MT. STERLING, Ohio - The Daemen College women's triathlon team returned to competition today following a two-week hiatus with all three Wildcat participants faring well at the Deer Creek Fall Challenge, a sprint-style triathlon held at Deer Creek State Park, just 20 miles southwest of Columbus.  Today's race featured a 750-meter swim, a 5,000-meter run and 20,000-meter bike ride.

Ashley Cheff (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) paced coach Jon Metz's team today, finishing as the champion within the female elite open division.  Cheff completed the course in a little more than an hour (1:10:23.92).  That time was good enough to finish 13th overall out of 272 total competitors, male and female.  Cheff's 19:28 time in the 5K run ranked sixth among all tri-athletes today.

Daemen also got top-notch performances from Nichole Geiger (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) and Jenifer Igoe (Oakfield, N.Y./Oakfield-Alabama) as the duo finished one-two in the female age 20-24 grouping.  Geiger jumped out to a sizable lead after completing the swimming portion in 12:58 en route to a final time of 1:22:34.94.  Igoe, who ranked fourth in the group in the swim and bike, made up time by running the 5K portion in 25:09.  She posted a final time of 1:26:02.57.  Geiger and Igoe finished 62nd and 94th overall, respectively,

The sport of triathlon was termed an Emerging Sport For Women by the NCAA in January of 2014, establishing a 10-year window for the formation of 40 intercollegiate programs.  At present, according to USA Triathlon which oversees intercollegiate competitions, Daemen is one of 13 schools in the country to sponsor a varsity triathlon program for women.

Daemen next competes at the Collegiate National Championships in New Orleans, La. on Saturday, November 5.

For continuing coverage of the Daemen women's triathlon team, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenTriathlon on Twitter.