Arizona triathlete junior Kelly Wetteland came to the UA for a different sport and with no triathlon experience. But she ended up playing a key role in the Wildcats’ latest national championship.

Wetteland finished second individually with a time of 59:20, 13 seconds behind the winner, as the Wildcats won a championship in the triathlon program’s second season.

β€œI would say it means the world in a sense,” Wetteland said. β€œIt kind of becomes our life for the fall semester, so to top it off like that is amazing, just our whole team is a family in that regard, so I would say it’s just one of the most surreal feelings.”

Wetteland started her collegiate career as a swimmer at New Mexico before transferring to Arizona to swim. She competed in the 100 and 200 individual medleys and the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

As a sophomore, she joined cross country, and when she heard UA was adding a triathlon team, she asked head coach Wes Johnson for a shot.

β€œI have been swimming my whole life, so I was recruited to the U of A to swim,” Wetteland said. β€œI swam my first year, but I always felt like there was something a little bit more that I could give to athletics and this university. I ran in high school, so I when I heard that we were gonna have a team, I approached Wes and I was like β€˜hi, I’m Kelly, I’m a swimmer, I can run, I’ve never really biked competitively before, but I think I’m crazy enough to do this, can you take a shot on me?’ and Wes was like, β€˜yeah, let’s do it, let’s go for it.’”

Johnson found what bothered swimming only coaches about Wetteland made her ideal for triathlon, which often features athletes coming over from another sport.

He said Wetteland has the personality for triathlon, and he’s excited to continue to develop her because he thinks β€œwe’re just scratching the surface.”

β€œI’m glad she found us in the first year because I think a lot of times we have seriously so many athletes reaching out daily, daily, and a lot are coming from single sports and sometimes we just can’t even give them a chance because how many athletes are reaching out,” Johnson said. β€œBut after meeting her and the fact that she was already here, it just made sense.

β€œI talked to some coaches and there was something unique about her, they didn’t like that she was doing all these extra things like going to run and all this stuff and I’m like, well that’s triathlon.”

When Wetteland finished at nationals in Clermont, Fla., she had one thing on her mind.

β€œThe first thing that crossed my mind was like, where is everybody?” Wetteland said. β€œI was like, wow, we need those five people across the lines.”

She saw freshman Margareta Vrablova, who finished third and junior Molly Lakustiak, who was sixth.

β€œIt was an amazing feeling,” Vrablova said. β€œWe knew that we have a good chance of winning, but it was it was very hard and there were a lot of very strong teams and we were able to bring it home, so it’s amazing.”

ASU finished second, followed by Queens University, TCU and Denver.

Johnson met Vrablova at the junior world championships in Hamburg, Germany, where she finished fifth. Vrablova is from Slovakia.

Lakustiak, who is from Canada, originally didn’t think about going to college in the States until she met Johnson.

β€œI did one of our like junior races here in Florida and Wes reached out to me after I competed and was like, β€˜hey, would you be interested in like possibly being part of this new team?’ and I was like, β€˜oh, whoa,’ I was like, never thought this was like a possibility,” Lakustiak said. β€œSo it was very like new. I kind of just trusted Wes and I trusted that that this team would be what I needed and to, like, even pursue past college, I knew it would set me up well, so it was kind of a no-brainer.”

Johnson said they were able to build a team that could win a national title in their second year because they built a good foundation last year.

β€œThat was that one of the top priorities over anything last year was building the right foundation,” Johnson said. β€œIt’s really just like investing in the individuals and who they are, caring for them and believing in them.

β€œI think that when that happens, magic happens, you know. I think they trust in what they’re doing, and when you’re trusting what you’re doing and there’s a good cohesion between us and respect, honesty and trust, I think anything is possible,” he added.

He said the Wildcats are close and even work out without the coaches.

Wetteland said her teammates helped her learn the sport, too, like running on to the bicycle for that portion of the competition.

β€œI started triathlon two years ago, so I learned this all kind of as an adult,” Wetteland said. β€œI would say it takes some getting used to definitely, but I was really lucky in the sense that actually, Molly is one of the best technical bikers we have on our team, so is Margareta, so just watching them, I mean, it’s like you’re running with your bike and then you jump.

β€œSo there’s a moment where like you’re holding on your handlebars and you’re like, in the air and then you land on your bike, and then you put your feet in your shoes,” she added. β€œSo, yeah, it definitely takes some getting used to it.”

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