Athletes compete in the third leg of Tri WashU 2025 (courtesy of Harry Mellow)

Triathlon might be perceived as a hardcore, exclusive sport, but the WashU triathlon club (Tri Club) makes it accessible to athletes of all skill levels. There are around 40 active club members, with around 30 active undergraduates and 10 active graduates.

Many start with some experience with other sports but have not necessarily raced a triathlon before. The team officially practices five times a week, with members often coordinating additional workouts together as well.

Former club president and senior Riley Silfies said that many people misunderstand what triathlon is, associating it only with full Ironman races consisting of a 2.4-mile open water swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run.

“A lot of people associate triathlon with the big Ironman, which is like the pinnacle of the sport,  but the reality is that 95% of triathlons are not the 15-hour Ironman,” he said. “There are all these hour-long collegiate races and local races — triathlon can be a very beginner-friendly sport, and the club makes it [possible] for people to do it.”

Tri Club makes the sport accessible to college students, most of whom likely would not be able to afford the necessary equipment otherwise.

“Especially for the outdoor races, you need a bike, wetsuit, helmet, cycling shoes, and running shoes,” Silfies said. “So there’s a huge cost barrier to just get into the sport, and we’re lucky enough that we have team-owned [equipment] and tri-suits that are designed for triathlon.”

Club leadership includes sophomores Margaret Beltrami as the president, Harry Mellow as vice president, and Nora Doughty as treasurer.

Silfies said the competitive and race-heavy spring season is his favorite part of being in Tri Club. The team goes to three smaller indoor races and one bigger race every spring.

Tri Club’s big spring race this year is the Galveston Half-Ironman — the same race they competed in last year. Before 2024, Tri Club’s big spring race was nationals. While WashU qualified for nationals last year and likely will this year, club leadership decided that they would rather go to the Galveston Half-Ironman instead, due to logistics and safety issues with the nationals course in the past.

For a school to qualify for nationals, a team must collect points through competing at sanctioned races during the regular season. WashU competes in the Midwest Collegiate Triathlon Conference.

“The nationals experience in general is really cool because the bottom third of competitors are people who are brand new to triathlon, [and decided] to try it in college, but then it goes all the way up to Olympians, elite level athletes, post D-I runners who moved over to NCAA triathlon,” Silfies said. “And so when you go to college nationals, you get this insane arc of people.”

In the future, club leadership hopes to make the club more structured, including both logistical club organization and practice structure. Beltrami and Mellow both said they were hoping to recruit more underclassmen to join, since the club is very graduate student and senior-heavy right now. Beltrami also said that she wanted to increase the number of female athletes in the club.

WashU Triathlon Club hosted a race this past weekend for other collegiate clubs, WashU students, and other local athletes. Last year, this race received coverage from local media outlets. 

Mellow was in charge of planning this race, assigning many of the experienced athletes in the club to volunteer while newer athletes raced. 

Silfies said that there is camaraderie amongst teams in WashU’s conference, unlike other more competitive conferences. He and other Tri Club members hosted athletes from other teams for the race this past weekend, and they celebrated Mardi Gras together after the race. 

Beltrami has been competing in triathlon races since she was nine years old. She said that part of the reason she chose to come to WashU was the fact that there was a Tri Club.

“You join the club for the athletics, but you walk away with this really nice community, including graduated past club members,” Beltrami said. “It’s nice to form those relationships over something you’re both passionate about.”