The Virginia triathlon team recently wrapped up a successful fall season and is now in training mode as they look to future races.
The team kicked off the season with the Patriot’s Sprint on Sept. 10. The Williamsburg, Va. course featured a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike ride and a 5-kilometer run. Virginia senior Cory Fines stood out with a finish time of 1:04:19, which won him second place overall. Fellow teammate and junior Andrew Brown also stood out, finishing 10th overall. In her debut, freshman Nikki Villa set the tone for the season, earning 16th place overall for women.
A few weeks later, the team traveled to Lake Anna to compete in the Giant Acorn Invitational. Featuring a 1500-meter lake swim, 42-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run, the course demanded more out of its participants than the team’s earlier race. Again, Virginia put up a strong performance — Fines finished sixth overall and Brown finished 16th overall out of a field of 391 participants. On the women’s side, Villa put up a strong showing, placing 20th for women and 105th overall.
The team raced at Smith Mountain Lake Oct. 14 for the Conference Championships, the pinnacle of the fall season. Fines again led the team, finishing eighth overall with a time of 1:58:16. Fellow senior Robbie Courter finished in 2:10:22, knocking off his previous best time by 17 minutes and taking 32nd place overall — an even more impressive feat given that he had also participated in a draft-legal sprint triathlon the previous day. The men’s team took third place overall for the season and fourth place in the Conference Championships, with Fines leading the team as he finished fifth overall individually in season standings.
On the women’s side, Virginia senior Cristina Bertone led the way, finishing 14th with a time of 2:26:57. Teammate and freshman Sarah Saunders also shined with the fourth-fastest swim time, finishing 14th. The women’s team, as well as the men’s, finished third overall for the season.
The Cavaliers’ successful season didn’t come without some obstacles. Despite its status as a club team, the Virginia triathlon team competes against other club teams that resemble varsity squads. The team also trains as much as a varsity squad would, with scheduled practices twice a day, six days a week — though many members practice at other times.
Brown described the difficulties in being considered a club team but competing against other teams that get varsity benefits.
“Financial support, a lot of free equipment, scheduled practice times, academic schedules that work around their athletic schedules — we don’t get any of that,” Brown said. “I really enjoyed watching Cory [Fines] be able to stick with people who have scholarships, free bikes and a lot of support that he doesn’t have, given that he wakes up at … 6 a.m. to train before going to work in a lab all day. You get some joy out of that because a lot of the other kids have a lot of other stuff that we don’t get.”
Fines elaborated on the challenges of growing the team in spite of the challenges it faces.
“We’re trying to become more serious as the years go by,” Fines said. “It’s a club, but we face clubs that are basically varsity teams.”
The team is always looking for new members and welcomes members with any sort of running, swimming or cycling background — or no background at all. The team is currently predominantly female, and the majority of its members had not had any formal triathlon experience prior to joining Virginia’s club team.
Villa decided to join as a freshman after competing in triathlons in high school.
“There’s actually a good amount of first-year girls on it, and I’m the only one who had really done it before, and they come and start to race and it’s pretty chill,” Villa said. “I grew up doing triathlons, so I knew I wanted to get involved with the team when I got here. I did all three races this year, I really enjoyed all of them [and] I did my first Olympic distance — which is the longer one — and I really enjoyed that.”
The team continues training into the winter, ultimately in preparation for USA Triathlon’s Collegiate Club National Championships, which will take place April 27-28 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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