MTS, or the Conference Championships of the WCCTC, was on this past Sunday. Triathlon teams from the colleges in California came to together to race an Olympic-distance triathlon to determine who would be the conference champion for the 2017-2018 season. The race was held at Lake Lopez in Arroyo Grande, near San Luis Obispo, and was hosted by the Cal Poly Triathlon Team.

We headed up to Arroyo Grande on Saturday, and previewed the course in the afternoon with a short bike and run, and a splash in the lake to see how cold it was. It was forecasted to be colder than last year, so everyone was worried about how race well in the colder temperatures. Everyone camped together at the lake, with some team bonding over jokes, a new team cheer, and trying to stay warm.

We woke up super early on Sunday to prep for the race, starting with walking our bikes down to transition to nab a good spot. We then ate breakfast and tried to warm up using car heaters and hot water, courtesy of camp stoves. Around an hour before the race started, everyone headed back down to the race site to set up our gear in transition and warm up. At 8am , the first men’s collegiate wave started, with seven of our men in the wave. Following that wave was the second men’s collegiate wave, then the two women’s collegiate wave. The swim was about mile in total, going down and back the length of the lake. The bike, a total of 40 km, had two out and backs, one following the lake, and another extending on a road leading away from the lake. The run was an out and back and a total of 10 km.

Everyone had a great race and posted some fabulous results. On the women’s side, Beril Polat lead the way, placing 4th, and on the men’s side, Jason Stofleth was first for the team at 6th place.