CLERMONT, Fla. – The University of Denver women's triathlon team began the 2024 USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships on Friday morning at Clermont Watersports Complex.
 
The two-day national championship opened with a 750-meter open water swim in Sawgrass Lake, and this year's event  concludes on Saturday with a pursuit-type race set to crown a national champion. The organizers were forced to change the typical one-hour sprint triathlon into a two-day race due to damage caused by Hurricane Milton at the original venue at nearby Lake Louisa State Park.
 
DU is in the middle of the pack after the first-of-three legs of the event and the squad is in a good spot to climb through field going into the draft-legal 20-kilometer bike and 5K run on Saturday. The Pioneers' seven athletes are separated by just 36 seconds of one another, with junior Elizabeth Harita being the first out of the water on Friday with the 19th-fastest split at 9:42.
 
Sophomore Alex Campbell was just four seconds behind Harita in 22nd (9:46), while junior Olivia Ebenstein in 26th (9:52), freshman Ava Pfaff in 31st (9:59) and sophomore and defending individual national champion Maira Carreau in 40th (10:05) are within 20 seconds of Campbell. Freshman Beatrice Normand (10:16) and senior Clara Normand (10:18) had the 61st and 64th-fastest overall mark, but the sisters are well-positioned to make up ground with the ability to draft on the bike and get in a pack with their teammates.
 
Harita is just about 30 seconds behind current leader and 2021 national champion Kira Gupta-Baltazar of Texas Christian University. Gupta-Baltazar (9:11) was the first out of the water for the second-straight national championships and has an eight-second lead over the first pack of athletes, which was led by Queens University of Charlotte's Cara MacDonald and San Francisco's Josi Seerig.
 
The results from Friday's swim will lead to a staggered start on Saturday. The athletes will be released into transition and into the bike portion based on their times from the swim. Gupta-Baltazar will pace the second part of the sprint and will have an eight-second advantage over Queens' MacDonald into T1, while Harita resumes her race 31 seconds after the clock restarts, and so on.
 
Saturday's race will take place back at the original venue at Lake Louisa State Park—a spot DU is familiar with as the squad has competed every March there as part of the Clermont Challenge.
 
Denver is in Heat A, which includes defending national champion Arizona State, Arizona, TCU, East Tennessee State and Queens, as well as other top-rated individual qualifiers from D-I, D-II and D-III squads. Heat A is the designated as the fastest of the three heats and will be conclude the event, with Saturday's start time set for 11:30 a.m. MT.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The Pioneers' Saturday start time is at 11:30 a.m. MT (1:30 p.m. local time in Florida). The team will stream the race on its Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/denverwomenstri.
 
THE COURSE: The swim was a one-lap, triangular course around two buoys off the primary Sawgrass Lake beach in the Clermont Watersports Complex. Saturday's bike is a four-lap loop on Lake Louisa State Park's main road that features several hills and a 180-degree turnaround. The run is a two-lap out-and-back that follows the same course as the bike.
 
WEATHER: The air temperature at the 10:42 a.m. ET start on Friday was 83 degrees Fahrenheit but partly cloudy skies and humid conditions made it feel closer to 92 degrees. Wetsuits were not needed, as the water temperature was 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
RESULTS:
 
Denver Triathletes
19. Elizabeth Harita, 9:42
22. Alex Campbell, 9:46
26. Olivia Ebenstein, 9:52
31. Ava Pfaff, 9:59
40. Maira Carreau, 10:05
61. Beatrice Normand, 10:16
64. Clara Normand, 10:18
 
Women's Individual Swim Top 10 (203 Total Entries)
1. Kira Gupta Baltazar, TCU, 9:11
2. Cara MacDonald, Queens, 9:19
3. Josi Seerig, San Francisco, 9:20
4. Kelly Wetteland, Arizona, 9:21
5. Dana Prikrylova, Arizona, 9:23
6. Beth Book, Queens, 9:23
7. Faith Dasso, Arizona State, 9:24
8. Maragreta Vrablova, Arizona, 9:25
9. Zoe Adam Mari, Arizona State, 9:26
10. Sidney Clement, Arizona State, 9:27