TEMPE, Ariz. – The University of Denver women's triathlon team travels to Arizona on Saturday as the Pioneers compete at the 2023 Collegiate National Championships at Tempe Town Lake. The race begins at 2:15 p.m. MT.
The Pioneers are the No. 4 ranked team in the country and are coming off a runner-up finish at the Eastern Regional National Qualifier on Oct. 14 at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia. Denver had all five of its scorers in the top 13, led by an individual win by freshman
Maira Carreau, who became the first regional champion in program history.
Carreau also set a school record by running the final 5 kilometers in 17:06 en route to her first collegiate victory and second podium in as many races. The La Prairie, Quebec, native placed second in her debut at the Black Hills Collegiate Cup in South Dakota on Oct. 1 and is the first DU triathlete to earn a spot on the podium in each of her first two career races.
The Pioneers' start list for Saturday's national championships features
Carreau and fellow freshman
Alex Campbell, sophomore
Elizabeth Harita, juniors
Olivia Ebenstein,
Avarie Faulkner and
Clara Normand and graduate student
Maren York. This will be Carreau, Campbell and York's NCAA nationals debut.
Campbell has also had a strong rookie campaign, beginning with winning her debut race at the Aquathlon Eliminator. She then led Denver in seventh at Battle in the Fort and came in behind Carreau in fifth at Eastern Regionals.
Ebenstein placed in the top 10 in three of her four races and 12th in the other, while Harita and Normand both have three top-15 finishes this year.
Denver came in third as a team at the 2022 national championships, marking the highest-placed finish by an individual women's program in DU Athletics history. The Pioneers were fourth at their nationals debut in 2021 and aim to continue the trend of progressing up the team leaderboard.
DU placed in the top four as a team in all four races this season. The Pioneers began with a win on Sept. 2 in the Aquathlon Eliminator Duel versus Colorado Mesa University on the Denver campus before coming in fourth in their first full triathlon of the season at the Battle in the Fort in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 17. The Pios tied South Dakota for runner-up at the Black Hills Collegiate Cup, but they technically finished third as the Coyotes won the tiebreaker.
The national championship course is the same as it was in 2022, beginning with a one-lap swim of 750 meters that starts on the north side of the reservoir. It will be an in-water start from North Shore Beach, where the triathletes with swim out before making a sharp right at the first buoy to begin forming a rectangular course. The 20-kilometer bike route includes three laps around the proximity of the lake and features several long straightaways, L-turns and two tight U-turns. The 5-kilometer run is two loops on the north side of the lake, heading west out of transition.
The National Championships are being split into two heats this year. The Pioneers will be racing in the second and final heat, which features approximately 100 of the top triathletes from qualified and at-large teams. The first heat is primarily made up of Division III schools and individual qualifiers. Division I, II and III will all be racing together in each heats, but each division will be scored separately and individual and team champions will be crowned in each.
Arizona State is the defending national champions and is hosting the race. Among the other Division-I foes that the Pioneers will be race against for a national title are Arizona, East Tennessee State, Navy, San Francisco, South Dakota, Texas Christian and Queens University of Charlotte.
