The ETSU women’s triathlon team competed in their first race of the season on Sunday, Sept. 1.
The Bucs are coming off the 2018-19 season where they finished top three in three out of six triathlons.
The team co-hosted the race with King University, called the South Holston Dam Triathlon, with this being King University and EMU’s first competition in program history.
“The water in South Holston is extremely deep,” said head coach Janine Pleasant. “The line on the anchors wasn’t long enough, and the anchors weren’t hitting the bottom so the buoys kept floating away.”
The running portion of the race was eliminated due to the course not being executed properly.
Freshman Faith Powell (Colombia, Tennessee) finished as first overall in the race.
“I had been training all summer,” said Powell. “I had been racing all summer, so it was just routine for me.”
This was Powell’s first race as a collegiate athlete.
“It is totally different living on your own,” said Powell when asked how the transition has been during her first couple weeks as a college athlete. “It’s so much more stressful, and it feels like your days get a lot shorter because there’s so much more to do.”
Since the South Holston Dam Triathlon was the team’s first race of the season, they have a lot ahead of them.
“We expect to be very competitive across the board, across all divisions and within Division 1,” Pleasant said.
Sophomore Lane McDonald (South Bend, Indiana) finished second behind Powell, while sophomore Camern Seeley (Blacksburg, Virginia) came in third.
Freshman Lindsey Batkiewicz (Johnston, Iowa) and freshman Katelyn Elliot (Porter, Tennessee) finished with matching times of 44:30, finishing eighth and ninth in the race.
The team’s next race is Sunday, Oct. 6 in Mooresville, North Carolina.
