• Slug: Sports-Arizona Wildcats Triathlon, 730 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Thomas Forbes
Cronkite News

TUCSON – Five athletes ran across the finish line under the Arizona Wildcats arch by the McKale Center chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” while freshman Mia Wentzy waved an American flag over her head. It was a picture-perfect finish for Team USA competing against Team International in a friendly intrasquad competition at the University of Arizona’s campus on a recent cool Saturday morning.

The Wildcats triathlon team continues to train hard and foster camaraderie in the program’s second year of existence. The athletes hope the chants of “U-S-A” at home in Tucson turn into even louder cheers of celebration at the USA Triathlon National Championship in November.

In the meantime, the Red-Blue intrasquad was held on Sept. 14, in preparation for the team’s trip to Fort Worth, Texas, to compete Sunday with six other schools at the Battle in the Fort race hosted by TCU at Marine Creek Reservoir. The race consists of a 750 meter swim, 12.4 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run.

The main purpose of the modified triathlon was for the athletes to practice their transitions from swimming to biking and then running with spectators and fans watching. This created some pressure for the athletes who were hoping to improve on their performance from last year.

The Wildcats finished in fifth place out of six teams in last year’s Battle in the Fort Triathlon, beating out Drury University. TCU finished in first place with Arizona State in second, while third place belonged to the University of San Francisco.

“We want to keep on building the culture we had, that was the goal the first year,” Arizona junior Kelly Lyn Wetteland said. “We wanted to be the best teammates, student-athletes and well rounded holistic people we can be.”

“That’s still the goal this year, just on a different level,” Wetteland added.

Wetteland was part of Arizona’s first recruiting class and had a strong performance to help Team USA win the friendly intrasquad. She looks to continue her hot start to the season after she earned a first place finish at the Southern Hills Triathlon on Aug. 31 in South Dakota. The Wildcats finished in fourth place out of six teams.

Wetteland has been on the triathlon team since its inaugural season last year and was also on the swimming and diving program. She is on the cross country and track team as well.

Senior Laura Holánszky also returned for her second season with the triathlon team. Before attending Arizona, she lettered in swimming and triathlon in her hometown of Budapest, Hungary. She said she chose to come to Arizona so she can train year-round because of the sunny weather.

The biggest difference Holánszky noticed about the team this year is everyone including the coaches are settled in after the first season and more comfortable with the process.

“As a team we’re more confident this year because last year, we worked on setting up the culture,” Holánszky said. “This year we actually know how things work and we can focus on other things and having good results in nationals.”

Holánszky, who received All-American honors from the College Triathlon Coaches Association, said she personally feels more confident this year as well because she knows how NCAA competitions work now and is able to quickly adapt to the changing conditions.

Wes Johnson was hired alongside Jocelyn Bonney to lead Arizona’s new triathlon program as coaches. Under them, the team finished fifth at the Collegiate Triathlon National Championship out of 13 teams last year. Johnson is confident the team will improve this year.

“There’s nothing more unique than starting a brand new team from scratch,” Johnson said. “But there’s a lot of unknowns too. Now we’re going into this year with a different level of confidence and that’s why our team mantra this year is ‘Why not us?’”

“Why not us” is what the team chants in unison before competing and has been a mantra the athletes have adopted.

Johnson previously coached for USA Triathlon for nine years and received Coach of the Year honors from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“There’s absolutely no reason to hold back and to really truly believe that we’re capable of the unimaginable, and that’s what we’re going for,” Johnson said. “We’re going for to be the best this year and to win, and we’re all confident that we can make that happen.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.