The Gator Bait Triathlon combines three events, but this year’s edition was all about a couple.

The husband and wife team of Joey and Casey Lee swept the podium in the Olympic distance triathlon, winning the men’s and women’s titles with ease Saturday in the eighth annual Gator Bait Triathlon at Eagle Lake.

Joey Lee won the men’s division with a time of 2 hours, 19 minutes and 3 seconds. He won the overall title for the second time in three years. Casey Lee won the women’s title in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 36 seconds, for her second consecutive championship. She’s been either first or second in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. She did not compete in the race in 2013.

Both Lees said they saw each other during the race, and when they realized they were leading it pushed them to go a little faster. This was the first time both of them have won the Gator Bait in the same year.

“When I saw her running, I saw a gap between her and the next female and thought that’s great,” Joey Lee said. “That was neat to be alongside her on the podium.”

The spouses from Madison both led throughout the race, which is comprised of a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bicycle ride, and a 10-kilometer run.

Joey Lee had a different challenger during each phase of the race. Vicksburg’s Chip Fields came out of the water first, three seconds ahead of Lee, but faded during the bike segment and wound up finishing 25th out of 38 competitors.

Another Vicksburg resident, Joe Giambrone, pushed Lee during the bike and was 30 seconds behind heading into the run. Giambrone posted a slow run split of nearly 53 minutes, however, and fell to fourth with a total time of 2:24:27.

Lee also struggled in the run, posting a split of 48 minutes even. That allowed Trevor Galicki of Jackson to close the gap. Galicki had a blazing fast run time of 40:30, but was too far behind to catch up. Lee crossed the finish line two minutes ahead of Galicki.

Galicki finished in 2:21:02.

“I could see how fast he was running when he made the turn, and I was trying to make sure he didn’t run me down,” Lee said.

Casey Lee had a much easier time than her husband. She came out of the water with a two-minute lead on runner-up Erica Pedersen of Brandon, and increased it to 10 minutes on the bike. Her run split of 56:26 was only the third-fastest among all competitors, but still plenty good enough to win easily.

Lee’s winning time was 8 minutes and 10 seconds ahead of Pedersen. Vicksburg’s Lisa Burkhalter was third, in 2:48:42, and Kristi Hall was fourth in 2:49:16.

Lee was happiest with her overall time — five minutes faster than last year.

“It was a good bit faster than last year. It’s always exciting dropping time,” she said.