Many college students struggle to attend their 8 a.m. classes, while Michigan State Triathlon Club president Jacob Teter is up and training before hitting the books.
“A lot of early mornings, making time for it when you have time, sometimes staying up late studying,” Teter said.
The aspects of bike, swim, and run are combined to form the ultimate test of mental toughness and physical endurance in athletics.
There are different types of races that the club runs. A sprint triathlon is the shortest race they compete in which involves a 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. The draft legal race is the same distance as the sprint, but it’s legal to draft off the person in front on the bike. Then, for the national competitions, the athletes race at Olympic distances, a 1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run to finish it off.
Triathlons put a grueling strain on the body, some people train just to complete one aspect of a triathlon while these MSU students come together to train for 10 hours a week in order to compete at a national level.
“Well, it's difficult to get started, but we've got a good group who are very committed, and when people say they'll show up, they do,” Teter said.
A few years ago, the MSU Triathlon Club was in the middle of the pack at national competitions. However, the dedication of the athletes to training and increase of resources has led the club’s rise in national status, which includes a breakthrough top 10 finish at the previous collegiate nationals.
When Head Coach John Dean was brought on in 2022, the squad sent about 20 athletes to nationals where they finished No. 31.
Since then, the club has climbed the rankings, taking large jumps year-over-year, all the way up to No. 6 in the nation at the most recent nationals this past spring.
Connor Dunn, senior and acting vice president of the club, is proud of the growth of the organization during his time.
“The past three years, being able to watch our club grow in numbers and in its competitiveness has been really amazing to see,” Dunn said.
These athletes spend a lot of time training, but also have to navigate the busy schedule of being a student as well.
“I myself am a mechanical engineering major, so balancing classes for that and training as much as I do can get difficult, but after enough time working through and having helpful resources like our advisors and other teammates to balance off of and work with,” Dunn said.
Annie Suranyi and Jane Taylor are two female members of the triathlon club, which is one of the few co-ed competitive organizations on campus at Michigan State.
Taylor and Suranyi believe that the club being co-ed helps with training and building a good community.
“I think the whole collegiate triathlon group through USA Triathlon really fosters the co-ed being a whole team, at Nationals we have a relay that’s two men and two women that all do the same thing,” Suranyi said.
The difference in perspectives adds to the team’s ability to improve when training.
“I love that it's a co-ed sport,” Taylor said. “I really think that we all push each other as much as we can. Having the diverse perspectives and dynamics between the men and women is really great.”
The club welcomes all skill levels. Many join as freshmen, with experience in one or two of the facets of triathlon, but need to build up their skills in other disciplines. Today, there are over 50 members of the club competing.
“We try to map out different programs to the different abilities and try to match them up with people of a comparable ability,” Dean said. “For instance, on a Monday night swim practice, there are five different levels of ability that train on separate programs focused on their skill level.”
The sport of triathlon has expanded at the collegiate level at a rapid pace.
“There’s probably close to 150 clubs nationally, but only about 90 currently attend [Nationals],” Dean said. “Partly because those other clubs may not be competitive at the national level and there's also a lot of clubs that will struggle with their finances.”
There is a large push for the club to fundraise so they make sure all their hard work and training can pay off at the national level.
“We have a swim-a-thon, we host our own triathlon here, fundraise at football games and we’ve also got a great group of donors,” Teter said.
Without much financial support from the university, the triathlon club looks to sponsors to help with some of the costs associated with training.
During the winter season, the club needs to navigate the challenge of biking outdoors, in the Michigan weather. Luckily, they have found indoor space to train.
“With cycling we’ve been fortunate enough to find off campus bike spaces to rent out,” Teter said. “It requires some fundraising but we’ve made it happen.”
There is also a cost barrier for new athletes entering the sport when it comes to equipment.
“The cost of equipment can definitely be a real challenge. Obviously, triathlon, you have three sports you have to worry about, so getting everything you need to complete a race can be difficult,” Dunn said.
The club hosts the Sparty Tri indoor triathlon, which is a fundraiser featuring a 15 minute swim, 25 minute bike portion and a 20 minute run to conclude the event. The fundraiser is open to the public for $65, the race is Sunday, Nov. 9 at IM West. https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/EastLansing/spartytri2024