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Triathlon Team Looks to Maintain Streak
By Adam Hodges
Domination. There is no better word to describe the CU triathlon team’s hold on the national collegiate triathlon championship. On May 7, another strong Buffalo squad aims to swim-bike-run their way to an amazing five-peat at nationals and a sixth national title since 1994.
The Buffs lost last year’s individual men’s and women’s champions—Teri Duthie and Nick Cady—to graduation. Both Duthie and Cady will be moving up to the professional ranks this season.
However, graduate student Beth Anderson, who finished second in last year’s women’s race in just her first season in the sport, will head out to the Wildflower Triathlon this year with a wealth of experience under her belt including a strong showing at the 1999 Hawaii Ironman World Championships. Anderson will anchor a CU team that will rely on its depth to bring home another championship.
A contingent of seventy five team members will make the journey to the Wildflower Triathlon held at Lake San Antonio in central California. The journey is a logistical challenge almost greater than the actual race. Due to awkward timing in the middle of finals, team members will fly out while their bikes will be loaded into the back of two trailers and hauled to the race site by a handful of members leaving early.
Once at Lake San Antonio, the Buffs will take on rivals Cal-Poly, UC-Santa Barbara, Northern Arizona, and a fast University of Arizona team keen on stealing the national title from CU. The race is contested over an Olympic distance course—1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run—with team scores determined by adding the times of each school’s top three men and top three women finishers.
According to team president Gretchen Keisling, “The team is training with the confidence to win for a fifth straight year.” To prepare for that potential win, several members of the team spent their spring break at Lake San Antonio training on the course. For this group of triathletes, winning a national championship has become a rite of spring.
The triathlon team holds meetings every Tuesday at 7:00 in Hellems 252. Meetings are open to the public and feature speakers that include top world-class triathletes and coaches living in Boulder. More information can be found on the triathlon team web site.
* This article appeared in the Colorado Daily (April 13, 2000).