Hosts Arizona State University (ASU) took the NCAA Division title today for the fifth time, continuing the team’s dominance in triathlon – it is the only school to have won the nationals since they began in 2016. The overall winner of today’s race was Canadian Kira Gupta-Baltazar, who races for San Francisco University (SFU), helping her team to a runner-up finish in the team race.
Gupta-Baltazar, who raced for Canada at last weekend’s world junior championships, led the way out of the water, but had some company on the bike. She would hit T2 right behind two-time NCAA champ Hannah Henry, then outrun her countrywoman to take the title in 1:04:20. Henry would take second in 1:04:46, leading the ASU team to the title. Gupta-Baltazar’s teammates Gillian Cridge (1:05:23) and Molly Elliott (1:05:27) took third and fourth, giving SFU three athletes in the top four. ASU’s depth, though, was enough to net the team the overall win – Amber Schlebusch finished sixth, defending champion Kyla Roy was seventh, freshman of the year Alexe Coursol took eighth, Kira Stanley was 12th, Audrey Ernst finished 15th and Liberty Ricca had mechanical issues on the bike and finished 39th.
South Dakota, the runner-up in 2019, had two athletes in the top-10, which was enough to net the team third in the standings.
You can find results from today’s race in Tempe, Arizona, here.
