It was a strong start to the year for reigning DII National Champion Sabrina Fleig, as she finished first out 68 competitors at the Beaver County Tri-Cup on Friday. Fleig finished with an overall time of 1:02:56, taking down the second place finisher by 23 seconds.
The course at Brady’s Run Park was a draft-legal sprint distance race, featuring a 750 meter swim, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.
Fleig, who was in eighth after the swim and sixth after the bike, ran an incredible 19:28 in the 5k portion to make up ground and take the victory. Not far behind Fleig was Zoila Sicilia, who also used a strong final run to move up to eighth with a final time of 1:05:03. Claudia Teran-Romagosa made up plenty of ground after struggling in the swim portion of the race, picking off competitors on the bike and run portion to take 13th with a 1:05:54. The final finisher for the Bears was Alessandra Maso, who came in 15th with a 1:06:48.
Despite being the only team with four people scoring (can have up to five to score), the Bears still managed to take third overall with 243 points, sitting just being DI TCU (329) and Duquense (290). They also took down reigning DIII National Champions North Central (243).
On Sunday, the Bears traveled just up the road at the Lake Davidson Sprint Triathlon. This course featured a 750 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. Leading the way for the Bears in this race was Eliska Rihova, finishing with time of 59:54. Also coming through in the top-15 was Isis Gaskin, finishing in 15th with a final time of 1:01:01. Maidi Quezada-O’Connor came through in 25th with a 1:02:20.
The Bears, who were not at full strength for the race due to resting their athletes who competed on Saturday, still managed to finish in fourth, just behind Queens, Wingate, and ETSU.
Lenoir-Rhyne will be back in action on Saturday, October 12th, when they travel down to Lake Norman to take part in the East Regionals. There they will look to qualify for their third straight national championships, where the Bears are the two-time reigning champions.
{Information provided by Lenoir-Rhyne Athletics}
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