6 Cool Things We Noticed at the Collegiate Club National Championships in Miami Last Weekend

Last weekend I was at the Homestead Miami International Speedway for Clash Miami, which also happened to be the site of this year’s USA Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championship. A record-sized field of over 100 colleges and universities was on hand with about 1,600 athletes, which made for a really exciting weekend.

Here are a few highlights from the weekend (from my point of view, anyway):

Having That Many Young People At a Race is …

Well, really exciting. With all the talk about the sport “aging up” and our numbers declining for so many years, being at a race with that many college-aged athletes was truly invigorating. Being at the race lent credence to USA Triathlon’s reports that they’ve seen an uptick in the 20 to 39 age group over the last year.

I’ll talk about the Mixed Relay below, but after that race the place was buzzing, and lots of triathlon vets kept saying to me that events like this were exactly what our sport needs.

This championship has been going on for over 30 years (it started at Wildflower as an unofficial championship in the early 90s). The event was taken over by USA Triathlon in 2002. To me, USA Triathlon and the college coaches are doing a great job of promoting both the competitive component of the sport, but also the spirit of triathlon. (There’s even a spirit award that, as you can see from the photo below, the University of California was gunning for and won.)

Queens University of Charlotte is … Really Good

For the fourth consecutive year Sonni Dyer and his crew from Queens University of Charlotte took the overall collegiate club national title. To take that title the Queens University of Charlotte crew won the Mixed Relay (again, more on that below) and also started the weekend’s racing off with a bang with an impressive draft-legal race by Clare Dasso. The University of Colorado Boulder took second in the club standings, with US Naval Academy rounding out the top-three. Wingate University won’s the men’s title, while US Naval Academy took the women’s title.

Overall Club Standings

1. Queens University of Charlotte, 176 points 
2. University of Colorado Boulder, 249
3. U.S. Naval Academy, 330
4. U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 339
5. University of California Berkeley, 457

Women’s Club Standings 

1. U.S. Naval Academy, 75
2. University of Colorado Boulder, 77
3. U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 88
4. Queens University of Charlotte, 92
5. University of California Berkeley, 135

Men’s Club Standings 

1. Wingate University, 35
2. Queens University of Charlotte, 83
3. U.S. Air Force Academy, 136
4. University of Colorado Boulder, 166
5. Michigan State University, 225

Speaking of Really Good … How About Clare Dasso

The Queens University sophomore must have missed the memo that Friday’s race was a draft-legal affair – she rode away from the field all by herself into a fierce headwind to a 1:30 advantage starting the run and never looked back as she cruised to the win.

1. Clare Dasso (Queens University of Charlotte), 58:55 
2. Bella Chirafisi (Colorado State University), 59:30 
3. Maya Reilly (Duke University), 59:45 
4. Soilel Xie (U.S. Naval Academy), 1:00:13 
5. Annie Meeder (University of Colorado, Boulder), 1:00:16 

The men’s race looked like a more traditional draft-legal affair as Edoardo Leone outsprinted Mark Romano for the win.

1. Edoardo Leone (University of California, Los Angeles), 52:00 
2. Mark Romano (U.S. Air Force Academy), 52:04 
3. Humberto Jenner (Wingate University), 52:09 
4. Jake Baugher (Wingate University), 52:19 
5. Rohan Takkar (Queens University of Charlotte), 52:38

The Mixed Team Relay is Awesome

So I’ve seen the Mixed Relay world championships in Hamburg. I saw the event at the Olympics last year. And, while there was no comparison to the number of people at those races and the crowd at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the energy around the track sure was. Put 60 relay teams in an event with that many energized cheerleaders and you get an incredible atmosphere. Hence all those people coming up to me after the race, right?

Dasso was once again the game changer in this race. She went off second for the Queens University team. She started the swim 23 seconds back. She came out of the water tied for the lead. She then opened up more time on the bike and would tag off at the end of the run with a 59 second lead. That means she was 1:22 faster then the competition over a 300 m swim, 4.2 km bike and 1 km run. It was mind boggling to watch. It’s not like the rest of the team slowed down at all – they ended up 1:41 ahead by the time they crossed the line.

1. Queens University of Charlotte, 1:03:18
2. University of Colorado Boulder, 1:04:59
3. U.S. Naval Academy, 1:05:12
4. U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 1:05:52
5. Michigan State University, 1:06:06

Runner-Up Motivation Fuels Olympic-Distance Wins

Yeah, that’s me interviewing Annie Meeder after her win in the Olympic distance race. Last year Meeder came within six seconds of the title, so she was more than a little motivated to move up a spot this year. Mark Romano finished second at last year’s draft legal race, then did that again this year. Needless to say, finally get that national title was a huge deal.

And, just to add to her busy weekend, Dasso helped her team to valuable points here with her fifth-place finish. That’s a lot of racing in two days.

The Olympic-distance race was the largest of the collegiate races on the weekend, and it truly embodied the participation-spirit of the championship.

Women

1. Annie Meeder (University of Colorado Boulder), 2:07:58
2. Renae Tadrowski (Queens University of Charlotte), 2:08:38
3. Elizabeth Fetter (West Point Triathlon Club), 2:08:56
4. Bella Chirafisi (Colorado State University), 2:09:44
5. Clare Anne Dasso (Queens University of Charlotte), 2:09:44

Men

1. Mark Romano (U.S. Air Force Academy), 1:51:13
2. Jack Harrell (Michigan State University), 1:51:41
3. Edoardo Leone (UCLA), 1:52:20
4. Jack Spence (Wingate University), 1:52:30
5. Isaac Lamprecht (Wingate University), 1:52:48

There’s a Lot to Look Forward to With This Group

It has been a while since I have been to a race where athletes showed their appreciation to the organizers, volunteers and officials as much as last weekend. Many teams and athletes did fundraising to get themselves to Miami for the race, so they truly appreciated the opportunity to compete and expressed their gratitude to the people making it possible.

Yes, there was lots of competition, but there was also lots of camaraderie, sportsmanship and appreciation for the opportunity to be at a national championship.

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