Elon students dominate Nelson Bay triathlon

Fifteen Elon students, led by faculty member Tom Arcaro, competed in the 15th annual Nelson Bay Challenge triathlon at Sea Level, N.C. May 3. Read this note for photos and race results...

The students who competed in the race, which involves a 1k swim, 12.4 mile bike race and a 5k run, are members of Arcaro’s GST 240 Triathlon class. This is the fifth year that Arcaro has taught the class, which involves a semester of preparation, writing, study and participating in the triathlon as a competitor or a race volunteer staff member.

All 15 students who entered the grueling competition finished the race. In the male aged 17-19 category, Elon student Ian Dooley finished first with a time of 1:09:54. He finished seventh overall in the race. Luke Farmer finished 3rd in the 17-19 category, John David Parsons took 4th and Richard Schlieper finished 5th. In the male aged 20-24 category, Zachary Lauritzen was 3rd, Ben Slizewski was 4th, Philip Hendrich was 6th and Jason Mabe was 8th.

In the female aged 20-24 category, Marianne Kitts was 3rd, Jean Marie Campbell was 4th, Sarah Hickman was 5th (photo at the right is of Sarah finishing the race), Anna Keeney was 6th, Amanda Strandquist was 7th, Carol O’Dea was 8th, Melisha Hartman was 10th and Kristjan Thompson was 11th.

Arcaro finished 3rd in the male aged 50-54 category with a 1:13:31 time, beating all of his students except Dooley.

Click on the link below for the full race results and times…

(Photos on this page by Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Communications)