FORT WORTH, Texas – The University of Denver Pioneers women's triathlon team heads to Texas for the 2025 Western Regional Championship on Sunday at Marine Creek Reservoir.
DU will be racing in the second heat of the day at 10 a.m. MT/11 a.m. CT. The other Division-I squads at the Western qualifier are host Texas Christian, Arizona, South Dakota and Chicago State.
The Eastern Regionals are being held on Saturday in Troutman, North Carolina at Lake Norman State Park.
Denver last raced on Oct. 4 at the Prairie State Cup in De Witt, Illinois, and was led by freshman
Jenna Topott, who won her heat and placed third overall in the race. This weekend is a homecoming for Topott as she is from nearby Allen, Texas. The team only had three triathletes race at the Prairie State Cup and placed ninth in the overall standings despite not having a full squad of scorers.
The Pioneers will have a full lineup on the start line for regionals, with Topott joining fellow freshmen
Lucrezia Gowdy,
Mia Stanley-Hunt and
Olivia Wimberger, as well as upperclassmen captains in senior
Elizabeth Harita and junior
Maira Carreau.
Carreau has placed on the All-Region Team in each of the previous two years, as she won Eastern Regionals as a freshman in 2023 at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, and came in third in last year's Western Regionals in Springfield, Missouri.
DU is familiar with the course, as the team has raced on it the past two years in the Battle in the Fort Collegiate Cup. The Pioneers finished fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2024 iteration that was also hosted by TCU.
The course at Marine Creek will have a bit different start than in recent years as the triathletes will complete just a single triangular swim in the lake at 750 meters after previously completing a two-lap swim. From the water on the east side of the reservoir, the athletes will run up a hill to transition for the four-lap bike portion totaling 20 kilometers. The bike course through adjacent Tarrant County College and along Marine Creek Parkway features several technical portions that are narrow with tight turns. The 5K run is on a two-lap course on the campus and runs parallel to most of the bike route.
Denver finished third at last season's Western Regionals and has placed on the podium as a team in each of their last five regional races dating back to its 2021 win out east at Smith Mountain Lake.
The Pioneers enter this weekend as the 10th-ranked overall team in the country and eighth among Division-I squads in the final regular-season ratings. Carreau leads Denver as the 10th-ranked individual athlete in the nation.
