FORT WORTH, Texas – The Denver Pioneers women's triathlon team's first full sprint of the 2024 season is also a measuring-stick race for the program.
 
DU will face some of the best squads in the country on Sunday morning at the second annual Battle in the Fort Collegiate Cup at Marine Creek Reservoir, hosted by Texas Christian University. The start is set for 8 a.m. MT.
 
"I think the TCU race might be more competitive than the regional championships," said Denver triathlon head coach Barbara Perkins. "We'll have five of the top six teams in the country that are going to be there from last year's national championships, so it really is going to be a good indication of what we can do as a team in relation to those other squads."
 
The Pioneers enter the race as the No. 4 team in the country following a second-place finish at the season-opening Southern Hills Triathlon super sprint on Aug. 31. The Pioneers were led by podium finishes by Ava Pfaff and Olivia Ebenstein and was just one point behind team-winner TCU (203-202).
 
Pfaff's second-place result at Angostura State Recreation Area in South Dakota made her the fifth Pioneer in program history to earn a podium spot in her collegiate debut, while Ebenstein recorded her first career podium in the race by coming in third.
 
TCU enters the weekend as the No. 1 team in the country in the latest College Triathlon Coaches Association rankings. The Pioneers will also face Division-I squads No. 7 Arizona, No. 10 San Francisco and No. 14 Arizona State. Other NCAA teams racing include D-II Colorado Mesa, Cal Poly Humboldt and Drury.
 
The course at Marine Creek will be the same as it was in the inaugural event in 2023. The triathletes begin with 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 the campus.
 
Denver is expected to have all nine team members race on Sunday morning. Freshman Beatrice Normand will be making her collegiate debut while sophomores Alex Campbell and defending individual national champion Maira Carreau will race in their first events of the fall campaign. All three athletes missed the Southern Hills Triathlon while preparing for the Canadian National Championship, with each member of the DU trio going on to finish in the top 10 overall at that race on Sept. 7 in Montral, Quebec.
 
The Pioneers placed fourth as a team at last year's event in Fort Worth, with Campbell leading Denver in seventh place individually.
 
"The team is very excited about this race," Perkins said. "We have some pretty high goals for ourselves this year, so I think it's going to be a good turning point in the season for us to get down to Texas and perform well against those teams."
 
The TCU-hosted race is the first of a key two-week stretch for the Pioneers and the other collegiate teams, as regionals will be 13 days later on Oct. 12. The 2024 Collegiate National Championship is Nov. 9 in Clermont Florida.