GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After taking second place a year ago, the Colorado Mesa University women's triathlon team will look for national title this week when the Mavericks head to Tempe, Arizona for this Saturday's Women's Collegiate Triathlon National Championships.
 
The Mavericks will enter the national meet after winning their fifth consecutive Division II West Regional title last month and are seeded third amongst Division II schools and 11^th overall.
 
Race Format
 
Saturday's draft legal sprint race will be held in and around the Tempe Town North Lake and will consist of a single lap 750-meter swim in the waters of the Salt River, followed by a 3-lap, 20-kilometer bike segment and a 5K run over two laps.
 
Course maps and more information about the event, hosted by Arizona State University, can be seen on the event website.  Results will also be available through that site.
 
The Mavericks will race at 2:15 in Heat 2.
 
The Mavericks also have entered two athletes, who are alternates for the national championships, in Saturday morning's Challenge Cup age-group races, which will double as a qualifier for the 2024 World Triathlon Championships Finals in Malaga, Spain.
 
Who's Competing
 
Head Coach Jen Mathe's planned 7-woman lineup for the national championships is the same that the Mavericks used to win their fifth consecutive regional title last month in Springfield, Missouri.   Individual regional champion Shannon Feran headlines the lineup as of the Mavs' four returning all-Americans will be joined by national championship Natalie Mitchell, Nadine Klive, Torin Lackmann as well as Fiona Graves, Emma Polenske and Abby Croasdell.
 
Yoana Tohom and Maha Akl will be the Mavs' alternates who are currently entered in the Challenge Cup, which will be raced on the same course in the morning.  If needed to go into Mathe's lineup, they would pull out of that morning race.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks won their fifth consecutive regional title last month (Oct. 14), scoring 361 team points, at the Women's Collegiate Triathlon West National Qualifier in Springfield, Missouri.
 
The Mavs had three of the four fastest Division II individual finishers.
 
Shannon Feran won the Division II individual title by more than a minute, finishing the course in one hour, five minutes, 29.72 seconds and finished 14^th overall from a group of 121 finishers, 123 starters and 127 entrants from 16 colleges and universities, including four Division II squads.  The course featured a 750-meter lake swim, a 2-lap, 12-mile bike course and a 5K run segment.
 
Natalie Mitchell (1:07.52.18) and Nadine Klive (1:08.24.12) were the third and fourth Division II finishers as the Mavs out-pointed hometown Drury (336), Black Hills State (290) and Cal Poly Humboldt (141) as the other Division II teams in the collegiate event, part of the Heartland Triathlon Cup.  Mitchell and Klive were the 33^rd and 36^th overall finishers.
 
Torin Lackmann finished eighth amongst Division II triathletes and 43^rd overall in 1:09.22.78 while Polenske rounded out the Mavs' team score with a 49^th place finish in 1:10:40.33.  She was the 11^th Division II finisher.
 
Abby Croasdell finished right behind in 50^th place with a time of 1:10.52.85 while Fiona Graves finished 53^rd overall and 14^th amongst the Division II triathletes in 1:11.11.87.

To view the complete regional recap, please click here.  
 
Race Format & Rankings
 
Like the regionals, Saturday's championship race will be contested in two heats, with the times merged together to determine the final results.  The three NCAA Divisions will have separate event champions but will be racing together, a major change from last year when each division had a separate race.
 
The Mavs have been seeded in the "fast" heat, based on the season-long rankings, conducted by the College Triathlon Coaches Association.  The Mavs are ranked 11^th overall and third amongst Division II squads with a ranking calculation of 467.124 points.  Twelve total teams, nine of which hail from the Division I ranks, will be in that heat, which will also include another 15 qualified individuals, again based on the ranking calculation.
 
Teams qualified to be in the fast heat by finishing amongst the top three of their respective regional qualifier, which were also conducted in a similar format.  An additional six teams were then selected at-large, which was how the Mavs gained their advantage of having the ability to race with faster triathletes, especially important for the draft-legal bike portion of the race.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne, which edged the Mavs for the national title last year, is ranked eighth overall with a ranking score of 478.313 points, just ahead of East Region rival Wingate (477.612), ranked ninth overall as the only other Division II squad in the fast heat.
 
Drury, CMU's closest competition at the regional, is ranked 13^th overall with 461.699 points, but does have five individuals amongst the 15 qualifiers for the "fast" heat.  Black Hills State will also have two individuals in the fast heat while the rest of the Division II teams will only be represented in the earlier heat, which is slated for a Noon start.
 
Arizona State, which won the Division I title for the sixth straight year last year, is ranked first overall with 493.671 points, just ahead of Queens, now in its' second year in Division I after winning the previous six Division II titles.  Those two teams won the West and East Region titles, respectively last month.
 
San Francisco (489.703), Denver (487.624) and TCU (485.853) round out the rest of the top five.
 
The complete rankings can be seen at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyjCPuIbzEy4eqOilwq_D3bZkSqK2ujZ_JHOyX8sgYw/edit?usp=sharing
 
All-Region
 
Shannon Feran, Natalie Mitchell and Nadine Klive were all named as CTCA All-Region honorees after their performances at the West National Qualifier.  The top seven finishers from each division earn the honors.
 
The Mavs led the Division II portion of the region with their three selections while Drury and Black Hills State had two selections each.
 
Feran and Mitchell have now earned the plaudits in each of the last two years while Klive was a first team honoree after taking eighth at last year's regional qualifier.  Feran and Mitchell had finished second and fourth, respectively, in 2022.
 
The Mavs have now had 18 total CTCA All-Region selections since starting their program in 2017.
 
National History
 
The Mavs will also be gunning for a fifth consecutive top-4 finish at the national championships this year after finishing second for the second time last year, something they had also done in 2018.  The Mavs had finished fourth in the previous two championships in 2021 and in 2019.  The 2020 championships were canceled due to COVID-19 ramifications.  The Mavs placed ninth in 2017, their initial season.
 
All-America Honors
 
More honors will also be at state on Saturday as the CTCA will recognize the top 21 individual finishers in each division with all-America plaudits.  The top seven will be designated as first team selections while the 8^th-14^th place finishers will be given second team honors.  The 15^th-21^st place finishers will be designated as CTCA Honorable Mention All-Americans.
 
A National Coach of the Year will be also selected by a vote of CTCA member coaches.
 
All seven of the Mavericks at last year's national championships earned all-America honors with Shannon Feran, Nadine Klive, Torin Lackmann and Natalie Mitchell looking to repeat those honors this year.  Feran was a first team pick in 2022 and earned second team honors in 2021 as one of the Mavericks' only two former 2-time all-American.  Paloma Suarez Davila is a 2-time honorable mention pick as well.
 
Feran could become the first 3-time all-American in program history on Saturday.
 
Klive earned second team honors last year with Lackmann and Mitchell earned honorable mention honors last year.
 
CMU has had nine previous CTCA All-Americans, who have combined to win 11 such honors.
 
Feran led the Mavs at last year's national championships, placing seventh in 1:07:20.6.  Klive took 11^th as CMU's third finisher while Lackmann finished 15^th.  Mitchell was 17^th.
 
Croasdell also raced on the course last year, placing fourth amongst all women and first in the 20-24 age group in the morning Sun Devil Triathlon Classic, similar to this year's morning cup race.
 
Up Next
 
Saturday's race will conclude the fall championship season.  The Mavs but are scheduled to compete at least one meet in the spring, heading to Clermont, Florida for the Clermont Draft Legal Challenge in early March (Mar. 2-3).