GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's triathlon team will look to regain the top spot of the regional podium when the Mavericks travel to Fort Worth, Texas for Sunday morning's Women's Collegiate Triathlon West Regional Championship.
 
Racing at Marine Creek Lake Park will begin at 9:30 a.m. CST (8:30 a.m. Mountain) although the Maverick triathletes will race in the second wave at 11 a.m. CST (10 a.m. Mountain).
 
The Mavericks finished second amongst Division II teams at last year's West Regional in Springfield, Missouri after winning the previous five titles from 2018-2023.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks last raced three weeks ago at the Prairie State Collegiate Cup in DeWitt, Illinois, placing third overall out of 18 teams on Oct. 4.
 
The Mavs, who were second amongst Division II squads, put all five of their scorers inside the top 20 of the individual standings and tallied 511 points.
 
Drury won the race with 544 points while San Francisco was the top Division I team and second overall with 534.  North Central, the defending Division III national champions, finished fourth with 394.
 
Freshman Alexandra Schipai was the Mavs' top finisher for the second straight outing, finishing in 1:04.18 to place 11^th out of 116 starters, 110 of which finished the event that featured a 750-meter swim in Clinton Lake as well as a 12-mile bike segment and 3.2-mile run in the surrounding area.
 
A complete race recap and full results can be seen here.
 
Who's Competing
 
The Mavericks and Coach Jen Mathe have ten team members entered in Sunday's race, six of whom have previous regional championship experience.  That group includes seniors Fiona Graves, Nadine Klive and Josie Williams and sophomores Mackenzie Mayer, Jaycee Stephens, Shantelle Tupaz.  Four freshman in Sylvie Aardema Gagnon, Macy Arch, Ellayna Potter and Alexandra Schipai will round out the roster.
 
The Mavs are one of 15 teams that will compete.  That list includes ten of the top 20 teams in the country in the latest Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association Rankings (more on that below).  The Mavs are one of five Division II squads.  The Division II competition includes Black Hills State, Cal Poly Humboldt, Drury and Indianapolis.
 
Teams were circle-seeded into the respective regions based on last year's national rankings although teams could petition to be placed in a more geographical proximate event due to economic factors.
 
The East Regional will be contested on Saturday in Troutman, North Carolina as part of the US Performance Center Draft Legal Triathlon Festival.
 
Race Format
 
The full and preliminary entry list for Sunday's event includes 115 triathletes, 75 of which will race in the second "A" wave.  The others will race in the initial "B" wave.
 
The individual results from both waves will then be merged to determine the final standings, which in term will determine the final team scores.  The top five finishers from each team will score for their team while the sixth and seventh will displace lower finishes from other teams.  The eighth through tenth place finishers for teams that large will not be included in the team score calculations.
 
The team scores will be combined for all 15 teams although awards will be separated out by division.
 
About the Course
 
Sunday's race will feature a 750-meter swim in the Marine Creek Lake Park.  The draft-legal bike segment will be contested over four laps of a counter-clockwise course.  The run segment will be two laps with the lap out rule in effect.
 
Maps can be downloaded here.
 
In the Rankings
 
The Mavs are still ranked 14^th in the Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association's overall national rankings and are the fourth ranked Division II squad in the final regular season rankings, which were released on Wednesday.
 
The Mavericks have 458.41 points in the team rankings, which are calculated by adding each of the team's top five individual rankings., based on each individual's top performance.
 
Alexandra Schipai is 68^th in the national individual rankings with 94.03 points from her Desert's Edge Cup effort.  Shantelle Tupaz is ranked 93^rd with 91.50 points while Fiona Garves is now ranked 95^th with her 91.25 points from the Prairie State Collegiate Cup.  Mackenzie Mayer (90.97) is also inside the top 100 in 97^th while Nadine Klive (90.66) is rounding out the Mavs' team ranking while sitting 102^nd individually.
 
Arizona State leads the team rankings with 501.96 points, just ahead of Arizona's total of 501.85.  Arizona, No. 5 TCU (486.64), No. 8 South Dakota (476.59) and No. 10 Denver (469.81) will also compete in Fort Worth on Sunday while the other six top-10 ranked teams including Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne, will compete in the East Regional.  Wingate, ranked sixth overall with 481.76 points, is the defending Division II National Champion and the top-ranked Division II team this year.  Lenoir-Rhyne finished second in the Division II standings at last year's national championships and has 476.01 points to sit second in the division this year.
 
Drury is ranked 12^th with 461.26 points and appears to be CMU's top competition for the West regional title.  Cal Poly Humboldt (429.89) is ranked 16^th while Black Hills State (413.54) is ranked 18^th.  Indianapolis (407.33) is ranked 20^th.
 
North Central is ranked 17^th with 414.88 points as only Division III team inside the top 20 overall.
 
Regional History
 
CMU won five straight Division II regional titles from 2018-23, winning the West Region in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 as well as the St. George, Utah region in 2021.
 
The Mavs were the second best Division II squad last year behind race host Drury and took sixth out of 16 teams overall with 450 points.  Drury had 478 while the Mavs finished one spot ahead of Black Hills State (441).
 
Shantelle Tupaz was the Mavs' top finisher, taking 28^th overall as the second fastest Division II finisher with a time of 1:08.37.  Mackenzie Mayer finished 47^th as the Mavs' No. 3 finisher at 1:12.06 while Nadine Klive was fourth on the team and 53^rd overall in 1:14.11.  Jaycee Stephens finished 61^st overall (1:15.50) to round out the team score.  Josie Williams (69^th, 1:18.09) will also return from last year's lineup.
 
Notably, 4-time all-American Shannon Feran, who was the 2023 Division II regional champion did not finish last year's race.
 
Regional Awards
 
In addition to fast times, the Mavericks will be gunning for All-Region individual honors that will be determined by this weekend's event.  The top seven finishers from each division (I, II, III) will be named to the all-region team while the top true freshman finisher in each division will be named as the All-Region Freshman.
 
The Mavs had an all-region performer last year in Shantelle Tupaz, who received that freshman award after placing second amongst Division II at last year's West Regional in Springfield, Missouri. 
 
Two other current Mavericks in Nadine Klive (2023) and Josie Williams (2022) have also earned all-region honors earlier in their career.
 
The Mavericks have also had three regional champions in their history in Mazzy Jackson (2019), Megan Buchanan (2022) and Shannon Feran (2023).
 
The Mavs have had combined to win 19 all-region honors since 2017.
 
Gunning for Times
 
In addition to determining the team awards, individual results and times will be of critical importance.  The top 20 individual finishers from each of the regional events this weekend will earn a spot in the "A" heat of the Nov. 8 National Championships in Tempe, Arizona, a significant advantage in the draft-legal format.
 
The other 35 spots in that heat will be based on the individual rankings, which will be significantly updated based on the regional results this weekend, while the 76^th-150^th ranked triathletes will be put in the "B" heat.  The "C" heat will include the 151^st through 225^th seeded triathletes.
 
Teams will not necessarily race together in the national meet so every individual will be looking for a fast time this weekend.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will learn their final post-regional rankings early next week and prepare for the Nov. 8 National Championships, which return to Tempe, Arizona this year after being held in a modified format last year in Florida.