Triathletes showcase endurance at Homestead-Miami Speedway, placing sixth at USA Triathlon National Championships

Friday, March 28

Homestead, FL

Liberty University Club Sports

CLASH Miami - National Championships

Liberty's Mixed Relay team of Mogan Dalton, Brady Schwartz, Lydia Couric, and Brandon Schimmel placed 10th out of 36 teams in the final event of the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships. (Photos by James Gengaro)

Triathletes showcase endurance at Homestead-Miami Speedway, placing sixth at USA Triathlon National Championships

4/2/2025 4:53:00 PM | Triathlon

Liberty's men placed eighth and its women's ninth at the unique venue, sprinting toward Victory Lane in the final stages of three races on the NASCAR track.

Heather Gollnick hugs Morgan Dalton after Triathlon Nationals — Head Coach Heather Gollnick hugs senior Morgan Dalton after she completed Friday's Draft-Legal Sprint at Homestead-Miami.

Liberty University's men's and women's triathlon teams combined for a sixth-place showing out of more than 100 programs competing at the 2025 USA Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championships, held for the first time at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, a premier NASCAR race track, this past weekend in southern Florida.

The Flames finished eighth as a team and the Lady Flames landed in ninth based on their performances in Friday's Draft-Legal Sprint and Saturday's Olympic Distance and Mixed Relay races.

"We enjoyed a great weekend of racing in Miami this past weekend for Triathlon Nationals," Liberty Head Coach Heather Gollnick said. "As they raced through the Miami Speedway, every stride and every pedal stroke was a testament to the strength God has given them. I love watching this team compete, because they compete not for their own glory, but to glorify His name and to live out the mission of being Champions for Christ."

Lady Flames senior Morgan Dalton, Liberty's highest finisher in the women's Olympic Distance race on Saturday, noted that the event's setting and vibe was unique to collegiate triathlon in many ways.

Brandon Schimmel run sprint — Junior captain Brandon Schimmel sprints to the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"We did the swimming portion in the lake or pond in the middle of the Homestead Speedway, and the Olympic Distance cycling stage went outside the stadium, but the whole run was on the mile and a half-long track, with some loops on the infield," she said, noting the emcee, provided by NASCAR's CLASH Endurance association, added to the race atmosphere with lively announcing.

Friday's men's and women's Draft-Legal sprints featured 750-meter swims, 21-kilometer bike stages, and 5K runs, all inside the Speedway with the swim in the spring-fed lake followed by a closed-course bike and run, and a finish at pit road in Victory Circle.

Queens University of Charlotte, which is in the same Mid-Atlantic Conference as Liberty, won its fourth consecutive overall title with 176 combined points between its men's and women's squads. It was followed by the University of Colorado Boulder (second, 249 points), the U.S. Naval Academy (third, 330 points), another MAC program which was the overall women's team champion, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (fourth, 339), and the University of California Berkeley (457), which rounded out the overall top five.

Flames sophomore Alex Schimmel placed 25th out of the 609 finishers in Saturday's men's Olympic Distance race in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 38 seconds. After holding his own in the 1.5-kilometer swim and 25K cycling stage, he passed a number of competitors on the 10K run in which he posted the eighth-fastest split time in 32:59 (a 5:22-per-mile pace).

He was followed closely by his older brother, junior men's team captain Brandon Schimmel, who placed 30th in 2:00:25 and Gabe Shreve (39th in 2:02:05).

"We had three of the top 40 in a field of over 600," Brandon Schimmel said. "It definitely was a really good race for everybody. Most people had personal best performances, including myself and my brother, Alex, and for a lot of other people it was their first Olympic Distance race."

Brandon Schimmel transition area — Senior Brady Schwartz transitions out of the water toward the cycling stage.

It was a much better showing for Brandon Schimmel than the last time the team traveled to Florida in early March to compete in the Clermont Draft Legal Challenge.

"For me, I crashed at Clermont, so this was a great redemption weekend for me," he said. "That race prepared (the rest of) us for nationals and gave everybody else a lot of good draft racing experience."

In the women's Olympic Distance race, Dalton placed 20th out of 427 finishers in 2:20:43, followed by Lady Flames sophomore teammate Kendall Leininger, who finished 44th in 2:26:42.

"She did a phenomenal job and has been our top performer this season," Gollnick said of Dalton. "We decided to race her a lot over the weekend and will be sad to have her graduate this year."

"That was the best performance of my career," Dalton added. "I felt really strong, and my time was a personal record as well by at least a minute, though all the courses are so different and not always the same distance."

Being in Miami, and on a track, this race was extremely flat, but the triathletes did have to weather some elements.

"The wind on the bike was pretty intense," Dalton said. "There were a couple out-and-backs on the course, and one way you would be going like 27 mph on the bike and the other way it would be like 19 mph, so it was a big difference."

On Friday, Shreve came in 17th out of 68 finishers in the men's Draft-Legal race in 55:07 before Leininger finished 20th out of 50 women's Draft-Legal race finishers in 1:05:01 and Dalton placed 23rd in 1:05:35.

Then on Saturday, Dalton also competed with Brandon Schimmel and fellow junior Brady Schwartz as well as senior Lydia Couric, who is returning for graduate school next year, on the draft-legal Mixed Relay team.

Morgan Dalton runs with Liberty flag at Mixed Relay finish — Morgan Dalton runs the Liberty University flag to the finish line of Saturday's Mixed Relay.

"That was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me, running to the finish line after the Mixed Team relay with the Liberty University flag," Dalton said. "That was the last race and got to run with some of my best friends, a great cap-off to the season and a great time with the team."

The Flames and Lady Flames placed 10th out of 36 Mixed Relay teams in 1:09:01, with the four members each completing a 300-meter swim, 4.4-kilometer cycling stage, and 1K run.

"That was definitely a better showing than last year," Schimmel said. "It was a great time for our team to participate and show what we've been training toward, especially with it being the last races on the team for Brady and Morgan."

"That was a really fun event to do," Dalton added. "I had never done that before and it was really cool. The atmosphere down the home stretch at the finish line with all the different Collegiate Club teams there watching it was electric."

Individual results are available online.

Dalton served as one of the Lady Flames' spiritual leaders along with Couric and sophomore Caleb Wilson.

"Trips are where we have the most team bonding time, and are definitely when we can have the biggest impact, just being an example in our conduct and sportsmanship, carrying on conversations with runners next to you before the start of a race, and being a Christ-like example," she said. "The spiritual leaders before me were definitely instrumental in keeping team unity and keeping the vision on what it should be — on Christ. It is such a special group that Coach Heather brings together to continue the legacy that we have."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer