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Out of sight, out of mind is not where Arizona State triathlon or the sport in general wants to be.
ASU, as four-time USA Triathlon national collegiate champion, is driving the sport toward NCAA championship certification. The jump from NCAA emerging to full-fledged sport requires 40 Division I-II participating schools, a cause not helped by the 2020 season being canceled due to the pandemic.
But with 37 varsity teams and several others in the grant writing phase to tap into USA Triathlon program seed money, reaching the finish line well ahead of a 2024 deadline seems to be a given.
“We didn’t lose any teams when we could have looked at last year hitting that number,” like other Olympic sports suffered, ASU coach Cliff English said. “We’ve got to get this done and make that (NCAA) announcement. We’ve helped the growth, but we need to contribute to the Directors’ Cup.”
ASU triathlon winning an NCAA national title would be worth 100 points in the Directors’ Cup, an on-field measure of overall athletic department success.
“We’ve been treated incredibly well,” English said. “But there’s still that last little bit, we want to be part of the NCAA program and make sure we see this through.”
Though competition is improving, specifically at San Francisco and South Dakota, ASU remains a heavy national favorite with a roster that includes national individual champions Hannah Henry (2017-18) and Kyla Roy (2019), both from Canada.
“They’re both very driven,” English said of the fifth-year seniors. “The determination is there.”
Audrey Ernst, Rebecca Naughton and Liberty Ricca — second, fifth and sixth at 2019 nationals — are back. Newcomers include Amber Schlebusch, 2018 Youth Olympic Games gold medalist, and freshmen Alexe Coursol, Maris Jose Lopez Aguirre, Camille Buchanan and Evan Welch.
When ASU again hosts nationals on Nov. 13, English’s hardest decision will be choosing which seven to compete in the sprint event (750-meter swim, 20K draft legal bike, 5K run) in pursuit of five high finishers. ASU also will host 2022 nationals.
ASU men’s and women’s swimming redshirted their teams in 2020-21 but others than triathlon competed amidst COVID scheduling limitations.
“The team is excited to race again and have our season,” English said. “We had some opportunity to do outside competition in the spring and summer, and the Olympics was uplifting. We spoke about that a lot.
“We’ve grown closer as a team and shown great ownership,” dealing with COVID protocol. We had two positives, and that changed everything. A lot of this is stuff we’ve been doing as endurance athletes for a couple of decades.”
ASU triathlon schedule
Saturday: Pleasant Prairie national qualifier, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Oct. 16: Kinetic Cup Triathlon Festival, Huddleston, Virginia.
Oct. 30: St. George national qualifier, St. George, Utah.
Nov. 13: USA Triathlon women’s collegiate national championship, Tempe.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.
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