National Titles up for Grabs this Weekend in Clermont, Florida, at 2024 Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The 2024 Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships are set to take place this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8-9 in Clermont, Florida, bringing together the nation’s top women’s varsity collegiate triathletes to race for national titles.

The event, organized by Bill Burnett of Streamline Events and run in conjunction with the 2024 USA Triathlon Clermont Age Group Challenge Cup, will crown women’s collegiate champions for Division I (DI), Division II (DII) and Division III (DIII) schools from across the nation.

Clermont hosted the first-ever Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships in 2015. The Florida city with a rich triathlon history is primed to again host the premier varsity collegiate triathlon race of the season, which will have a unique, two-day race format.

The event will feature a new swim venue and format, due to damage caused by last month’s Hurricane Milton, and for safety concerns related to swimming in Lake Louisa, the originally planned swim venue. This decision was finalized by the Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association last week.

Triathletes will now compete in an open water 750-yard swim time trial on Friday at Clermont Watersports Park. That stage of the competition will begin at 10:45 EST. Those results will then set the start order and margins for a pursuit-style run/bike duathlon race on Saturday, beginning at Noon EST. That race will begin with staggered starts in each of the three waves and will begin with a short run into the transition zone for a 20-kilometer bike segment contested over four loops of a 5K course at Lake Louisa State Park. The athletes will then transition to a 5K run over two loops, which will ultimately decide the team and individual titles.

For race information, visit the event’s website.

National team titles will be awarded based on the individual race scores. Scores will be determined by the total points of up to the first five scoring athletes of each NCAA varsity team. Awards for the team champions and top-three individual awards in each division are presented by Air Force Special Warfare. Additionally, women who place in the top seven will earn All-American status.

Arizona State University is the defending DI national champion, as the Sun Devils won their seventh consecutive national title in 2023 in Tempe, Arizona. They will face competition from the Queens University of Charlotte, which is the No. 1 ranked team in the country based on the College Triathlon Coaches Association rankings. No. 2 ranked is the University of Arizona, the University of Denver is ranked No. 4 and Texas Christian University is No. 5, with ASU ranked third.

Queens won six DII national titles before jumping up to compete at the DI level in 2022, when the Royals finished second behind Arizona State. This is the second season of competition for TCU.

University of Denver’s Maira Carreau returns to defend her 2023 DI individual title.

In the DII race, defending champion Lenoir-Rhyne University comes to Clermont winners of back-to-back national titles. Last year's DII individual champion Sabrina Fleig of Lenoir-Rhyne returns to defend her title.

Fellow North Carolina school, Wingate University is primed to be in the mix for the team title, as is Colorado Mesa University. The two schools finished second and third in 2023.

In the DIII competition, North Central College of Naperville, Illinois, comes to Clermont as a five-time national champion. North Central will aim to defend its 2023 national title, led by three-time individual champion, Hailey Poe.

To date, more than 40 schools offer women’s collegiate triathlon at the varsity level, an important benchmark reached earlier this year as the NCAA Emerging Sport for Women now has a few more steps to take on its way to being fully managed by the NCAA as a Championship Sport, including committee, council, divisional and budget approvals. To learn more about Women’s Collegiate Triathlon, visit USA Triathlon’s website here.

About USA Triathlon

USA Triathlon is proud to serve as the National Governing Body for triathlon, as well as duathlon, aquathlon, aquabike, winter triathlon, off-road triathlon, paratriathlon, and indoor and virtual multisport events in the United States. Founded in 1982, USA Triathlon sanctions more than 3,500 events and races and connects with and supports more than 300,000 unique active members each year, making it the largest multisport organization in the world. In addition to its work at the grassroots level with athletes, coaches, and race directors — as well as the USA Triathlon Foundation — USA Triathlon provides leadership and support to elite athletes competing at international events, including World Triathlon World Championships, Pan American Games and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.