RESULTS | 2024 Sandling Beach Triathlon Festival results
 
Wake Forest, N.C.----The Wingate University men's triathlon club finished first in the MACTC championships, Olympic non-draft race, held in conjunction with the Sandling Beach Triathlon Festival Saturday. The Bulldogs scored 13 points, followed by Queens with 30 points and Lenoir-Rhyne with 94 points. The Navy Blue and Vegas Gold-clad WU triathletes had three racers finish in the top five total times. 
 
The competitors raced a non-draft, Olympic distance triathlon Saturday. This distance started with a 1500-meter open water swim in Falls Lake, followed by a 40-kilometer bike. The event concluded with a 10,000-meter run.
 
Bulldog graduate students take first and second
 
Graduate student Jake Baugher took the individual victory with a total time of 1:50:39.7. "We had strong all-around performances from everyone on the team," Baugher says. "We were able to keep the race together on the swim and bike and let the run be the deciding factor of the day."
 
Baugher's fellow graduate student and team captain Xoel Rodriguez Abad finished second with a total time of 1:50:51.1, only 12 seconds behind Baugher. "Training as a team made a difference this semester," Rodriguez says. "Next weekend is the draft legal and the winning of the conference is the combined result."
 
Rounding out Wingate's top five
 
Junior Charlie Smoak came in fourth place, only 0.2 seconds away from the podium with his aggregate time of 1:51:00.3. Freshman Isaac Lamprecht made his Olympic-distance debut as a Bulldog newcomer. He claimed sixth place at 1:51:22.1. Sophomore Oliver Nissen also made his Olympic-distance debut. He completed the bike portion in under an hour, averaging almost 25 mph. Nissen rounded out Wingate's top five by finishing 14th, thanks to his combined time of 1:54:59.6.
 
Challenges and Conquests
 
Wingate head coach Nick Radkewich expressed the challenges in the time-trial format of the race, as each individual began the race at three-second intervals. "It makes it a tough race to gauge where you are relative to the competition," Radkewich says. "The men's squad did a great job giving 100 percent in all three disciplines. It is difficult as a spectator/coach to determine where everyone is in the race, but it became apparent during the run that the Bulldogs were running faster than the competition." 
 
Up Next
 
The Bulldogs will return to Sandling Beach Saturday, October 12 to determine the conference championship with the draft-legal competition. 
 
Wingate University
 
Wingate University is a lab of difference-making that serves more than 3,400 students in North Carolina and offers 60 degree pathways, including 37 undergraduate majors, 10 pre-professional tracks and five dual-degree programs. Graduate students choose from seven master's and five doctoral programs. The University is home to the Cannon College of Arts and Sciences, the Levine College of Health Sciences, the Byrum School of Business, the Thayer School of Education and the School of Sport Sciences.
 
Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a leader in healthcare education where nearly one in five undergraduate students is preparing to be a pharmacist, physician assistant, physical therapist, occupational therapist or nurse. Student-athletes on Wingate's 26 teams compete in NCAA Division II and have brought home the SAC Echols Athletic Excellence Award the past 16 times it has been awarded. The University's motto is "Faith, Knowledge, Service." View current news and videos at www.wingate.edu.
 
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(Editor's note: Wingate University senior men's club triathlon student-athlete Asher Lauderdale contributed this article.)