Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, tkgallisath@noctrl.edu
TEMPE, Ariz. (Nov. 12, 2022) – The North Central College women's triathlon team capped off a phenomenal and undefeated 2022 season at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship as the Cardinals took home the championship trophy while
Hailey Poe ran away with the individual title and
Bethany Smeed was named the Division III Freshman of the Year.
North Central took an early lead with Poe breaking from the 750-meter swim in 10 minutes and 49.1 seconds to start off the race with a 12-second lead heading into the first transition. Charlotte Kumler was the next Cardinal out of the water in eighth, followed by Smeed in 10th and Abigail Anderson in 13th.
Poe dominated on the 20-kilometer bike and continued to extend her lead margin with a 38-minute, 23.1-second leg while Kumler led the pack behind Poe, turning in a 39-minute and 6.4-second leg. Scarlett Schuth made up significant ground on the bike despite coming out of the water 31st, she clocked the second-fastest bike leg behind Poe (38:26.8). Natalie Grolmes and Taylin Lemke made up a lot of ground on the bike before heading into the run.
Poe clocked a 20-minute and 2.4-second run, finishing in one hour, 10 minutes, and 47.6 seconds to capture the individual national title. Smeed turned in the third-best run time (20:30.5) while Schuth locked her eyes on her teammate in the last lap of the 5-kilometer run making up significant ground. Schuth (1:14:52.7) and Smeed (1:14:53.4) finished together in fourth and fifth, respectively. Smeed was named the Division III Freshman of the Year as the highest placing true freshman in the championship race.
Kumler (1:15:27.3) rounded out the Cardinals' top-10 finishers in seventh while Grolmes finished 15th with a season's best time of 1:19:16.5. Anderson (1:21:46.8) surpassed her season's best time by almost an entire minute to finish 25th while Lemke (1:21:55.4) hit a personal best time in the run to finish 27th.
North Central's 215 points clinched first-place trophy, marking the program's fourth national title in its history. Last year's champion, Trine University finished second (201) and Millikin University came in third (150). Millikin's head coach, Molly Duesterhaus, was named the Division III Coach of the Year.
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