Triathletes take training to national championships

Swimming, bicycling and running; each activity alone can wear

out an average individual. The CSU Triathlon Team does all three,

and its members do it for the pride of CSU.

The male and female athletes of the CSU Triathlon Team trained

all year for the opportunity to compete in the Collegiate National

Championships Triathlon Race in Lake Havasu, Ariz.

The national championships featured 21 schools, from the

University of Florida to the University of Hawaii, as well as all

three military academies.

The triathlon kicks off with a swim of 1,500 meters (0.93

miles). Once the athletes fight through the crashing waves made by

the other competitors they climb out of the water and mount a

bicycle. The bicycle race ensues for the next 40 kilometers (24.85

miles) and finally, when the bike drops, the footrace begins for

the final stretch of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles).

When all competitors had crossed the finish line, the team from

the University of Colorado had finished first.

CSU’s Cortino Garcia finished at the top of CSU tri-athletes at

35th out of the 535 athletes completing with a time of 2 hours, 6

minutes, 22 seconds. Nine other CSU tri-athletes filed sporadically

through the finishing order and CSU’s competition was over when

Morgan Baines finishing at 455th crossed the finish line at a time

of 2:58:49.

The team as a whole finished 16th overall with a combined men’s

and women’s score of 489, the women’s team finished 16th with a

score of 201 while the men’s team finished 17th with a score of

288.

Some of the CSU athletes were veteran tri-athletes, but most are

new to triathlon, and some had never competed in the Olympic

triathlon distance that they had to compete at. But after the weeks

and months of training CSU students became well prepared

tri-athletes. The students worked to raise the funds to travel to

the race site through hosting two events on the CSU campus – the

CSU Triathlon Club 5K Race in the fall and the CSU Indoor Triathlon

in the winter.

With the year rapidly ending the CSU triathlon team will have to

wait until next year to prove how good a team it can be to the rest

of the nation. This year they have added a lot of experience to the

desire to compete.