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UMass Amherst senior wins USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship
Caitlin Shea-Kenney is the race's top woman finisher. She finished the hilly Olympic-distance course in 2:13:46.
UMass Amherst senior Caitlin Shea-Kenney scored her most significant victory to date on Saturday at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships at Lake Havasu, Arizona. Shea-Kenney (marketing), a member of the Vortex Racing triathlon development team and representing UMass Amherst, finished the hilly Olympic-distance course in 2:13:46. Her Vortex teammate, Jenna Shoemaker, representing Harvard University, finished a close second place overall.
Shea-Kenney and Shoemaker traded off the lead in the swim, emerging from calm waters that took them under famous London Bridge and onto a technically challenging bike courses. The teammates shadowed each other on the bike and into T2 with a solid lead over the large field. Shea-Kenney was then able to employ her superior run over the 10k course to open up a 1:30 gap on her roommate for the trip out West. Their one-two effort at the front of the first wave was sufficient to hold off challenger Sunny Gilbert of U.C. Boulder, who took home the third spot on the podium.
In addition to Shea-Kenney’s national champion title, the duo’s performance comes with huge rewards: a trip to Spain and the World University Championships on July 3rd. Before that however, both will travel to Portugal for the ITU World Triathlon Championships on May 8th, for which they had both previously qualified. From there, the athletes will focus on the USAT Development Series and ITU Continental Cup races in North America.
Vortex Racing presented by Fast Splits Multisport is an under-23 development team based in New England.