TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – UC Berkeley grad student and 2007 National Collegiate runner-up Steven Sexton used a strong swim and bike to trade places with University of Florida 2007 National Collegiate champion Kevin Collington and take the 2008 men’s National Collegiate individual title in Tuscaloosa Saturday.

Overcoming an injury-plagued 2007 season, 2005 National Collegiate women’s individual champion Amanda Felder of UC San Diego used a second best-swim and a blazing bike to weather University of Colorado at Boulder runner-up Leah Larson’s race-best run to win her second National Collegiate championship.

Sexton and Felder also led their schools to a teams competition titles. The UC Berkeley men’s team outpaced runner-up U.S. Military Academy by 32 to 58 points, with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill taking third with 68 points. In the women;s team contest, UC San Diego outpaced UC Berkeley 37 to 48, edging out third place University of Colorado-Boulder by a single point.

The men

“The race went exactly as I’d hoped,” said Sexton, whose 1:52:04 winning time bested the 2008 version of Collington by a minute and edged out Collington’s 2007 winning time by three seconds. “I knew Kevin would be strong on the hills during the run, so I knew I’d need a little bit of a lead going into it.”

In fact, Sexton’s 18:06 swim and race-best 57:50 bike gave him a comfortable 2:27 advantage over the defending champion starting the run. “Kevin Collington is a great athlete,” said Sexton, “and I knew he would be coming for me so I pushed it all the way.” Thus Collington’s 33:57 run on a sunny, perfect day in Tuscaloosa could only cut down the advantage to one minute at the finish.

Badger biker

Photo: Timothy Carlson

Collington, who took a last stab at qualifying for the Olympic Trials two weeks ago at the ITU World Cup in New Plymouth, New Zealand, took his defeat with equanimity and a touch of humor. “He was second last year and I am second this year,” said Collington. “So I think we can be good friends now that we each have one.” University of Florida fifth year senior Collington followed in the footsteps of his better known Gator NCAA national champions – the football and basketball teams. “Exactly like our football and basketball teams, I was unable to repeat,” said Collington. “So, whatever their fate, is apparently my fate.”

In the more loosely defined world of National Collegiate championships, graduate students have been welcomed to compete against undergrads. Sexton sees those days coming to an end. “At age 25, I think it is time for me to stop beating up on 18 year olds and so forth. This was my last time here, and I’m glad to finally take home the title.”

The women

Women's champ Amanda Felder

Photo: Timothy Carlson

Felder trailed University of North Carolina’s Chris Tommerdahl’s 20:29 swim by seven seconds, but put 67 seconds on dangerous runner Leah Larson of the University of Colorado at Boulder starting the bike. On the two-loop bike, Felder hammered away to a race-best 1:05:00 split, putting 91 more seconds on Larson and 63 seconds on swim specialist Tommerdahl.

Larson, who took second overall at the 2007 ITU age group World Championship in Hamburg, fought back valiantly with a race-best 38:13 run, but Felder’s 39:48 10k was enough to maintain a one minute margin of victory at the finish. Tommerdahl faded with a 43:25 run, but her swim and bike were enough to maintain third place in 2:12:02

Larson says the National Collegiate championships has reached critical mass with 1,100 entries mirroring the fantastic overall growth of triathlon. “It used to be great,” said Larson. “You could bring your whole team and train together and come to all the big races and have a great time. Last year we brought 54 people. But the sport is growing so quickly, it’s becoming so popular, it has become much more competitive. Inevitably they will have to put restrictions and qualification standards. It will be hard – but it’s great. To see how the competition has increased from three years ago when we had 500 entries to now is really exciting. “

USA Triathlon National Collegiate Championships
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
April 19, 2008
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k

Individual Results

Men

1. Steven Sexton (UC Berkeley) 1:52:04
2. Kevin Collington (University of Florida) 1:54:02
3. Andrew Hodges (University of Virginia ) 1:54:50
4. Derek Oskutis (USNA) 1:56:25
5. David Silver (Georgia Tech) 1:56:49
6. Matt Long (Vanderbilt) 1:58:07
7. Karl Rudy-Kahsar (University of Virginia) 1:58:13
8. Tony White (University of Kentucky) 1:58:21
9. Thomas Cowan (Miami University) 1:58:57
10. Ryan Guiliano (University of Illinois ) 1:59:02

Women

1. Amanda Felder (UC San Diego) 2:07:30
2. Leah Larson (University of Colorado - Boulder) 2:08:30
3. Chris Tommerdahl (University of North Carolina) 2:12:02
4. Ashley Morgan (USMA ) 2:12:41
5. Kathy Rakel (University of Arizona ) 2:13:06
6. Amy Alexander (USNA) 2:13:15
7. Crystal Pruitt (Virginia Tech) 2:16:24
8. Julie Gliesing (James Madison ) 2:16:25
9. Kristen Peterson (University of Colorado - Boulder) 2:18:30
10. Alexandria Lechner (University of Florida) 2:18:32

Teams Competition

Female

1. UC San Diego – 37
Amanda Felder (1) 2:07:30
Lauren Chiodoni (16) 2:20:17
Allison Johnston (20) 2:21:18

2. UC Berkeley – 48
Robyn Shaffer (14) 2:20:04
Diane Charlton (15) 2:20:09
Mary Kate Opila (19) 2:21:13

3. University of Colorado - Boulder – 49
Leah Larson (2) 2:08:30
Kristen Peterson (8) 2:18:30
Heidi Spees (39) 2:27:47

4. University of California at Santa Barbara – 50
5. Virginia Tech – 72
6. US Military Academy – 79
7. Stanford – 91
8. University of Montana – 92
9. University of Florida – 101
10. US Naval Academy – 122

Male

1. UC Berkeley – 32

Steven Sexton (1) 1:52:34
John Dahlz (11) 1:59:19
Kenneth Rakestraw (20) 2:01:13

2. US Military Academy – 58

Nicholas Dason (12) 1:59:21
Nicholas Vandam (14) 1:59:33
Bryan Lagasse (32) 2:03:32

3. UNC Chapel Hill – 68

Paul McCall (17) 2:00:42
Duncan Hoge (23) 2:01:33
William Harrison (28) 2:02:12

4. US Naval Academy – 69
5. University of Colorado – Boulder – 71
6. University of Virginia – 81
7. Purdue – 86
8. University of Florida – 90
9. Georgia Tech – 108
10. Michigan State - 115