GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's triathlon team will aim for another high national championship finish when the Mavericks head to Tempe, Arizona for Saturday's Women's Collegiate Triathlon National Championships.
 
The Mavericks have finished amongst the top four NCAA Division II teams in each of the last six national championships since 2018 and are ranked fourth heading in this time as well.
 
Live results from the event can be seen here.
 
Format Explainer
 
Three separate waves of will be contested on Saturday at the Tempe Town North Lake Park, with the first wave set to go off at 10:30 a.m.  Six of the seven Mavericks will race in Heat 2, which will begin at 12:45 p.m.  The third wave, set for a 3 p.m. start, will feature CMU freshman Alexandra Schipai, the Mavs' top performer throughout much of the season.
 
Triathletes from all over the country qualified for their respective waves through their performances at their respective regional qualifiers two weeks ago or at various cup races earlier in the season.
 
The final times from all three waves of Saturday's event will be merged together to determine the overall individual standings.  Overall team scores will then be calculated from those individual standings.
 
Up to five individuals will be counted in each team's score while the sixth and seventh finisher from a given team will displace other teams.
 
Teams are limited to seven entries.
 
Although the individual and team standings will be calculated from the overall all-encompassing results, awards will be presented to the top individual and teams in each of the three NCAA Divisions.
 
Saturday's festivities will be held in conjunction with the Sun Devil Triathlon Classic, an age group draft legal sprint race earlier Saturday morning.
 
Course Preview
 
Saturday's races will include a 750-meter swim on a rectangular course in the Salt River followed by a 20-kilometer big segment over three laps in the area.  The races will then conclude with a 5K run over two laps on an out-and-back course along the edge of the river.
 
A complete course map can be seen on the race information website.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks were last in action two weeks ago the Women's Collegiate Triathlon West Regional Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. | RECAP
 
The Mavericks recorded their seventh straight top-2 finish in the Division II standings, placing second in the division and sixth overall out of 14 teams with a score of 305 points.
 
The Mavs had three of the top seven Division II finishers and had six in the top 50 overall.
 
Estonian freshman Alexandra Schipai led the Mavericks, finishing 30^th overall and third amongst Division II athletes with a time of one hour, nine minutes, 10.32 seconds.  Shantelle Tupaz was 35^th overall and fifth in Division II in 1:10:04.29 while Nadine Klive took 37^th overall in 1:10:45.50.
 
Arizona had each of the top five and eight of the top 11 finishers to claim a dominant overall and Division I win with 450 points while host TCU took second with 406.  Drury finished fifth with 335 points to claim the Division II win and had four of the top seven Division II finishers.
 
Regional Honors
 
The Mavericks snagged three Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association All-Region honors, which were awarded to the top seven finishers in each division at both of the regional championships.  The Maverick honorees were freshman Alexandra Schipai, sophomore Shantelle Tupaz and senior Nadine Klive who took third, fifth and seventh, respectively in the Division II portion of the West Regional Championship standings.
 
Schipai was also named as the Division II West Region All-Freshman as the top freshman finisher.  She is the Mavs' second straight and sixth such honoree joining Tupaz (2024), current teammate Josie Williams (2022) and former Mav standouts Anna Lausch (2018), Mazzy Jackson (2019) and Paloma Suarez Davila (2021).
 
The Mavericks have now claimed 22 CTCA All-Region honors since beginning their program in 2017, claiming one each year other than in 2020, when no races were held due to COVID. 
 
Tupaz and Klive are now amongst a group of seven all-time Mavericks with multiple honors.  Tupaz was CMU's lone honoree in 2024, while Klive was honored as a sophomore in 2023.

A look at the lineup
 
Fourth year Head Coach Jen Mathe's 7-woman lineup is made up of Alexandra Schipai, Shantelle Tupaz, Nadine Klive, Josie Williams, Mackenzie Mayer, Fiona Graves and Sylvie Aardema Gagnon.  Jaycee Stephens is the Mavs' alternate.
 
