TEMPE, Ariz. — Ian Boggs from Indiana University and Taylor Spivey from Cal Poly raced their way to the top of the podium in the Draft-Legal Collegiate Championships on Friday, the opening event of the 2014 USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships at Tempe Beach Park.

Boggs, a former collegiate swimmer and member of the USA Triathlon Collegiate Recruitment Program, pieced together the day’s fastest time of 55 minutes, 6 seconds on the 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike, 5-kilometer run sprint-distance course. Army’s Dylan Morgan had the fastest 5k run time (14:44) to move into second place, finishing in 55:12, and Steve Mantell from Colorado State was third in 55:20.

Boggs was near the front coming out of the water, just behind William Jones from University of California, San Diego and Thomas Roos and Andrew Roos, both of Stanford. He then joined the lead pack on the bike and entered T2 with T. Roos, Andrew Nielsen from Wisconsin and Eirik Ravnan from Stanford. Boggs began to distance himself from the rest of the field early in the 5k run and maintained his lead through the finish.

“There are really no words,” Boggs said after his win. “I just wanted to go as fast as I could. Winning is obviously the goal, but I was so happy coming into that finishing chute. I knew the runners were coming in strong behind me, so I just wanted to get to the end as quickly as possible.”

Spivey took the tape in the women’s race in 1:01:31, followed closely by Erika Erickson from California, who logged a time of 1:01:48 and was also second one year ago. Kelly Kosmo from UCLA rounded out the podium in 1:02:48.

Mario Cantu/CIMAGES

Along with Boggs, Spivey is a member of the Collegiate Recruitment Program and just finished her swim season at Cal Poly, using her top discipline to her advantage as she led the field out of the water. She rode the entire 20k bike course on her own as if it were a time trial, keeping a gap of more than a minute on the chase group, which included Erickson and Kosmo, as well as West Point’s Jessica Clay and UCLA’s Laurence Delisle. Erickson made a surge on the run, but Spivey held on for the win with the second-fastest run split.

“It was a great race,” Spivey said. “I knew some of the girls were a little faster than me on the run, and I just told myself if they were close to me on the bike, I’d let them catch me. Otherwise I’d drill it and just kind of stay ahead on my own on the bike and just do the best that I could. Fortunately that worked out today.”

In its second year, the Draft-Legal Collegiate Championships grew in participation from 2013 with more than 100 athletes crossing the finish line on Friday morning.

Collegiate Nationals action continues on Saturday as more than 1,200 collegiate triathletes race for school pride and national titles in the Olympic-distance championship event, which features a 1,500m swim, 40k bike and 10k run. The women’s race will start at 7:30 a.m. PT, followed by the men at 10:30 a.m. A live video stream of this event will be available on usatriathlon.org/usatcn14coverage, as well as a live blog. Coverage begins at 7:15 a.m. PT (10:15 a.m. ET).

Championship action will conclude with the Mixed Team Relay, slated to begin at 4:05 p.m. Each four-person team must consist of two females and two males who will complete a super-sprint triathlon before tagging their teammate. All athletes will complete a 250m swim, 5k bike and 1.2k run.

Visit usatriathlon.org/usatcn14 for more information on Collegiate Nationals.

2014 USA Triathlon Draft-Legal Collegiate Championships
750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run
Complete results

Men
1. Ian Boggs (Indiana), 55:06
2. Dylan Morgan (West Point), 55:12
3. Steve Mantell (Colorado State), 55:20
4. Andrew Nielsen (Wisconsin), 55:38
5. Eirik Ravnan (Stanford), 55:45

Women
1. Taylor Spivey (Cal Poly), 1:01:31
2. Erika Erickson (California), 1:01:48
3. Kelly Kosmo (UCLA), 1:02:48
4. Jessica Clay (West Point), 1:04:37
5. Gina Horath (UC San Diego), 1:04:57

Post-race interviews