*Disclaimer, I will try my best to have a DII & DIII post completed in the upcoming days. NCAA Triathlon 2024 Nationals proved to have challenging conditions with it being a fairly hot and humid race on day two of the two day format. If you are unaware of the format change click here to read about how the format was changed to multiple days.
After winning a incredible 7x D1 Championships in a row, ASU put up a exceptional fight over the improvised 2-day format. However, in the end, University of Arizona displayed they were the best team in the nation this year winning by 22 points over ASU, and by 47 points over 3rd placed Queens University of Charlotte. With both Arizona Universities going 1-2, it is safe to say that both programs can perform at the top level rather Nationals is in Tempe, AZ or Clermont, FL or anywhere in between.
DI Team Results:
1st: University of Arizona, 942.
2nd: Arizona State University, 920. 3rd: Queens University of Charlotte, 895.
4th: Texas Christian University, 869.
5th: University of Denver, 847.
6th: University of San Francisco, 784.
7th: University of South Dakota, 777.
8th: East Tennessee State University, 726.
9th: Duquesne University, 609.
10th: Delaware State University, 452.
11th: United States Naval Academy, 405.
12th: Wagner College, 207.
13th: Northern Kentucky University, 96.
14th: Hampton University, 20. *Of the 14 D1 programs, 10 programs had 5 or more scorers at Nationals.
Individual Race Recap
In regards to the individual races, I posted a prediction yesterday of how the packs could potentially unfold. It ended up being a lead group of 10-13 athletes going full gas off the front with a massive chase pack of over 40 athletes about 45 seconds behind into T2. Out of T2 Naomi Ruff (ASU) and Beth Cook (Queens) took the early lead and ran toe to toe for the first 2.5 miles, before Naomi emerged as the Individual National Champion who was closely followed by Kelly Wetteland (2nd) and Maragreta Vrablova (3rd) who both ran incredibly well. All 3 athletes on the podium came from the lead bike pack. If I remember right, Naomi is the first American to win this event since Erika Ackerlund in 2016. From her season opener, until Nationals she has consistently looked remarkable. Huge congratulations to Naomi and also the entire podium!
The top run split of the large chase pack was none other than 2022 Individual National champion Amber Schlebusch (ASU) who ran a incredible 17:26, the second fastest run split in the race behind Lydia Russel (U of A) who had lost contact with the main chase group on the bike but ran a blistering 16:59 to place 20th. Amber also moved up a massive 16 spots compared to her CTCA ranking proving why people should never count out any former Individual National Champions. What a Performance!
Also, 2023 Individual National Champion Maira Carreau entered the run in the main chase group with Amber, meaning we got to see them enter the run together for the first time unlike in 2023. Maira ran a 17:43 to place 7th overall and earn All-American honors. Repeating individually on back to back years in this sport is incredibly difficult and as a fan of this sport I found the grit shown by both Amber and Maira's performances to be remarkable.
2024 NCAA Triathlon Nationals Data
This year in the D1 race we had 19 total athletes run sub 19:00, 8 total athletes run sub 18:00 and 1 run sub 17:00. Last year had 12 athletes run sub 19:00, and 4 athletes run sub 18:00, proving this sport continues to get more competitive on the top end.
CTCA Ranking vs Finish Result
When we sort the data by biggest improvement from CTCA Ranking compared to finish result we get the following list. *Athletes unraked or ranked outside the top 100 are listed as NR. DNF's were also removed from the data.
As always, sometimes unfortunate events happen to individuals. Also, higher ranked athletes have a stronger probability of having a large negative score on a off day, as they have a very small margin of error. Most of the negative scores are actually some of the sports biggest names. If you find yourself with a negative ranking please understand this is just data and that everybody has off days in this sport.
Team Data Averages
All data in this section averages a teams top 5 scorers. When we break down the data for the individuals we see that this races was set up very well in the swim on day one and that it was won on day two over the bike and the run. University of Arizona had the fastest average bike splits and fastest avg run splits of any team. They were also the only team to have a top 3 average in each individual discipline. Last year, when ASU won, they also had the fastest avg bike split and run splits in the race, and were also the only program to have a top 3 avg in all 3 disciplines.
Overall, while this was not one of our closest races on the team side, the d1 races proved to be more competitive than ever from a individual perspective. Last fall, Coach Wes Johnson boldly declared he had arguably the fastest recruiting class in NCAA history. While this was a bold claim at the time, they backed it up on the biggest stage. Congrats to University of Arizona for winning it all and to each and every team for putting on such incredible performances. Looking for a coach? Coach JT Rodgers has coached the following:
NCAA: Numerous Scorers, 5x NCAA All Americans, 4x NCAA Individual Podiums & 1x NCAA Individual National Champion, 1x Future Olympian.
Collegiate Club: 1x Individual National Champion, 1x Team Championship, and 9x Individual Podiums.
USAT AG Nationals Overall Draft-Legal Individual Podium
Head Coach University California Irvine (2020-21)
Assistant NCAA & Club Coach / Director of Swim Development @ Queens University of CLT (2018-2020) -2x NCAA DII Championships -1x (their first ever) USAT Collegiate Combined National Championship -Promoted to Head of Swim Development during Second Season
Head Swim Coach Lifetime Athletic Charlotte (2017-2020)
Head Swim Coach Irvine Novaquatics (2012-17)Â
If interested email: jtr@wave1performance.com
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