SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The inaugural season of Arizona Triathlon continues this weekend when the program competes in the NCAA West National Qualifier at Fellows Lake in southwest Missouri. The race will be in the Spring Triathlon classification of 750 meters of swimming, a 20-kilometer ride and culminating with a 5-kilometer run. The entire Wildcat roster will compete for the first time this season after having student-athletes miss prior events due to international competition commitments.

"We are very excited to compete in a team race again after a month off since the Battle of Fort Worth," said head coach Wes Johnson. "We've had a few great weeks of training and development here in Tucson in preparations for this weekend, and I know our student-athletes are eager to get out there and race. We will have all of our athletes available to compete for the first time this season, which makes this an even more special opportunity to Bear Down."

Three weeks ago, the tandem of Lydia Russell (United States) and Laura Holánszky (Hungary) competed in the U23 Triathlon World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. Both riders finished in the top 40 of the international race.

Saturday's event marks the third official competition of the season after freshman Dana Prikrylova was the team's top finisher at last month's Battle of Fort Worth. The Wildcats also got top-20 times at TCU's race from junior Laura Holanszky and sophomore Molly Lakutiak with finished with times of 1:09:52 and 1:11:29 respectively. Arizona also finished within 10 seconds of first-place TCU in the team standings after posting a cumulative team time of 5:57:37.

The NCAA West National Qualifier will feature a field of 17 teams, including Arizona State, San Francisco and TCU. The race will begin at 8 a.m. (MST) on Saturday, Oct. 14.