TEMPE, Ariz. - As the sun rises on Arizona State triathlon, it almost seems serendipitous as the three elements of triathlon directly correspond with the three prongs of the Sun Devil pitchfork. But it's been a long road to get here, notes head coach Cliff English, who previously coached Olympic athletes and served as USA Triathlon's Elite National Team Coach.
"At USA Triathlon, we had an infrastructure – we had head coaches, assistant coaches, bike mechanics, sponsors, everything – already. I'm still just as excited as I was when I started, but now I realize how much work goes into building a program and the things I took for granted working with professional athletes."
Leading up to the Sun Devils' first of four competitions this inaugural season, at the Central Regional Qualifier in Naperville, Ill. on Sept. 5, Coach English gives details on what fans and supporters need to know about ASU triathlon.
What made ASU the right opportunity?
When I was the national team coach for the US program, we always saw a gap in development during the college years. We had great junior programs in place, they would go to college and either ran or swam, then came back to our sport. We always saw the NCAA as this opportunity – to go to college, get an incredible degree at a great school, and do the sport you love. So it had a bigger meaning for me.
As part of the interview process, they had Coach Bob Bowman call me and then I got really excited, of course. Once I met everyone here, from Ray Anderson to Deana Garner-Smith to Rocky Harris, you could just see the passion involved with Sun Devil Athletics and this seemed like the right fit. You're always looking for the right combination of people and the right environment where you can do something special and actually, at 45, I hadn't felt that until I got here. That's how moving it was.
How did you recruit for the first class and how will the program evolve?
Most of the freshmen were swimmers or runners in high school and I wanted young women I could develop over four years, but also wanted to choose a few well-established triathletes. The language used in my interview process was that there are no limitations and I'm a big believer in competing with integrity. I know Dr. Crow is a big believer in the Olympic movement, which is also important to me, so that's one of my future goals, to have someone from this program go to the games, or at least the trials, in Tokyo in four years.
How long are the distances and what does a competition look like?
It's always swim, bike, run and we'll do a 750 meter swim, a 20 kilometer bike, and a five kilometer run. The thought being, in terms of the history of the sport, it was apparently put in that order for safety. When you're most tired, you don't want to be in the water where you could possibly drown. So, the thought was if you're going to pass out, it would be on your run and wouldn't hurt too much. Competition should take anywhere from an hour and two minutes to an hour and nine minutes.
Who will be competing Monday for the Sun Devils?
You can have up to five competing but we will have three that I thought would be good to start the season. Then that gives the others another six weeks to get ready, into the groove of training, and learning about triathlon.
Katie Gorczyca is originally from Nevada but transferred from the Colorado Springs Elite Triathlon Academy. She's actually going to represent the US at the World Championships in Cozumel next month. She's a very good all-around athlete and we're very happy to have her on the team to bring a lot of experience in training and racing.
Charlotte Ahrens is a freshman and a two-time German National Champion as a junior in triathlon, as well as on the German National Team. She's also had quite a bit of experience in triathlon and has been around the sport for four to five years.
Delaney Bucker is a freshman from Indianapolis and has had a few years experience competing in draft legal style as well. She also brings some experience and is going to continue to develop.
How is collegiate triathlon scored?
Scoring is modeled after cross-country, where lowest score wins, and all triathletes who finish will be given an overall finish place. The first three finishers on each team will be counted towards scoring.
What does the present and future of NCAA triathlon look like?
Right now, ASU is the only Power Five school, one of just two Division I schools to sponsor triathlon as an NCAA sport, most are Division II and Division III. The first year, with the guidance of USA Triathlon and the NCAA, we're going to be competing against some very good club teams. Next year, the NCAA and USA Triathlon will be pushing towards just DI, DII, and DIII teams competing at nationals.
How do you train for triathlon?
We try to be well balanced, although triathlon programs usually tend to be swim heavy. However, a lot of people come to triathlon with a strong run or swim background, then bike is the one portion you can teach a lot of people to become better at. So we definitely swim five times a week, bike three to four, then run a similar amount to biking depending on the athlete. We are running a team program but I'm also mindful of where everyone is as far as skill.
What are the differences between swimming in a lake (like in triathlon) versus swimming in a pool?
In open water swimming, you have to do what's called sighting, just being able to look up and see where you're going and then put your head back down. When you consider swimming in a lake, you can't always see beneath you. If you can see your hand, that's great, but you can't usually see past that. So having a sense of direction and not veering to one side is something we work on and that is important.
It's also important to stay calm being so close to the other athletes. We've done some work where we have them swimming all really close together because there will be 60-70 girls running into the water together and the first few yards are a lot of contact. You turn to one side, you might get a hand in your face, then you turn to the other side, and you might get a wake from the person next to you, so it's definitely different and puts you out of your comfort zone.
Are there any key terms necessary to understand triathlon?
The transition area is a rectangular area that's pretty uniform from race to race. They have racks where everyone racks their bikes and most the time, they'll have helmets on top and sunglasses inside, with bike shoes attached to the pedals. They're racing in the same suit, they're just putting on a helmet and sunglasses at most, then coming back in super quickly, will have their feet on top of their bike and rack it, then back out super fast.
There is also a mount line and a dismount line to the transition area where you're coming in from the swim, going out on the bike, coming back on the bike, and going into the run. It's all happening very quickly and any kind of lollygagging could be the difference between a top five and top 15 finish.
The type of triathlon we'll compete in is called draft legal which means there's no limit to how closely athletes can be to each other, using road bikes in the biking portion.
How does National Championship qualification work?
