'Steel sharpens steel': CU Triathlon Team soars as a family
- Lila Nuttle
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
One of the most successful teams at the University of Colorado Boulder is not one that the school spends millions of dollars on, with high-priced contracts for famous names. Rather, it’s a student-led club where athletes of all abilities train together.
With 18 national championships, the CU Triathlon Team is consistently among the best in its sport. Three athletes currently on the team have competed at Ironman 70.3 world championships – a half-Ironman distance that totals 70.3 miles – including Kasey Madsen, who won the Olympic distance collegiate club national championship this year.
“It’s always shocking to me that we are so consistent with our placement,” Parker Rosenthal, the team president, said. “I think to myself, ‘how do we keep doing this?’”
It’s a valid question. Triathlon is an incredibly demanding sport. At collegiate races, athletes compete in the Olympic length, where they complete a 1.5-kilometer swim followed by a 40-kilometer bike ride and finish with a 10-kilometer run. An average week of training includes two-a-day workouts, 6:15 am swims and strength sessions.
“Sometimes it’s a part-time job, the amount of hours that we’re putting into our workouts,” Rosenthal said. “I get back from class and then hop on a trainer and bike ride, and then go do more homework after.”
But despite the intensity of training, the CU Tri Team welcomes athletes of all abilities. Whether it’s top competitors like Madsen or someone who has never swam before, the club is designed to be flexible for everyone. Its membership is listed as 120, varying from experienced endurance athletes to people trying it for the first time.
“There isn’t really status in the team,” Madsen said. “We all just want to make each other better.”
Richie Boston, a sophomore who competed at Ironman 70.3 worlds last year in Marbella, Spain, said that the students who run the team work hard to ensure a community aspect.
“CU Tri is a club that’s really special to me,” Boston said. “I think that the students who run the club, they work their asses off to make it a good club for all the members that are in it, whether you’re a beginner or you’re an expert.”
That’s part of what Rosenthal and Madsen attribute the team’s success to: the emphasis on a supportive environment in a typically solitary sport.
“That’s what’s unique to competing at collegiate tri,” Boston said. “It’s something special to go out there and race for a team.”
This year, CU Tri had 32 athletes at the USA Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championships in Gulfport, Mississippi. Madsen took first place in the Olympic women’s race, finishing more than three minutes ahead of the next athlete. Overall, CU was the second-highest scoring collegiate program.
At CU, that’s almost expected. They’ve consistently placed in the top four since 1994. Since then, they’ve won several back-to-back titles, including eight in a row from 2010-2017. As for how they’re able to continue that performance?
“I think that it’s because we kind of almost operate as a family,” Rosenthal said. “Everyone is just so welcoming.”
From cheering everyone at races to social events outside of training, that camaraderie has helped them make the best of situations that don’t go their way. As a club team, they’re responsible for getting to races themselves. Last March, as they were traveling to a race in Arizona, they got caught in a snowstorm.
“[We] ended up stuck on a highway in Arizona because there was a crash and it was snowing, and we’re just stopped in the highway,” Rosenthal said. “And after an hour of all of us sitting there and the traffic wasn’t moving, we all got out and had a snowball fight and a dance party in the middle of the highway.”
Boston also said the relationships and support they build during training help during races, when they see each other out on the course.
“[It’s a lot of] why you’re pushing yourself, why you know this pain is worth experiencing… because it’s with other people,” he said.
The team has coaches who help guide their training plans and advise them on fueling and races. Head coach KJ Kroetch works with Dave Sheanin, a long-time triathlon coach, and Ali O’Donnell to create training plans. While the students are the driving force behind the club, Kroetch and her fellow coaches act as advisors to help them in their athletic careers while still balancing school.
With the backdrop of the Flatirons, the CU Tri Team is part of a rich community of elite athletes. With Olympians and professional athletes running and cycling on the same roads, along with talented teammates and alumni, it can be easy to get caught up in the pressure around them.
Madsen acknowledges that the history of the CU Tri Team also plays a role in their continued success. In the university rec center, there are banners listing club teams’ national championships. CU Tri’s banner far outnumbers the rest, listing all 18 of their championships, including several years in a row.
“A big motivator is the legacy that we have,” she said. “Everybody understands how important it is to maintain that and that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
But the strive for excellence doesn’t diminish the inclusive system they’ve built.
“That welcoming nature and the diversity of backgrounds is really what makes us special and helps keep the team on the same track of success and national recognition,” Kroetch said.
Rosenthal also mentioned that the athletes on the team are there because they want to be. They choose to show up and put in their own time to get better, along with volunteer and fundraising hours, which, along with team dues, are required in order to compete.
“We’re not D1 athletes who are being sent by the school,” Rosenthal said. “We’re this good on our own, with student-athletes and people who are funding themselves and just making time for these workouts. And so I think that’s a really inspiring thing about this club, is that we’re all kind of putting in our own work for this, and that we have such a wide range of athletes, and we are all very supportive of each other.”
For Madsen, an integrated physiology major in her final year at Colorado, the CU Tri Team gave her the support to excel.
“I owe everything that I’ve achieved to the team. It’s not only the coaches, but also just the group of people that you surround yourselves with,” she said. “Steel sharpens steel. The kids on the CU Tri Team are so hard-working and just really athletic.”
Whether it’s the Boulder air or the “unusually athletic kids,” as Madsen puts it, the legacy of CU Triathlon is undeniable. Even as one of the most successful programs in their sport, they keep it lighthearted. From snowball fights to national championships, they enjoy the training as much as the outcome.
“It’s just always been a really powerful program that the coaches have put together,” Madsen said. “I think all of that combined, as well as the goofy attitude that's very unique to the CU Tri Team… it just makes it a really great and supportive community that makes you want to try harder and do your best in order to benefit the team."