Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Video highlights Flames' finishes at USA Triathlon Nationals
4/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Triathlon
Club Sports Assistant Director of Video & Media Patrick Strawn traveled with Liberty University's 11 men's and five women's triathletes to last weekend's USA Triathlon National Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and put together this video highlighting the event, complete with interviews with Head Coach Parker Spencer and top performers Thomas Sonnery-Cottet and Megan Merryman.
The men's triathlon team placed eighth out of a total of 120 schools while its women finished 27th for a combined 16th-place overall showing.
In the men's standings, the Flames totaled 1,950 points to finish behind only the Naval Academy (2,200), Colorado (2,187), Arizona (2,156), Queens of Charlotte (2,006), Colorado State (1,966), California Polytech State (1,963), and Texas A&M (1,952).
Combined, it was the most successful team finish at nationals in Liberty triathlon history, even after Liberty's top two men — freshman Sonnery-Cottet and sophomore Greg Schott — received a total of eight penalty minutes that dropped Sonnery-Cottet from sixth to 33rd place and Schott from 48th to 64th out of nearly 700 finishers.
"This was huge improvement over last year," Spencer said. "This was the best team we've ever had come to the national championships this year."
Individually, Sonnery-Cottet finished eighth overall in the combined points standings — between the Draft-Legal Sprint, in which he did place sixth, and the Olympic Distance race scoring — while Merryman, a senior who broke her collarbone just six weeks before, placed ninth in the combined scoring.
"Everyone did really well this weekend," Merryman said after recovering from the 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer cycling stage, and 10K run in the Olympic Distance race. "We're all pretty happy with how we placed. Today, we had some rough conditions and it was definitely a tough race, but I'm definitely proud of everybody and how hard they've worked to get to this point."