The top four five-person teams and top five individuals from each of three regional qualifiers (60 athletes) as well as the top five individuals from each regional qualifier not on a qualifying team (15 athletes) will make up the 75-person Collegiate Varsity Women's National Championship field.
"At USA Triathlon, we had an infrastructure – we had head coaches, assistant coaches, bike mechanics, sponsors, everything – already. I'm still just as excited as I was when I started, but now I realize how much work goes into building a program and the things I took for granted working with professional athletes."
Leading up to the Sun Devils' first of four competitions this inaugural season, at the Central Regional Qualifier in Naperville, Ill. on Sept. 5, Coach English gives details on what fans and supporters need to know about ASU triathlon.
What made ASU the right opportunity?
When I was the national team coach for the US program, we always saw a gap in development during the college years. We had great junior programs in place, they would go to college and either ran or swam, then came back to our sport. We always saw the NCAA as this opportunity – to go to college, get an incredible degree at a great school, and do the sport you love. So it had a bigger meaning for me.
As part of the interview process, they had Coach Bob Bowman call me and then I got really excited, of course. Once I met everyone here, from Ray Anderson to Deana Garner-Smith to Rocky Harris, you could just see the passion involved with Sun Devil Athletics and this seemed like the right fit. You're always looking for the right combination of people and the right environment where you can do something special and actually, at 45, I hadn't felt that until I got here. That's how moving it was.
How did you recruit for the first class and how will the program evolve?
Most of the freshmen were swimmers or runners in high school and I wanted young women I could develop over four years, but also wanted to choose a few well-established triathletes. The language used in my interview process was that there are no limitations and I'm a big believer in competing with integrity. I know Dr. Crow is a big believer in the Olympic movement, which is also important to me, so that's one of my future goals, to have someone from this program go to the games, or at least the trials, in Tokyo in four years.
How long are the distances and what does a competition look like?
It's always swim, bike, run and we'll do a 750 meter swim, a 20 kilometer bike, and a five kilometer run. The thought being, in terms of the history of the sport, it was apparently put in that order for safety. When you're most tired, you don't want to be in the water where you could possibly drown. So, the thought was if you're going to pass out, it would be on your run and wouldn't hurt too much. Competition should take anywhere from an hour and two minutes to an hour and nine minutes.
Who will be competing Monday for the Sun Devils?
You can have up to five competing but we will have three that I thought would be good to start the season. Then that gives the others another six weeks to get ready, into the groove of training, and learning about triathlon.
Katie Gorczyca is originally from Nevada but transferred from the Colorado Springs Elite Triathlon Academy. She's actually going to represent the US at the World Championships in Cozumel next month. She's a very good all-around athlete and we're very happy to have her on the team to bring a lot of experience in training and racing.
Charlotte Ahrens is a freshman and a two-time German National Champion as a junior in triathlon, as well as on the German National Team. She's also had quite a bit of experience in triathlon and has been around the sport for four to five years.
Delaney Bucker is a freshman from Indianapolis and has had a few years experience competing in draft legal style as well. She also brings some experience and is going to continue to develop.
How is collegiate triathlon scored?
Scoring is modeled after cross-country, where lowest score wins, and all triathletes who finish will be given an overall finish place. The first three finishers on each team will be counted towards scoring.
What does the present and future of NCAA triathlon look like?
Right now, ASU is the only Power Five school, one of just two Division I schools to sponsor triathlon as an NCAA sport, most are Division II and Division III. The first year, with the guidance of USA Triathlon and the NCAA, we're going to be competing against some very good club teams. Next year, the NCAA and USA Triathlon will be pushing towards just DI, DII, and DIII teams competing at nationals.
How do you train for triathlon?
We try to be well balanced, although triathlon programs usually tend to be swim heavy. However, a lot of people come to triathlon with a strong run or swim background, then bike is the one portion you can teach a lot of people to become better at. So we definitely swim five times a week, bike three to four, then run a similar amount to biking depending on the athlete. We are running a team program but I'm also mindful of where everyone is as far as skill.
What are the differences between swimming in a lake (like in triathlon) versus swimming in a pool?
In open water swimming, you have to do what's called sighting, just being able to look up and see where you're going and then put your head back down. When you consider swimming in a lake, you can't always see beneath you. If you can see your hand, that's great, but you can't usually see past that. So having a sense of direction and not veering to one side is something we work on and that is important.
It's also important to stay calm being so close to the other athletes. We've done some work where we have them swimming all really close together because there will be 60-70 girls running into the water together and the first few yards are a lot of contact. You turn to one side, you might get a hand in your face, then you turn to the other side, and you might get a wake from the person next to you, so it's definitely different and puts you out of your comfort zone.
Are there any key terms necessary to understand triathlon?
The transition area is a rectangular area that's pretty uniform from race to race. They have racks where everyone racks their bikes and most the time, they'll have helmets on top and sunglasses inside, with bike shoes attached to the pedals. They're racing in the same suit, they're just putting on a helmet and sunglasses at most, then coming back in super quickly, will have their feet on top of their bike and rack it, then back out super fast.
There is also a mount line and a dismount line to the transition area where you're coming in from the swim, going out on the bike, coming back on the bike, and going into the run. It's all happening very quickly and any kind of lollygagging could be the difference between a top five and top 15 finish.
The type of triathlon we'll compete in is called draft legal which means there's no limit to how closely athletes can be to each other, using road bikes in the biking portion.
How does National Championship qualification work?
The top four five-person teams and top five individuals from each of three regional qualifiers (60 athletes) as well as the top five individuals from each regional qualifier not on a qualifying team (15 athletes) will make up the 75-person Collegiate Varsity Women's National Championship field.