Photo provided by Tracye Vaughan

The Rosary Triathlon team all geared up for the Pacific Coast Triathlon.

On Sunday, Sept. 17, Rosary’s state champion triathlon team crushed the Pacific Coast Triathlon. In the first race of the school-year, the Royal Triathletes all came home with medals.  

Captain Julia Watson ‘24 placed first for the women’s 17-18 bracket, sophomore Christina Vaughan placed first for the women’s 16 bracket, and a relay team composed of swimmer Kylan Castillo ‘24, cyclist Sophia Long ‘24, and runner Gigi Simmons ‘26 placed third overall. Julia Watson describes her experience at the race, “Triathlon is definitely a crazy sport for crazy people (crazy in the best way possible, of course). Getting up at 4 a.m. to swim, bike, and run is not easy. But the rewarding feeling of accomplishment afterwards is indescribable. I loved this past race especially because I placed first in my age category and that made it all worth it. I’m definitely looking forward to the next few races of my senior year!”

The team has been training hard in the weeks leading up to the race. Their hard work certainly paid off! The race was held at Crystal Cove State Park and at 7 a.m. the triathletes took off on a 500-meter open ocean swim, a twelve-mile hilly bike ride down Pacific Coast Highway, and a (5 kilometer) scenic run through the park and down onto the beach. 

Coach Adam Harita ‘90 describes the unique challenges of the course and the excitement of the triathlete’s victories, “I was very impressed by the Royals’ performance at the Pacific Coast Triathlon over the weekend. This is one of the oldest and toughest sprint-distance triathlons in California which features an open-ocean swim at Crystal Cove. The surf in that location can be very intimidating, but the girls didn’t seem to have any problems handling it. The rolling bike course on a closed PCH is not too bad but then the run is challenging – going past the famous ‘Shake Shack’ down onto the sand and ending with a brutal climb from the beach back up to PCH. The girls did fantastic, with everyone winning their respective categories. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

The Royal Triathletes are looking forward to two upcoming races, The LA Tri at Bonelli Park on Oct. 1 and the Newport Dunes Triathlon on Nov. 5. They would love some support at their upcoming races!