USAT 2017 Collegiate & High School National Championships

COLLEGIATE CLUB AND HIGH SCHOOL TRIATHLETES TO RACE FOR NATIONAL TITLES IN TUSCALOOSA NEXT WEEK
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The nation’s top collegiate club and high school triathletes will compete for national titles starting next Friday at the 2017 USA Triathlon Collegiate Club & High School National Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from April 21-22.
More than 1,300 collegiate athletes from 120 clubs and more than 130 high school triathletes are set to race.
The action begins Friday at 8:15 a.m. with the fifth-annual Draft-Legal Collegiate Championships, where athletes will compete over a 750-meter swim, five-lap, 20.2-kilometer bike and 5-kilometer run course. The collegiate men will race first, followed by the collegiate women at 10 a.m.
Also on the docket for Friday is the second annual High School National Championships. Athletes will compete in sprint-distance event featuring a 750m swim, three-lap, non-drafting 20.25k bike and 5k run course. The boys’ high school race will begin at 12 p.m., and the girls’ race will follow at 1 p.m. The High School Nationals race was contested for the first time last year in Clemson, South Carolina.
Racing continues on Saturday with the marquee Collegiate Club National Championships Olympic-distance race, which has long been a staple of the Collegiate Club Nationals program. Athletes will cover a 1,500m swim, non-drafting 40k bike, 10k run course, with the men starting at 7:30 a.m. and women starting at 10:20 a.m.
The weekend concludes with the Collegiate Mixed Team Relay on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Teams are comprised of four athletes (two men and two women), with each athlete covering a 300m swim, 5.9k bike, 1.6k run course. The Mixed Team Relay event will also feature up to 10 alumni teams.
For all races, athletes will swim in Black Warrior River, bike and run on Jack Warner Parkway, the Tuscaloosa Riverwalk and surrounding roads, and finish at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater.
Qualified athletes may compete in both the draft-legal and Olympic-distance Collegiate National Championship events, and both races will count toward the overall team scores. Winners of individual races, as well as all team standings, will be announced at the award ceremony, scheduled for 8 p.m. on April 22 at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater. The Awards Ceremony will also recognize the fastest swim, bike and run splits from the Olympic-distance collegiate race.
The 2017 Collegiate Club & High School National Championships will be the first event to utilize USA Triathlon’s new National Events App. The app, which features athlete tracking, event schedules, selfie filters and more, is available now for free download on iPhone and Android devices. For more information, visit usatriathlon.org/eventsapp.
Multisport fans can also follow the action on USA Triathlon’s live blog at usatriathlon.org/usatcn17coverage. Event coverage will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the draft-legal sprint, high school and Olympic-distance events.
The University of Colorado has earned the Collegiate Club Nationals title for the past seven years and returns as the defending champion of the overall team title. Colorado also earned the men’s team title in 2016, while UCLA picked up the women’s team title for the third straight year.
Colorado’s Brittany Warly (women’s) and Penn State’s Mike Meehan (men’s) picked up individual wins last year in the Draft-Legal Collegiate Championships. Erica Clevenger of the University of Arizona earned the women’s Olympic-distance collegiate title, while Meehan took his second national title in as many days in the Olympic-distance event. Led by 2015 Collegiate Nationals champion Kelly Kosmo, UCLA earned the Mixed-Team Relay title.
Taylor Knibb (girls’) and Jake Baugher (boys’) were the inaugural high school national champions in 2016, while Sammy’s Fox Valley Region Club earned the high school club title.
A list of all collegiate club and high school competitors is available at usatriathlon.org.
Tuscaloosa is a familiar city for USA Triathlon, as it previously hosted both Collegiate Nationals in 2011 and 2012, and Age Group Nationals in 2009 and 2010.