TEMPE, Ariz. – Black Hills State women's triathlon placed fifth in the NCAA DII field at Nationals on Saturday.

The race was contested in two heats, with 211 athletes in total competing in the biggest race of the year.

"We had a very solid performance today racing against the best triathletes in the country," said Head Coach Connie Feist. "Each member of our team gave 100 percent on the course, which featured a deep water start for the 750-meter swim in Tempe Town Lake, followed by a 20K bike consisting of a technical three loop course and a flat, fast 5K run."

Lilja McKendry was the first finisher for BHSU, in 73rd place with a time of 1:11:11. She was followed by Natalie Moose-Elkin in 84th place (1:12:46), Jadyn Johnson placed 91st (1:14:11), Sydney Gasper placed 99th (1:15:24), Cassidy Teeslink was the 104th finisher (1:16:53), Sydney Campbell was 110th (1:17:39) and Madelynn Potter rounded out the team's finishers in 115th place (1:18:36).

Notes

• Senior Lilja McKendry, who led the team all season, continued to excel at Nationals to finish in the top-third of the field.
• Jadyn Johnson, who had a swim split of 149th out of the water, began to chase down athletes on the bike and run. By working with teammate Cassidy Tesslink, she passed over fifty athletes on the bike course and posted a split of 95th in the field. Johnson continued to chisel into the field on the run, by passing another 20 athletes and posting a run split of 21:30 (74th fastest run in the field).
• Sydney Gasper posted the fastest run for the team with a split of 21:17 (64th fastest in the field)
• Natalie Moose-Elkin had a great race in all three disciplines, coming out of the swim with a 106th place split, then consistently passed other athletes on the bike and run to end in 84th place. 
• Teeslink showed why she is one of the strongest cyclists in DII ranks, by working with teammate Jadyn Johnson and continually catching then passing multiple bike packs through that portion of the race.
• Freshman Sydney Campbell had a great race for her first collegiate Nationals and finished with a solid run and posting a time of 21:31.
• Senior Madelynn Potter also had the best Nationals race of her collegiate career and fought for race positioning during every aspect of her swim, bike, run.

Final Division II Team Standings

1. Lenoir-Rhyne-847
2. Wingate-753
3. Colorado Mesa-723
4. Drury-666
5. Black Hills State-594
6. Emmanuel-449
7. American International-286
8. Newberry-275
9. King-274
10. Cal Poly Humboldt-273
11. St. Thomas Aquinas-107
12. Roberts Wesleyan-65

Up Next
The team will now be taking a well-deserved break before returning to training and racing in the Spring season, with their first race being the Clermont, Florida Draft Legal Challenge on March 2-4 and finishing the year by hosting the Black Hills Tri-Fest on the BHSU campus on April 21.