Champions Crowned in Draft-Legal Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon at 2024 Multisport National Championship Festival Presented by Mutual of Omaha

Omaha, Neb. – Age group multisport athletes raced the exciting draft-legal format at Lake Cunningham on Saturday, June 8 at the 2024 USA Triathlon Multisport National Championships Festival Presented by Mutual of Omaha. Athletes competed for national titles in Draft-Legal Sprint Triathlon & Sprint Duathlon National Championships, and youth triathletes raced Saturday evening in the RipRoar Omaha Youth Triathlon.

Draft-legal racing is the same format elite triathletes race at the World Triathlon level and Olympic Games. With drafting allowed on the bike, athletes racing in draft-legal events ride and work together in packs, creating a dynamic, exciting race. 

The morning kicked off with the Draft-Legal Sprint Duathlon National Championships, which consisted of a 2.5-kilometer run, followed by a 20k bike and a 1.5k run. 

In the men’s race, Juan Cortes (Centennial, Colo.) — who finished second overall in the Standard Duathlon National Championships on Friday —  took home the overall national title in a time of 58 minutes, 47 seconds. He had a battle with his competitors, as Cortes raced neck and neck with second-place finisher, Sean Price (Long Beach, Calif., 30-34 winner), and third-place finisher Derek Stone (Westlake, Calif., 35-39 winner), who finished just seconds behind in 58:49 and 58:56, respectively.

Notable performances included rising junior athletes Hunter Dorrill (Dallas, Texas, 1:10:34) and Chase Adkins (Haverhill, Mass., 1:15:40), who took first and second, respectively, in the 13-16 age group category.

In her first-ever Draft-Legal Sprint Duathlon, Elizabeth Ordeman (San Francisco, Calif.) took the overall title in the women’s race in a time of 1:06:17, edging out second-place finisher Michelle Christine (Leesburg, Va., 1:06:44) by just under half a minute.

“It was really awesome working with Michelle (Christine),” Ordeman said. “She’s a super strong cyclist, so I knew I had to stick together with her and then just try to hammer it on the run. I just know running is what I’ve been doing since I was a kid so I was like ‘if there’s one aspect of this race I know I can suffer on, it’s the run’ so I was just kind of like, I raced Michelle in the super-sprint tri on Thursday, so I felt like based on how we did in that race, like I could out-run her if I just stayed with her.”

Dominique Stasulli (Boulder, Colo.), who won the overall national title in Friday’s Standard Duathlon National Championships, placed third in the Draft-Legal Duathlon National Championships in a time of 1:08:24. All three women also won their age groups in Thursday’s Super Sprint Duathlon National Championship.

Saturday’s events continued with the Draft-Legal Sprint Triathlon National Championships, consisting of a 750m swim, 20k bike, followed by a 5k run.

Working Triathlete’s Jackson Harrell (Novi, Mi.), the winner of Thursday's Super Sprint Duathlon Time Trial National Championships and the Aquabike National Championships, cruised to victory in a time of 1:00:06 for his third overall national title of the event. Harrell is a student at Michigan State and a member of the club triathlon team. He credits his clubs and teammates for helping him achieve his goals.

“I have a family at Michigan State Triathlon Club, so massive shout out to them. And then I have my second family at Working Triathlete. You have to give it all to the people around you. That's how you make this sport good,” Harrell said. “It's a lonely sport, but when you surround yourself with like-minded people you're going to have a blast and you're going to win races.”

Harrell was followed by Tom Hutchison (Renton, Wash.) in a time of 1:00:40 and Andrew Vanlandingham (Nashville, Tenn.) in 1:02:04, both securing top spots in their age categories.

Harrell’s Working Triathlete teammate, Jenna Haufler (Mill Valley, Calif.), who won Thursday's Super-Sprint Time Trial National Championships overall title, won Saturday's Draft-Legal Sprint Triathlon National Championships overall title in a time of 1:05:51. Haufler came in second in the Aquabike National Championships on Friday, just behind Stephanie Oechsner (St. Peters, Mo.) who finished second behind Haufler Saturday in the Draft-Legal Sprint Triathlon, in a time of 1:09:02.

“I'm not here to win, I'm here to push myself as hard as I can and push myself to my limits. I've been training really hard, so to be able to go out there and let my fitness shine and see my training shine through makes me proud of my effort,” Haufler said. 

Christine, who finished second in the Draft-Legal Duathlon National Championship Saturday morning, placed third overall in the Draft-Legal Triathlon National Championships in a time of 1:10:24, winning her 40-44 age group.

At each USA Triathlon National Championship event, athletes can choose to race in the weight-based Clydesdale or Athena category. Clydesdale and Athena is its own division and is broken up into age groups  (39 and younger, 40-54, 55 and older for Athena, 60 and older for Clydesdale). 

Eric Michel (Westmont, Ill.) was the overall Clydesdale champion in the Draft-Legal Triathlon National Championship.

“The draft-legal format is a fun strategic race. I got on to a good group on the bike, which helped me out there,” said Michel, who has competed in the Clydesdale division since 2019. “I've really embraced the camaraderie and community with those guys in the Clydesdale community. Coming to these events year after year you get to know them well competing against them. They bring it every year. It's always good competition. They always keep me striving to do more."

The evening ended with the RipRoar Omaha Youth Triathlon, a first-ever “night race,” that was capped by a movie night at Cunningham Lake Park’s amphietheater. Starting in 2018, RipRoar's Youth triathlon Series are produced on behalf of The Youth Tribe, a Des Moines based non-profit focused on continuing the tradition of triathlon for the next generation.