Photo: Peter Vander Stoep

Tempe, AZ – The La Salle triathlon team had five athletes finish in the Collegiate National Championship race, while placing in 19^th out of 36 in team scoring, Saturday in Arizona.

Graduate Student Fiona Davoudi led the Explorers with 146 points earned, finishing in 45^th place out of a field of 190 total finishers. Davoudi, who clocked a time of 1:07:23:1, raced in Heat A, which featured the top collegiate triathletes in the country. After starting at 54^th overall at the race's beginning, Davoudi rose up the leaderboard by nine points in large part due to a strong bike portion, which saw her climb up 17 spots by the end of her transition into the run.

Davoudi finishes her impressive campaign having been La Salle's individual leader in all five races that the Explorers competed in this fall.

Senior Sophie Brandwene also finished within the top half of the field, placing in 88^th overall with a time of 1:12:04:3 while racing in Heat B.

Joining Brandwene in Heat B were senior Gabriela Herbreder and freshman Sofia Nordbeck, who posted times of just over a minute of each other at 1:18:01:4 and 1:19:28:5, respectively.

Herbreder was the first athlete out of the water in Heat B after posting a swim split of 10:25.0. Nordbeck was competing in her third triathlon in the last calendar month, having finished in the Ironman World Championship on October 11, before racing along with her La Salle teammates in the East Regional on October 25, and then in Saturday's National Championship.

Also in Heat B, freshman Luciana Ruiz aided Nordbeck's finish in the bike split as a domestique.

Freshman Beth Eldredge opened the day for La Salle and represented the Explorers in Heat C, clocking a 1:31:09:7. Like Herbreder, Eldredge highlighted a strong day in Tempe Town Lake for the Explorers, also leading her heat out of the water with a swim split of 11:23.9.

La Salle's 374 total team points were derived from the total number of points individually of each athlete who finished. Davoudi led the Explorers with 146 points earned, followed by Brandwene (103), Herbreder (62), Nordbeck (53), and Eldredge (10).  

Arizona won the overall team championship while also finishing the top two individual scorers.

La Salle concludes its first season competing as a program having competed in five races this fall under the direction of Head Coach Sage Maaranen.