With term two coming to a close we are ecstatic to share some of the exciting events the Tri team participated in this term! These included a self-organized Swim Meet, UBC Tri Du and Storm the Wall.
UBC TSC-AMS Dual
At the beginning of February, the team organized a dual swim meet with the AMS swim club to practice our swimming and have some fun competition. Races included both individual and relay events in all four disciplines (free, back, breast, fly) and IM. A few amazing results from the team include Ethan White and Emma Jean Neal placing 1st and 2nd respectively for 100 back. Our A team placed second in the 4×50 medley with a time of 2:02:40, and April St. Pierre placed 3rd in the 100 breast. Carson Wong placed 1st in the 100 free, a whole 7.09 seconds faster than the next contestant. Carson also came third in the 50 fly, only 0.48 seconds behind second place finisher, Cameron McInnes, who also placed second in the 50 free with a time of 24.7, and first in the 50 breast with 33.62. The top four spots in the 200 free were awarded to Abby Edison (2:22:20), Gabbrielle Bourgailt-Kennaley (2:33:45), Sierra Arn (2:35:87), and Adam Guthrie (2:36:84). Ethan came second with a time of 1:09:06 in the 100 IM, and was a part of the winning 50 free relay team (Cameron McInnes, Emma Jean Neal, Carson Wong). Although our athletes don’t train specifically for sprint distances, everyone did an amazing job of adapting to short, fast events. The event was super fun, and great practice!
UBC Tri DU
If you haven’t heard of the UBC Tri DU, I promise, you should keep reading: It’s a hoot! The UBC Tri Du is a yearly event on UBC Vancouver’s Campus and is BC’s longest running triathlon. There are three main categories you can participate in: First-Time Triathletes, Adult Triathletes and youth Triathletes.
We would like to give a shout out to our absolutely amazing swim coach Jaren LeFranc and our terrific triathlon coach Andrew Powell for their fantastic training plans and coaching. We had 27 of our athletes participate in the collegiate heat, competing against athletes from the University of Victoria, and the UBC AMS triathlon club. Believe it or not, we had sun! It’s March in Vancouver! Despite a windy bike ride and a tough run, our athletes once again had some amazing results. In the men’s division, Ethan White came 1st with a time of 1:08:06, followed closely by Michael Hoefert with a time of 1:08:41. For the women, Emma Jean Neal came 1st with a time of 1:10:18, followed by Abby Edison with a time of 1:13:34 and Amy Topshee with a time of 1:14:14. We would also like to acknowledge our two fastest rookie athletes, Gleb Valiakhmetov (1:13:19) and Olivia Baldassare (1:19:19). Tom Watson, one of our UBC alumni, was the fastest sprint athlete of the day with a time of 1:03:37!
Last but not least, competing in this Triathlon would have been much harder without well-functioning bikes. We would like to give a huge thank you to our sponsor Speed Theory for their support with equipment and repairs leading up to the race.
Storm the Wall
What would the UBC Triathlon team be if they didn’t participate in UBC’s amazing event, Storm the Wall. Our athletes were seen sweeping the competition on the race course, although we aren’t sure if climbing is for us! Nothing like launching yourself over a huge 12 foot wall! We had five teams competing in the competitive category, with four of them winning their heat!
Future Plans
Stay tuned for more races to come in the summer, and entertaining summer training stories. Races will include the Half Ironman in Victoria and some exciting ! In the meantime, our athletes can be found studying for their finals in April, before getting back into serious training in preparation for the summer races.