Huddleston, Va.----The Wingate men's triathlon team reached a program milestone Saturday, winning its first title in its third season after the program's launch in 2021. The Bulldogs completed a sweep of the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Triathlon Conference Championships, winning the Sprint Draft-legal round event at Smith Mountain Lake State Park.

Wingate defeated the reigning MACTC conference and national champions from Queens University of Charlotte by a score of 5-8 based on the second and third-place finishes for Humberto Castañeiras Jenner and Martin Garcia Corral, respectively. The rest of the team contributed to the score by displacing the second Royals finisher placing three more Bulldogs Xoel Rodriguez Abad (fourth), Noah Petersen (fifth) and Jack Spence (sixth) before Queens' Daniel Gossow in seventh. 

Of note, the race also served as a National Team Development Race for the sport's governing body USA Triathlon. Team captain Charlie Smoak finished ninth, the second American and first eligible to earn his Elite card to represent the U.S. domestically and internationally at the next level. Smoak becomes the fourth Bulldog to earn their Elite card this year, joining women's triathlon team members Maddie Gagnon and Dylan Kirchner who earned them over this past summer and Noah Petersen, who earned his in February.

The win completes the second round of the MACTC Championships which began a week ago with Wingate winning the Olympic Non-draft event in Pleasant Landing, Va. with a score of 19-20. The final score of 24-28 gives the Bulldogs the championship title and guarantees the squad a maximum number of entries to the USA Triathlon Collegiate Club Championship next April in Mission Viejo, California.