the military in November of 2007 and now works as a project manager at SPAWAR.

Fancher himself pulled out a spectacular run to take the top spot. Trailing Adam Martin by one minute and 43 seconds at the end of the 13-mile bike leg, Fancher ran a second fastest 5K split, at 17:49, to pass Martin and win by a comfortable 39 seconds.

In the women's division, 26-year-old Jenny McDonagh of Mount Pleasant won handily in her first appearance in the sprint series since breaking her back in a tubing accident last summer. Last year, McDonagh won the second triathlon in the series and was poised to compete in a national competition when the accident happened.McDonagh, a nuclear power instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, said recovering from the injury gave her "a new fire" to resume training. It paid off.

Earlier this season, she qualified to represent the Navy at the World Military Triathlon Championships on June 15 in Otepaa, Estonia. She finished 19th out of 35 women, some of whom compete full-time for military teams on a tough European and international circuit.

Sunday's triathlon, the second in the four-race series this summer, featured 314 starters and 309 finishers.

RESULTS

OPEN-ELITE: Male-Brian Fancher 59:36, Adam Martin 1:00:15, Lance Leopold 1:02:39, Rick James 1:03:08, Jim Daniel 1:03:26. Female-Jenny McDonagh 1:03:22, Tracy Dewitt 1:05:35, Tracy McKee 1:05:44. Masters: Male-Jim Daniel 1:02:26. CLYDESDALE: Marty Baltzegar 1:08:32. ATHENA: Pamela Harper 1:33:11.

AGE GROUPS: Masters male-Jody McAuley 1:04:02. Masters female-Nancy Thomas 1:07:30. 15-under-Matthew Halter 1:22:42. Susan Learn 1:14:59. 16-19 - Winston Walker 1:02:59. Carola Conces 1:12:46. 20-24 - Matthew Hoffman 59:29. Tricia Learn 1:10:03. 25-29 - John Watkins 1:03:10. Patricia Kearney 1:12:26. 30-34 - Edmund Hipp 1:05:27. Kim Mendoza 1:07:25. 35-39 - Michael Owens 1:03:28. Melanie Stuart 1:11:24. 40-44 - Bubba Gillis 1:04:12. Laura Dechamplain 1:07:58. 45-49 -Randy Melko 1:04:31. Jodi Joye 1:12:22. 50-54 -Jim Thomas 1:06:26. Janet Bell 1:19:40. 55-59 - Kenneth Hanger 1:10:28. Cathy Burton 1:23:16. 60-64 - Rick Widman 1:28:14. Anne Boone 1:28:44. 65-69 -Marshall Wakat 1:11:23. No female. 70-74 - Donald Blanchard 1:30:25. No female. 75-79 - William Boulter 1:27:27. No female. See complete results at www.rmssports.com or www.charlestontriathlonclub.com.