Triathletes excel in Mid-Atlantic Conference Championship races in N.C.

Saturday, October 5

Wake Forest, NC

8:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Sandling Beach Triathlon

The Flames and Lady Flames competed on back-to-back weekends at Sandlin Beach near Raleigh, N.C.

Triathletes excel in Mid-Atlantic Conference Championship races in N.C.

10/15/2024 4:29:00 PM | Triathlon

Liberty completed its fall semester schedule with the Oct. 5 Sprint and Olympic Distance events and this past Saturday's Draft-Legal Super Sprint races near Wake Forest.

Liberty University's triathlon team competed in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Triathlon Conference (MACTC) Championships over two of the past three weekends at Sandling Beach in Wake Forest, N.C.

This past Saturday at the U.S. Performance Center Draft-Legal Triathlon Festival, Lady Flames senior Morgan Dalton finished fifth among women in the National Triathlon Development Race in 31 minutes 6.2 seconds. The course was shortened to a 375-meter open-water swim followed by a 10-kilometer cycling stage and 2K run.

Dalton was followed by senior teammate Isabella Lang, who placed ninth in 34:07.8. Sophomore Kendall Leininger (12th in 34:20), senior Lydia Couric (16th in 36:11.7), and graduate Laney Plimpton (19th in 37:30.3) also recorded top-20 finishes.

Schimmel Brothers Liberty Triathlon — Caleb Wilson and Brayden Schwartz pace off each other in Saturday's Super Sprint.

Among Liberty's men, sophomore Gabe Schreve (26th in 27:57.7) and junior Brandon Schimmel (28th in 27:57.9) set the pace for the Flames, finishing neck-and-neck with Navy's Joseph Bell (27:57.7).

"The Super Sprint NTDR Race was really a testament to how well our team could handle adversity and pressure," Schimmel said. "I would say everyone handled the uncertainty of the situation, be it the venue change and shortening of the race, really well. Both our women's and men's teams put together really strong performances in highly competitive races which showed a culmination of all of the consistent work put in over the summer and this first part of this season."

Sophomore brother Alex Schimmel (45th in 29:38), freshman Ben Babcock (47th in 30:04.4), and junior Brady Schwartz (49th in 30:47.3) also placed in the top 50.

On Oct. 5, Liberty triathletes competed in both non-draft-legal sprint and Olympic-distance races, after which the Lady Flames (43 points) were ranked third behind Queens (N.C.) University (12) and the Naval Academy (39) in the women's Mid-Atlantic Conference standings and the Flames (117) fourth in the men's standings behind Wingate (N.C.) University (13), Queens (30), and Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) University (84).

In the combined standings, Liberty (160) ranked second behind Queens (42) and ahead of Navy (163), North Carolina State (257), Virginia Tech (283), Maryland (371), and Duke (445).

"It was great, a really good team time," Liberty Head Coach Heather Gollnick said. "All of our returning triathletes did the Olympic Distance race, which counted toward the Conference championship, and most of the new athletes did the sprint."

In the Olympic Distance races, which started with a 1,500-meter swim in Falls Lake followed by a 40K bike stage and 10K run, Alex Schimmel finished 21st out of 133 collegiate competitors in 1:58:22.9 followed by Schreve (23rd in 1:59:18.3) and Brandon Schimmel (27th in 2:02.22). On the women's side, Dalton finished fourth among women in 2:20:24.4 followed by Leininger (2:28:05.6), Couric (2:39:11.6), Plimpton (2:40:39.4), and Lang (2:40:49.5).

The freshman trio of Elise Collete, Naomi Deiken, and Brooklyn Randles swept the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively, in the female 15-19 age group sprint race and sophomores Syndey Bayle and Summer Hogan finished 1-2 in the female 20-24 age group sprint. Among the Flames' men, sophomore Charlie Block and freshman Slade Keaton earned silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the 15-19 age division.

Liberty will host a Color Run along the East Campus Disc Golf Course on Oct. 25, which will serve as a team fundraiser for two trips to Florida in the spring semester, the March 1-2 Clermont Draft Legal Challenge and the March 28-29 USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships in Miami.

"Those are flat courses, so they will be fast, which will be fun," Gollnick said.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video edited by Reagan Underwood/Club Sports Video & Media Intern