Who says swimmers can’t win races on dry land? A pair of college swimmers swept the top spots in the sprint event at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships in Tempe, Arizona on April 4th.
Indiana University junior Ian Boggs won the race for the men, while Cal-Poly senior Taylor Spivey took home the women’s title.
The sprint event is made up of a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike and a 5-kilometer run. It’s one of three events run at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships, along with an Olympic-length triathlon (1500 meter swim, 36-kilometer bike and 10-kilometer run) and a relay triathlon.
Boggs, a breaststroker and freestyler for the Hoosiers, was the fastest male finisher in the sprint tri, coming in at just under an hour with a time of 55:06.58. He had the second-fastest swimming split at 9:27 (the fastest swimmer was Stanford’s Thomas Roos, a former Emory All-American, at 9:06). You can see a post-race interview with Boggs here, courtesy of USA Triathlon.
Cal-Poly distance freestyler Spivey finished in 1:01.31.25 to win the women’s race. She had easily the fastest swim of the field at 9:41, and was the only woman under 10 minutes on the swim portion. Her interview with USA Triathlon is here.
The fastest male swimmer was actually William Jones – former swimmer at Harvard. He was unable to finish due to mechanical on the bike.
Boggs did a 15:27 for the final 5K run, which is a 4:58 mile pace. That’s really outstanding for a swimmer!