Results
TEMPE, Ariz. -The Queens University of Charlotte men's triathlon team has won it's first national title in year four of the program and made collegiate triathlon history as the first DII school to ever do so.
Along with the women's fourth place finish, the combined triathlon teams finished third overall at the 2019 USA-Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championships in Tempe, Arizona with a combined 4364 points.
"Incredible performances today from our team," head coach of triathlon
Sonni Dyer commented. "The most dominating men's team performance in collegiate national's history."
On the men's side, they finished with a total of 2215 points to win their division. The University of California-Berkeley came in second with 2150 points and the University of Colorado-Boulder took third with 2148 points.
Queens' men were led by individual champion
Jack Felix with his first place finish of 1:55:18 in the Olympic distance race.
Justin Lippert followed in third with a combined time of 1:57:21with teammate
Maximillian Sperl just behind in fourth with a time of 1:57:29. The three men added 1,980 points to the team's overall points scored.
Three more Royals finished in the top-20 in the Olympic distance race, including freshman
Jorge Alarcon in 16th (2:00:29), graduate-student
Tyler Rodgers in 18th (2:00:54), and sophomore
Sebastian Rivera Del Hierro in 19th (2:00:58).
In the draft-legal race, junior
Milan Tomin took fourth place finishing with a combined time of 1:00:00. Additionally, Rivera Del Hierro placed 26th in the race, and individually recorded 607 points overall in both races for the Royals to rank 17th overall at the championships.
On the women's side, the squad finished in fourth overall in their division with 2149 points. The University of California-Berkeley took first (2187), Colorado State University took second (2175), and the University of Colorado-Boulder took third (2161).
Senior
Tereza Zimovjanova placed ninth in the Olympic distance race with a combined time of 2:20:21 to record 492 points for the Royals.
Freshman
Katharina Krosta and sophomore
Caitlin Roper also placed in the top-20 in the race with times of 2:22:45 and 2:26:14 respectively.
Dyer also commented on senior Anabell Knoll's performance in the race stating, "She arrived in third place only to find her tire flat and still, the QU women earned fourth place with five women in the top-40."
Zimovjanova also earned a spot on the podium in the draft-legal race with her third place performance time of 1:09:47. She additionally recorded 732 points for Queens to rank second overall at the championships.
Phelan Purnell also finished in the top-20 in the race with a time of 1:14:01 in 17th place.
"Going into the MTR race (mixed-team-relay) with a combined men/women lead, and as the defending national champions in the event, we were confident going in that we could win our overall combined national title," Dyer stated. "Unfortunately, a competing team protested our uniforms and the USAT upheld the protest, despite conflicting rule interpretations, and the title was taken from us. Currently that situation is still unfolding."
Despite being disqualified from the weekend's final race, the Royals managed to finish in third overall recording the program's best finish at the event to date out of more than 100 teams and 1,200 collegiate athletes competing.
Dyer concluded by stating, "Adversity has made us stronger."
