Guilford’s women’s triathlon team finished 10th among the 11 Division III teams competing in last week’s USA Triathlon national collegiate championships in Clermont, Fla. That might not seem impressive this week, but Coach Ranicha Sargeant is looking beyond recent results and is excited about the program’s future.

“We asked a lot from our athletes this season and every race they delivered,” said Rancina. “All three (athletes at nationals) were extremely competitive and finished the race. We want to build on that for next year.”

Ranicha wants to grow the College’s triathlon team much the way the sport has grown nationwide. It is on the cusp of being recommended by a committee to become an NCAA championship sport.

Triathlon was classified as an emerging sport by the NCAA in 2014-15. A sport must have more than 40 schools sponsor it at the varsity level and meet minimum contest and participant requirements to receive a recommendation from the committee to become an NCAA championship sport.

Guilford, which competed for the first time in the fall of 2021, is one of 37 Division I, II or III schools that are sponsoring the sport this year, and 40 indicated they will sponsor it in 2024-25.

“It’s growing and we want to be ready for that growth,” said Ranicha, who spoke with several high school students in Florida during the national championships. Ranicha says several of the students are interested in attending Guilford after learning more about the College and its athletics program.

There were four student athletes on the team this year. Ranicha is hoping to grow that number to six – either through recruiting new students or finding new athletes already on campus. She’s looking for students who are already runners and swimmers and are willing to take up biking.”

“If they are currently competing in two of the three sports we can coach them in the third,” she says. “I’m excited to start recruiting and seeing who’s out there who would be a good fit at Guilford.”

Josie Hemmer ’25 finished 36th out of 49 Division III competitors and 177th out of 206th overall at last week’s nationals. She’s proud of her four years at Guilford and how far the program has come since starting in 2020.

“For a small school like Guilford to give me this opportunity means so much to me,” said Josie, a Political Science and Ceramics major. “They want women in sports to grow. I love that for me and for the program in the next few years.”