If you didn’t read the original David Versus The Goliaths post from last week, you may do so by clicking here.
To summarize, tiny Queens University of Charlotte (North Carolina), a DII athletics school, took its triathlon team to Tempe, AZ to compete in the USA Triathlon Collegiate Club National Championships. My son is a member of this team. And in a big upset, Queens knocked off Division I perennial powerhouses to take the Overall Championship.
Or so they thought. Three hours later, right before the awards ceremony, a competitor filed a protest against the Queens’ Mixed-Team Relay squad, accusing the school of a uniform violation. Yes, a uniform violation. The USAT agreed and disqualified Queens from the Mixed-Team Relay event, which dropped their overall win to third.
This was one of the hot topics in the triathlon world last week. I think the USAT took a lot of heat. I didn’t see anything on their side. But, after I wrote about this last week, my bet was that the USAT would eventually admit they were wrong but keep the final standings as they were.
Fortunately, as is often the case, I was wrong. On Thursday, April 18, the USAT announced Queens had won the appeals process and reinstated them as the overall Collegiate Club National Champions!
Congratulations, Queens Tri Team!
You can read the USAT article here:
https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/News/Articles-and-Releases/2019/April/18/Disqualification-Overturned-For-Queens-University-of-Charlotte-at-Collegiate-Club-Nationals
Thanks for reading,
