FORT WORTH, Texas – The Denver Pioneers women's triathlon team will face other top western programs on Sunday as the squad heads to the Lone Star State for its first full sprint of the season in the Battle in the Fort Triathlon.
In its first season competing, Texas Christian University is hosting the race at Marine Creek Reservoir and the adjacent Tarrant County College that is set to begin at 7 a.m. MT (8 a.m. CT). Among the other programs competing are fellow NCAA newcomer Arizona, San Francisco, South Dakota, Division II Drury and defending national champion Arizona State.
With the Pioneers set to compete at Eastern Regionals next month, this weekend marks the only time this year where they'll face a complete collection of western foes.
"I think this is a great opportunity for us to see what some of the best teams in the country look like and it's going to be our only race against some of those teams before we get to nationals," said Denver head coach
Barbara Perkins. "So it's a fact-finding mission in some ways—see where we stack against the rest of the top teams and what we need to do in the second-half of the season. I'm pretty excited for it."
Denver was the second-highest finisher among western schools at the 2022 Collegiate National Championships by placing third behind Queens University from the east and winner ASU.
The Pioneers opened the 2023 season with a team victory in the aquathlon eliminator against Colorado Mesa on Sept. 2 on campus that featured three rounds of a 200-meter swim and one-kilometer run. Many of the other schools in recent weeks have competed in similar races in preparation the meat of the regular season.
The course at Marine Creek will feature a two-lap, triangular swim in the lake totaling 786 meters before transitioning into a 20-kilometer bike that will feature four laps through Tarrant County College and along Marine Creek Parkway. The 5K run is on a two-lap course on campus.
TCU's Battle of the For Triathlon is a key race for teams ahead of regionals, as vital points are on the line for the programs to earn for positioning at that pre-nationals race on Oct. 14. The western regionals are in Missouri while Denver will compete at the Eastern Regionals in Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, due to its third-place finish at last year's nationals.
"This year is a little different since we are doing regular-season rankings, and we are doing that race at TCU, that is kind of the first part of the season, that is kind of a target race for us—it's the first time we'll get to race against some of the top Division-I teams," Perkins said. "There are a couple new teams… so it will be our first chance to get a look at where everybody else is at and how we move forward and how we need to work on things."
