Adam Webber of Denver, Pa., and Kimberly Pancoast of Kirkland, Wash., were the elite age group winners of today’s Hy-Vee 5150 U.S. Championship races in downtown Des Moines.

Webber built a big lead on the swim portion of the race course and held off a challenge from Boulder, Colo., native Karl Kashar to win the men’s division in just over 1 hour and 57 minutes.

“I was running scared,” said Webber, a law enforcement officer who emerged from the 1.5 kilometer swim at Gray’s Lake with a 35-plus second lead over the field.

“I just tried to maintain on the bike and hold on the run,” he said.

Webber will take home $5,150 in prizes and a new Mini Cooper from Willis Auto Campus.

Kashar tried to close the gap on the run leg, and he cut Webber’s lead in half at one point late in the race, “but I ran out of distance.”

“I had a great run; I just couldn’t catch him,” Kashar said. “I really wanted to win that car.”

Pancoast overcame a big lead by last year’s Hy-Vee age group champ, Christine Anderson of Boulder, Colo., to earn victory in the women’s race in just over 2 hours and 16 minutes.

Anderson had defeated Pancoast by two minutes earlier in the season at the Wildflower Triathlon in California.

“I didn’t think there was any way in heck I could catch her,” Pancoast, who will also take home prizes and a car, said. “I had the best swim I ever had, but the bike course was tough. At point I just said, ‘Go for it.’”

Anderson said she knew she would need a big lead going into the 10-kilometer run. She was slowed by foot surgery in December. “I broke it in six places; I got stepped on playing basketball, the 29-year-old said. “I have some screws in there, so I can’t run very well.”

Third place in the women’s division was a blanket finish that apparently went to Hallie Blunck of Mountain Brook, Ala.