Yep, your looking at the new team captain for the West Point Triathlon Team, First Classmen, Brendan Fox. Congrats Brendan and here’s looking at a great season ahead.

Professional Triathlete and Army LT., Nick Vandam, was awarded the opportunity to join the Army WCAP (World Class Athlete Program) and train in Colorado Springs, CO. Nick will be officially assigned to Col Springs and his mission will be to train to make the 2012 US Olympic Trials. It’s been a long, drawn-out process for Nick and we’re very happy to see all of his hard efforts pay off. Congrats Nick!

Nick spoke up on his blog about what it meant to him to finally have a chance to train properly as a professional:

“I finally made it into the World Class Athlete Program! It has taken me 5 years and a tremendous amount of work, but I will finally get a shot at being a real professional athlete. I will still be on active duty and still serving my commitment incurred from graduating from West Point, so I really can’t ask for a better deal. I will be moving to Colorado Springs July 16th and will for sure be there until October 2012. I will be focusing on ITU racing and doing everything I can to attain Olympic points so that I will have a shot at racing in the Olympic Trials. I really enjoy racing non drafting racing so I will continue to try and squeeze in some US short course racing when it fits into the schedule. I’m very excited that I will have a real chance to go through a proper training cycle. Lately it’s been just shoot from the hip and race what I can when I can and just build fitness from the races. This is pretty much a dream come true for me, and judging by the gains I had last time I went to CO I’m very excited to get faster and be a force to reckon with on the race course.”

Nick will be racing the Military Championships this weekend along with fellow DeBoom Athlete & US Army LT. and former West Point Team mate, Nick Dason. Military Champs are ITU style racing, so good opportunities for old teammates to work together. Good luck guys!

A solid write up in the November issue of Triathlete Magazine about the Military Academies building Triathlon powerhouses it the collegiate division. Good to see these kids get the recognition they deserve.

So, I’ve spent the past week at West Point. We’ve been holding team tryouts for the 2009-10 Tri Team. We had our largest number of recruits ever and this is the most talented group of athletes we’ve ever had.  Unfortunately, the team can only keep 20 athletes and we will be letting go of kids that we would be psyched to have any other year.   New season kicks off for real on Monday – lots of new kids who have never done a triathlon and need to learn alot…fast.  Makes for an exciting and fun season. Looking forward to it.

Needless to say, the Army Tri Team will be strong – young and inexperienced, but strong!

West Point is rated the best college in the country in this year’s Forbes magazine rankings.

The U.S. Military Academy beat out No. 2 Princeton and third-place California Institute of Technology in the America’s Best College report.

The magazine cites the work ethic and drive to succeed at West Point, and the fact that cadets graduate without student debt since they get a free education.

West Point was ranked No. 6 by the magazine in 2008.

…And, having one of the best triathlon teams in the country didn’t hurt their cause either!

The USMA Triathlon Long-Course Team traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to compete in the Ironman Kansas 70.3 triathlon. In addition to serving as a open qualification race for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, this race served as the 2009 Ironman Collegiate Championship. The team had arguably the most successful weekend in the program’s history, winning the Collegiate Ironman 70.3 National Championship and qualifying four cadets for the World Championships in Clearwater, Florida this November.

West Point won the team championships by defeating the University of Colorado squad that beat West Point at the USAT Collegiate Championships two month ago. Team results were determined by the combined times of the top three male and two female finishers.

The team was led on the female side by Cadet Ashley Morgan ‘10 who completed the 1.2 swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run in a blistering 4:42:20 to win the female collegiate title. In addition she won the 18-24 age group, qualifying her for the World Championships. Recent graduate 2LT Randy Wintermantel also earned a slot at Clearwater by finishing 3rd in her age group and 5th in the female collegiate division.

The West Point men were led by Duathlon National Champion, Nick Sterghos, who finished 2nd for collegiate men, and 10th overall out of over 1600+ amateur participants. CDT Brian Lagasse ‘10 and Will Eggers ‘09 rounded out a men’s team with top 10 finishes in the collegiate division. Both Sterghos and Lagasse accepted World Championship invitations.