The Arizona triathlon team finished 19th out of 77 teams at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Champions in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The women Tricats placed 11th while the men's team placed 29th. Senior Kyle Watson had the women's best overall score, finishing 57th out of 329 athletes, also the highest finish of any Tricat.

Watson completed the Olympic distance Triathlon, a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40K bike ride and 10K run, with a time of 2:27:57. Cameron Green had the best men's finish and the team's best overall time, completing the race in 2:11:20.

When the Arizona Tricats board their plane tomorrow for Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Saturday's USA Triathlon National Championships, they will enter the last and most grueling leg of a season-long race.

"The last eight months of my life have been focused on this coming Saturday," said team president Cameron Green.

Grad training for October triathlon in Hawaii
By: Seth Mauzy

Completing the Ironman World Championship on Kona, Hawaii, is arguably the greatest test of human endurance, but one UA graduate student and former UA men's cross country athlete is up to the challenge.

Craig Pansing, an optical sciences graduate student, has been doing triathlons since his freshman year at the UA, when he joined TriCats, the university's triathlon club.

Tucson Citizen
Bryan Lee

Florida finish sends Pansing to Hawaii World Championships

The swim is relaxing, the bike ride is thunderous and the run is his money move. But what Craig Pansing has liked best about the triathlon lately has been the nice surprises.

He was elated when he won the Tucson Triathlon, covering the 825-yard swim, 12-mile bike ride and 3-mile run in 55 minutes, 55 seconds. It was the same race in which four years earlier as a University of Arizona student he was buried in 26th place, four minutes slower.