By Murphy Obershaw, A&E Editor
I know you normally see me in the A&E section of the Vantage, but in the spirit of April Fools’ Day, Tejay Cleland and I decided to switch columns this week. Flip back to the A&E section to read “Media with Cle-ology.”
Newman has a lot of athletes. From baseball to bowling and all the sports in between, these athletes put in a lot of hard work and try to perform their best. But I feel like there is one team in particular that needs a well-deserved shout out: Triathlon.
Triathlon is a club sport, meaning that they practice and compete throughout the entire year. Even when it is too cold to be outside, they are inside practicing or competing.
This sport involves three different disciplines — swimming, biking and running. This isn’t quite the same as knowing how to play different positions on a field like in other sports because these are three different sports all rolled into one. The triathletes need to build up skill and proficiency in three sports just to compete in one race.
They also need the ability to transition between these sports not just athletically but wardrobe wise as well. Triathletes don’t have to completely change their clothes because they have singlets under their wetsuits, but they still need to get out of their wetsuits and into their socks and bike shoes or out of their helmet and bike shoes and into running shoes in a timely manner. They can’t afford to lose time during the transitions.
Triathlon is also a dangerous sport. My dad — who used to compete in triathlons, has cycled across the country and still runs today — and some of my other family members who are into cycling have told me stories about almost getting run off the road by a car, getting hit by a car or wiping out on the road during a race. If you have never seen a bike crash before or the aftermath of one, it can definitely leave a mark or several.
Even though they can’t get hit by a car during the swim, that doesn’t mean they are completely safe. They are in a lake with several other people all trying to get to the other side as fast as possible. There are no individual lanes. They just go for it. This leads them to get smacked by other people swimming around them.
The triathletes are also some of the nicest and most chill people on campus. Whenever I hang out or attend an event with people from the tri team, it’s always a fun time.
Triathlon is a cool sport that we don’t always talk about around campus, but those who participate in it certainly deserve some credit for all they do in their sport.
PHOTO: Courtesy Photo, Newman Advancement
