Four triathletes to represent Liberty at World Championships

UPDATE: (8/23/2017)

Liberty University triathlon, cycling, and men’s swimming & diving Head Coach Parker Spencer placed second in his Men’s Sprint Duathlon 25-29 age group race before coaching three Flames in their respective races Saturday and Wednesday at the ICU Multisport World Championships Festival in Canada. Read full coverage on the Club Sports website.

Even before they have an opportunity to attend their first classes at Liberty University, incoming freshmen triathletes Joan Colino from Spain and Ákos Takács from Hungary will compete for the Flames and their respective countries at the Aug. 18-27 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Multisport World Championships Festival in Penticton, British Columbia.

They will be joined by junior triathlete Greg Schott and Flames Head Coach Parker Spencer, who will represent both Liberty and Team USA after flying to the westernmost Canadian province on Thursday night.

The four triathletes will sport jerseys featuring their national flag colors — and large Liberty logos in the middle of the chest — while racing in different divisions of World Championship events.

“We are going to be one of the only collegiate programs in the world to have this many athletes at a world championship event,” Spencer said. “That shows that we are not limiting ourselves to collegiate races, but we have the ability to compete in races around the world at the highest level.”

Men’s triathlon is one of 41 teams in Liberty’s Club Sports program.

Colino will compete in Saturday’s 9:45 a.m. (PST) Junior Sprint Duathlon, a 5-kilometer run followed by a 20K cycling stage and 2.5K run. Takács, the Hungarian Junior Cross Triathlon champion, who placed in the top 20 at the European Cross Championships, will race in Wednesday’s Junior Cross Triathlon, which starts with a 1K open-water swim and concludes with a 12K mountain bike stage and a 4K trail run.

Spencer will compete in the 25-29 age group division of the Sprint Duathlon, Saturday’s first event starting at 6:30 a.m. (PST). Schott, who also competes professionally on the XTERRA circuit, will race in Wednesday’s Under-23 Cross Triathlon.

Spencer will be racing in a duathlon or triathlon world championship for the sixth consecutive year. He has also qualified to compete with junior triathlete Travis Fehr at the Sept. 10 Ironman 70.3-mile World Championships in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Many of Liberty’s offseason recruits — both American and international triathletes — bring equally impressive credentials to the program, joining Thomas Sonnery-Cottet, a sophomore from France, on a men’s team that Spencer believes is primed for unprecedented success. The Flames could challenge for titles at both the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships, which Liberty will host for the fourth straight year at Smith Mountain Lake on Oct. 14, and the USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in April.

“The firepower we have on the team, compared with any other year, is on a whole new level,” Spencer said. “Teams that win championships have a lot of depth, a whole squad pushing each other. That way, if one guy has an off day, someone else can pick up the slack. That is what we have created on this year’s team. We have an incredible amount of depth, especially for the spring when Giovanni (Bianco) from Italy will enroll as a graduate student.” He is a 2015 age-group national champion.

Spencer said he has been flooded with interest over the summer from prospective student-athletes for the three endurance sports programs he coaches.

“People are hearing about Liberty triathlon, men’s swimming & diving, and cycling,” he said. “In the last week, I’ve been getting almost more inquiries than I can handle — athletes from the United States and all over the world, including a former junior world champion triathlete from Spain. These are athletes who absolutely have the potential to go to the Olympics, and that is my goal for the program. We want to be the best collegiate program in the country and to produce Olympic champions.”

Spencer said the Flames’ training facilities give them a leg up on the competition. These included the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, which opened in January; the new world-class Liberty Natatorium, due to open in November; a new cycling studio near the Candlers Station shopping center; and a Human Performance Lab, run by the Exercise Science program in the basement of the Center for Natural Sciences.

“We have the best training facilities in the world and everything we need to be a very successful program,” he said. “The administration has given us the resources to make it happen, and we’ve recruited the athletes to make it happen.”

Follow the team’s progress on its Club Sports page.