For months, members of the MSU Triathlon Club have been physically pushing themselves six times a week.
Mondays and Wednesdays are spent swimming laps in the IM Sports-Circle pool.
Members of the team use Tuesdays and Fridays to run in Demonstration Hall.
Thursdays and Saturdays are devoted to biking at Demonstration Hall also.
On top of this rigorous schedule, members are encouraged to practice on their own.
At the start of the school year, the club, which was established in 2000, spends more time coaching the students who compete.
The student triathletes worked all semester to prepare for a national championship and look forward to a summer full of competitions.
Anybody can join the club and members pay $200 per year in order to fund the trips and competitions.
Kinesiology freshman Spencer Shellberg said when he joined the club, he had running and biking skills, but needed help with swimming.
“I really trained hard with these guys all year and worked on my swim,” Shellberg said. "(I) ended up qualifying for nationals, which was an awesome experience.”
Members began to see the fruit of their labor with their first competition of the season a few weeks ago.
The MSU Triathlon Club sent 14 members to compete in intense heat during the USA Triathlon 2014 National Championships April 4-5 at Arizona State University.
The team competed in the Olympic distance, which is a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run.
“The swim was great, the bike was so much fun, but the run — that was incredibly hot,” Shellberg said.
The club finished 32nd out of 119 teams at the event.
“We wanted to be in the top 20,” graduate student Todd Buckingham said. “So we just missed out on that, but I think everybody had really good races.”
Vice president of the club Jamie Endicott, a biomedical laboratory science senior, said competing against teams from warmer climates who can practice year round puts MSU’s team at a disadvantage.
“We can’t really work out outside too much,” Endicott said. “The track is usually covered in snow and ice.”
Graduate student and president of the club Josh Isaacson said the organization has four to five races planned for the summer and conferences will be in September.
He has been involved with MSU Triathlon Club for the past three years.
"(The club) means a lot to me, it’s a great group of people to train with,” he said. “It really keeps me motivated. It helps me not only focus on triathlon, but I feel it makes me a well-rounded person.”
