WAKE FOREST, N.C. – A pair of freshmen – Natalie Wang and Dylan Cashin – placed in the top-50 individually to earn the Navy women's triathlon team eighth place of 21 teams at the NCAA East Regional Qualifier on Saturday at Sandling Beach Recreation Area. The Mids scored 434 points as a team.
The race featured a 750m swim, a 20 km (12.4 mile) bike and a 5k (3.1 mile) run.
Navy will await further results to determine its qualification for the NCAA National Championship. The national championship is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 in Clermont, Fla.
"We came into the regional seeded 8th and we performed to our seed on the day," stated head coach Billy Edwards. "I was very excited to see our young team rise to the occasion in an extremely competitive championship field. The freshmen continue to be the energy of the team and Emely humbly guides that energy."
In a field of 133 athletes, Wang continued her impressive first season as she clocked in a time of 1:02:27 to finish in 30th place. Her effort scored the Mids 108 points. Wang recorded the fastest swim time between all Midshipmen at 11:00. The San Diego, Calif., native also compiled a bike time of 31:14 and a run time of 20:06. Her bike and run time ranked 34th and 20th in the field.
Cashin also garnered a top-50 finish. Her time of 1:05:02 earned her 49th place to total 92-points scored for Navy. Cashin ended with the 40th-fastest swim (11:13) and 35th-fastest bike (31:56) times. She capped off the event with the 36th-fastest run time at 21:38.
Five spots behind Cashin was senior captain Emely Vela had a strong finish to the race in the run portion of the event to place 54th to add on 89 team points with a time of 1:05:26. The Chester, Md., native compiled the 29th-best run time at 20:57.
Sailor Eastman (1:08:19) crossed the finish line a few minutes later to take 62nd and score 84 points toward the team score. She posted a time of 32:57 during the 20km bike for her best-ranked portion of the race (42nd).
MC Kistler added the final 61 points for the Midshipmen with an 87th-place effort at 1:17:13. She had her best-ranked portion during the 5k with a time of 25:59 (55th).
Ella Sims wrapped up the competition for Navy with a 94th-place finish. She compiled an overall time of 1:20:23.