The group of seven includes all three of the Mavs' seniors (Graves, Klive, Williams), two sophomores (Mayer, Tupaz)  and two freshman (Aardema Gagnon, Schipai) and includes each of the top four and five of the team's top seven finishers at the regional.  Four of the seven were also a part of the Mavs' fourth place team at last year's national championships in Clermont, Florida and all five of the Mavs' sophomores and seniors have previous national championship experience.
 
Mayer leads the list of returners from last year's team after placing 73^rd overall and 18^th amongst Division II finishers last year to join graduated seniors Shannon Feran and Torin Lackmann as all-Americans.  Nadine Klive just missed out on an honorable mention all-America honor, placing 87^th overall and 22^nd amongst Division II athletes. 
 
Shantelle Tupaz raced in a separate wave and finished 100^th overall and 30^th amongst Division II athletes.  Josie Williams was 113^th last year.
 
Klive also raced at nationals in 2022 and 2023 finishing 11^th in Division II as a freshman and 19^th as a sophomore. Williams was 21^st as a freshman in 2022 and missed most of the 2023 season due to injury.
 
Fiona Graves finished 27^th amongst Division II triathletes in 2023 and has missed her other two national championship opportunities due to injury.
 
Quest for All-America honors
 
The top 21 Division II finishers in Saturday's races will earn CTCA All-America honors with the first seven garnering first team accolades while the eighth through 14^th place finishers will take home second team honors.  The 15^th-21^st place finishers from the Division II will be named as Honorable Mention All-Americans.
 
The Mavs have had 11 different women earn 18 combined All-America honors since founding their program in 2017 and have had at least three honorees in each of the past four seasons. 

Three of this year's team members are amongst that group.  Nadine Klive was a second team honoree as a freshman in 2022 and earned honorable mention honors as a sophomore in 2023.  Josie Williams (2022) and Mackenize Mayer (2024) were honorable mention honorees as freshman.
 
Rankings
 
The Mavs entered the regional championships ranked 14^th in the overall Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association's overall national rankings. They were ranked fourth amongst Division II teams.
 
The Mavericks had 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 from the regular season.
 
New team rankings were not calculated after the regional.
 
However, individual rankings were updated as the basis for the wave assignments and seedings for Saturday's races.  To see the complete seeding list, please click here.

Alexandra Schipai is ranked 70^th with 90.762 points and is in the "A" Wave, made up of the top 75 seeds.  Shantelle Tupaz, who was the lone Mav in last year's top wave, will lead the rest of the Maverick contingent in the "B" Wave this year as the No. 77 seed with 89.597 points.
 
Nadine Klive (84^th, 88.727), Fiona Graves (91^st, 86.690), Josie Williams (94^th, 86.537), Mackenize Mayer (95^th, 86.430) and Sylvie Aardema Gagnon (103^rd, 85.230) will also be in the top half of the "B" wave.
 
Arizona State (501.96) had a narrow lead over Arizona (501.85) in the overall national rankings heading into the regional and each won their respective regional titles.
 
Wingate, ranked sixth with 481.76 points, is the defending Division II national champions and won the Division II crown at this year's East Regional while finishing fourth overall.  Ninth-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne (476.01) was the only other Division II team in the top 10.  Drury was ranked 12^th going into their regional win.  Cal Poly Humboldt (16^th), Black Hills State (18^th) and Indianapolis (20^th) finished behind the Mavs at the West Regional and are the other Division II teams inside the top 20.
 
National History
 
The Mavericks began their program in 2017, taking ninth place out of 11 overall teams.   Standings were not split by division that year.  The Mavs have since recorded top 4 finishes amongst Division II teams every year since, placing second twice (2018, 2022), third in 2023) and fourth out of eight teams in both 2019 and 2021.  They were fourth out of 12 teams last year.
 
There was no championship in 2020 due to COVID ramifications.
 
Up Next
 
Saturday's race will conclude the fall championship season. The Mavericks have not yet announced their spring non-championship season schedule.