LOMA, Colo.— Freshman Rosa Schmidt-Moll and sophomore Alexandra Schipai finished 13^th and 15^th, respectively to lead the Colorado Mesa University women's triathlon team to a solid sixth place overall performance in their lone traditional home race of the season on Sunday morning here at Highline Lake State Park.
 
The Mavericks were also the first of three NCAA Division II teams in the loaded 10-team Desert's Edge Collegiate Cup field and finished 40 points ahead of Division I South Dakota and just one point behind a short-handed Arizona State Sun Devil squad, ranked first in the latest Collegiate Triathlon Coaches Association rankings.
 
Sixth-seven triathletes started the race, 60 of which finished.
 
Fifth-ranked TCU pulled a mild upset as the Horned Frogs had four of the top ten overall finishers to score 298 points.  Defending national champion Arizona, ranked fourth, had two of the top three finishers but took second overall with 285 points.
 
No. 6 San Francisco took third with 221 points, despite only having four finishers, edging No. 11 Denver by just three points.
 
The Sun Devils, who had two of their six triathletes fail to finish, scored 206.
 
The Mavs finished with 205 points as Schmidt-Moll and Schipai contributed 108 ahead of Shantelle Tupaz, Sylvie Aardema Gagnon and Maddie Cox, who finished 26^th, 38^th and 43^rd, respectively.
 
The nation's 13^th-ranked Mavs finished well ahead of 11^th-ranked and Division I South Dakota (165).  Division II Cal Poly Humboldt, which is ranked 18^th, was two points further back in eighth place while No. 25 Black Hills State took ninth with 100 points.  Gallaudet, ranked 29^th, was the lone Division III team in the field and finished tenth with 66 points.
 
Schmidt-Moll finished in a time of one hours, five minutes, 27 seconds while Schipai finished in 1:05.01 after both rode together in a chasing bike pack, which also included Tupaz, who turned in a time of 1:07.49.
 
The course was made up a 750-meter swim in the lake, followed by a 20-kiometer bike segment, held mostly over two laps of a circuit of Mesa County roads to the South and West of the park, and 5-kiometer out-and-back run along the dike and Westside of the lake.
 
Arizona's Molly Lakustiak pulled away from the lead pack in the run, turning in a run time of 18:59, the fastest in the entire field, to win by 14 seconds in 1:02.29.
 
San Francisco's Kjara Reckmann placed second in 1:02.43, edging Lakustiak's teammate Ruth Pardy, who took third in 1:02.45.
 
Arizona State's Cara Macdonald finished fourth in 1:03.00 while TCU's Marley Andelman led the deep Horned Frog squad with a fifth place time of 1:03.20.

Aardema Gagnon finished in 1:11.12, more than four minutes ahead of Cox, who stopped the clock in 1:15.16. 
 
The Mavericks will return to action on Oct. 10, sending a partial squad to Arizona's Cactus Collegiate Cup in Tucson, their final tuneup for the NCAA West Regional Championships on Oct. 18, which will be hosted by TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.
 
Team Scores (CTCA Ranking in Parenthesis)

1. TCU (#5) – 298 (63-61-60-58-56)
2. Arizona (#4)- 285 (67-65-59-49-45)
3. San Francisco (#6)- 221 (66-57-50-48)
4. Denver (#11)- 218 (51-46-44-40-37)
5. Arizona State (#1)- 206 (64-54-47-41)
6. Colorado Mesa (#13)- 205 (55-53-42-30-25)
7. South Dakota (#12)- 165 (62-43-39-21)
8. Cal Poly Humboldt (#18)- 163 (36-34-33-31-29)
9. Black Hills State (#25)- 100 (35-24-22-19)
10. Gallaudet (#29)- 66 (18-17-16-15)

Final Individual Results (Top 10 + Colorado Mesa)- 60 Total Finishers (67 Starters)
 
1. Molly Lakustiak- (AZ)- 1:02:29
2. Kjara Reckmann (USF) – 1:02:43
3. Ruth Pardy (AZ)- 1:02:45
4. Cara Macdonald (ASU)- 1:03:00
5. Marley Andelman (TCU)- 1:03:20
6. Alexa Magallon (USD)- 1:03:33
7. Sara Gimena (TCU)- 1:03:38
8. Gwen Watson (TCU)- 1:03:41
9. Ellison Wolfe (AZ)- 1:04:04
10. Stefania Salazar (TCU)- 1:04:34
13. Rosa Schmidt-Moll (CMU)- 1:05:27
15. Alexandra Schipai (CMU)- 1:05:51
26. Shantelle Tupaz (CMU)- 1:07:49
39. Sylvie Aardema Gagnon (CMU)- 1:11:12
44. Maddie Cox (CMU)- 1:15:16
47. Macy Arch (CMU)- 1:16:41
51. Kaia Merrill (CMU- 1:19:37
54. Jaycee Stephens (CMU)- 1:22:20
56. Emma Meyers (CMU)- 1:26:44
DNF. Tippi Wieland (CMU)
DNF. Mackenzie Mayer (CMU)