Being talented in many things is no easy feat, as the Warhawk triathlon team has learned.
Five triathletes represented ULM in the USAT Collegiate National Championships at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on April 21 by competing in the open triathlon’s 1,500-meter swim, 40,000-meter bike and 10,000-meter run.
“It was great. I enjoyed it and being able to represent our school,” said George May, a first-time competitor in the championships. “It was really neat getting to be out there.”
May finished 137 out of 165 male competitors, with his best event being the swim.
As a team, each athlete has an event that he or she specializes in and tends to perform well in.
Being equally as talented in each event is merely impossible as success stems from experiences, and not necessarily training. In Wynston Johnson-Lyman’s case, his specialty is the open run, and it comes from his background with track.
“I got a history with it,” Johnson-Lyman said. “I love it, I enjoy it and that’s what I’ve done the longest.”
Johnson-Lyman finished 42nd in the open run with a time of 43:37 and claimed 83rd overall. His overall finish could have been better if he had done better in his swim event, but he took 147th in that event, which was the first scheduled race of the day.
“I knew I was pretty far behind,” Johnson-Lyman said. “I was just thinking to conserve and relax, because it was the first event, and I didn’t want to go crazy and blow it.”
With each athlete having his own best event, they all use it advantageously. In the bike race, Jonathan Putnam finished 53rd with a time of 1:12:52, his best event of the day.
“Biking is something I’ve embraced in training,” Putnam said. “I enjoy that event the most because it’s kind of relaxing. You kind of get to sit down there and it’s just you, and you can really get to focus on it.”
Unlike Putnam, Jonathan Ledet said swimming is more “[his] speed.” And, he meant it literally. Ledet finished 118th in a time of 29:12.
“I felt like I was behind the whole,” he said. “But, it turned out to be my best race.”
Putnam said it helps to have a background in swimming because it is so technique oriented.
“You can have really good lungs, and not necessarily be a good swimmer because you don’t have good technique.”