Triathletes prepared to peak at this weekend’s USA Collegiate Nationals near Atlanta
4/13/2023 1:58:34 PM | Triathlon
Most of Liberty University’s 20 men’s and women’s triathletes who will compete in Friday’s through Sunday’s USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships on and around Lake Lanier in Buford, Ga., tested the 51-degree waters on Wednesday morning with a second open-water swim in as many weeks.
“The team got to swim at Camp Hydaway a week ago,” Liberty Head Coach Heather Gollnick said of the Hydaway Outdoor Center lake. “We arrived early here near Atlanta, so our triathletes had an opportunity to bike the course as well to see where the potholes and the hills are. This course has rolling hills compared to the one at Clermont (Fla. Draft-Legal Challenge), which was pancake flat, so that changes your momentum and you have to adjust.”
Though the Clermont races were Liberty’s only of the semester so far — and first since the Oct. 15 Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Smith Mountain Lake — the Flames and Lady Flames have put in the training needed to excel at nationals and are prepared to peak for this weekend’s races after tapering their workouts.
“They definitely do have the endurance,” said Gollnick, whose husband, Todd, serves as race director. “They train a lot — on the low end 12 hours per week, and on the high end 20 hours per week. We have focused on some more hills (in cycling and running workouts) this semester, running from (the Liberty Mountain) Snowflex (Centre) to the (Liberty) Monogram. Lately, we have been putting in less volume and intensity (workouts) so their body absorbs all of the training they have done this month.”
She hopes to have 20 triathletes available for Saturday Olympic Distance races, all but senior David McCurdy and freshman Sarah Russo, who are both sidelined by injuries. That event will feature a 1,500-meter swim followed by an out-and-back 40-kilometer cycling stage with two mini loops and 10K out-and-back run.
More than 1,200 competitors from close to 100 colleges and universities will enter that event, which will have five men’s waves and four women’s spaced at least five minutes apart to try to avoid bottlenecks along the course.
The three-day national championships start with Friday’s draft-legal race, which is limited to 75 men and 75 women contestants. That will open with a 750-meter swim and be followed by a 12.3-mile cycling stage (three loops of a 4.1-mile course) and a two-looped 5K run.
Sophomore Liz Brower and senior Anna Kate Wirsing will represent the Lady Flames in that race and graduate students Giovanni Bianco and Drew Thibault, who is a medical student in the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM), will compete for the Flames.
“Drew is our top athlete right now, but he got injured last week,” Gollnick said. “If his injury will allow him, he will compete. We are praying. He hasn’t had a chance to swim in the open water in the cold yet. At this point, we hope he can at least do one of the races (Friday’s draft-legal spring or Saturday’s Olympic distance).”
Thibault earned his pro card by placing eighth at the Clermont under-25 National Development Race in early March.
“Draft legal is what (Thibault is) better at, but we are praying he can do the Olympic race, too,” Gollnick said.
Getting a practice ride on the cycling course should especially help team members such as Connor Readman, a sophomore who is moving up the ranks.
“He is new to the team, but I suspect he will be in our top five,” Gollnick said. “Biking is his strong suit, so going out to see it prior to the race should help him be able to really hammer on the course.”
The national championship weekend will conclude with Sunday’s super sprint mixed team relay, with two male and two female triathletes racing in succession. Seniors John “JJ” Bagans and Jack Kaiser and sophomore Isabella Lang and junior Natalie Rowell will form Liberty’s tag team.
“Out of those four who will be racing, JJ’s the fastest swimmer, so we’ll put him in the first leg,” Gollnick said. “Natalie is very aggressive and has a very good kick, and is good at short-course racing,” so she will anchor the event.
“Each athlete does a mini triathlon, and it is a super high energy race, and most fun event over the course of the weekend,” Gollnick said.
This weekend’s nationals will likely be the last collegiate races for Bianco, a sixth-year team member, Bagans, Russell, Pizor, and Wirsing, with McCurdy also graduating in May.
Follow the live results on the USA Triathlon website.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer