MONTEREY, Calif. — Bend’s Heather Jackson won the women’s Wildflower Triathlon Experience Long Course Race Saturday with a time of 4 hours, 34 minutes, 45 seconds. The 34-year-old beat Carrie Lester of Cardiff by the Sea, California, by more than four minutes for her fourth win at the triathlon.

Jesse Thomas, 38 and of Bend, who entered the race as the six-time defending men’s champion, finished the 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run in 4:03:18 to place second behind 24-year-old Rodolphe von Berg, a Boulder, Colorado-based triathlete, who won in 4:00:40.

Jackson was in eighth place coming out of the swim, but she took the lead during the bike leg, which she completed in 2:11:36. (The next-fastest cyclist recorded a split of 2:36:12 on the bike course.)

Thomas ran the fastest half marathon of the elite men at 1:17:11, but he could not catch von Berg.

— Bulletin staff report