JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a day that will go down in program history, the Northern Kentucky women's triathlon team took to competition for the first time in school history and the Norse showed they belong with a fourth-place finish at the season-opening East Tennessee State Aquathlon.
"It was really exciting to have our program's first-ever competition," head coach Brooks Doughtie said. "I was really excited for the performances in terms of just really trying to compete to their best."
"This was a race that has a NCAA Division II two-time national champion with Lenoir-Rhyne and a top-seven team in NCAA Division I in ETSU," Doughtie added. "There was some fierce competition and some teams that I think we could compete well against. Overall, I was really pleased with the performance and excited to take this opportunity and learn from it to apply it to races later in the season. We will get back to training and apply what we learned and experienced here to set us up for success later in the season."
THE BASICS
RESULTS: Fourth Overall (64 Points)
MEET: East Tennessee State Aquathlon
LOCATION: East Tennessee State University
NOTABLES
- The Norse were led by Alisha Detmer out of heat one. She finished 13th overall as she completed the swim in 7:20, T1 in 30 seconds and the two-mile run in 13:20 for an overall time of 21:10.
- Coming out of heat two was Sophie McEwen who finished 25th. She posted marks of 8:10 for the swim, 33 seconds for the T1 and 16 minutes for the two-mile run for an overall time of 25:43.
- Josie Timmers finished one spot behind her as she came in 26th place with an overall time of 26:39. She recorded a mark of 7:48 in the swim, 41 seconds in the T1 and 18:10 for the two-mile run.
- Graduate student Kelly Villanueva competed in heat three to round things out for the Norse. She finished in 30th overall with times of 8:03 in the swim, 21 seconds in the T1 and 22 minutes for the two-mile run.
- The four NKU student-athletes helped lead the Norse to a fourth-place finish in their first competition in program history.
- Northern Kentucky also finished just three points out of a podium spot in third place.
TEAM SCORES
1. East Tennessee State: 147 Points
2. Lenoir-Rhyne: 146 Points
3. King: 67 Points
4. Northern Kentucky: 64 Points
5. Hampton: 45 Points
NEXT UP
The Norse hit the road for the University of Indianapolis's Greyhound Super Sprint on Saturday, September 7. The competition will get underway at 10:30 AM ET.
