Pulling double duty for the first time in his brief two-year stint at the nation's largest stage, Grand Canyon University Club Triathlon sophomore Stephen Garr finished 7^th in Saturday's draft legal race at the 2024 USA Triathlon National Championships in Mission Viejo, California. After making his first-ever appearance in that race, Garr then posted a 64^th-place finish overall in Sunday's Olympic distance triathlon, leading six other Lopes' participants in the race. In the same race, Lopes' sophomore Shoshanah Stukas cut last year's 50^th-place finish in half, winding up 25^th among the race's 375 females while finishing 266^th overall.
 
Finally, despite deciding to enter the race at the last minute, Garr, Stukas, Josh Canode and Paige Muller combined to finish 17^th in Sunday's Mixed Team Relay, finishing out of the race's top 10 finishers by just four minutes, with an overall time of one hour, seven minutes and 55 seconds.
 
Garr showed no 'rookie moments' in finishing just 71 seconds out of the top spot (and 20 seconds behind the 5^th-place finisher) in Saturday's 16-mile draft legal race. Garr's worst leg was actually the swim portion at the start, but the native of Flower Mound, Texas, improved on his 36^th-ranked performance in the water by wheeled his way to the 3^rd-best cycling time of the race (28 minutes, 55 seconds). He was 10^th-best in the run, which put him across the tape at an overall finishing time of 56 minutes, 36 seconds.
 
Unfortunately, the Saturday race fatigued Garr a bit for the 32 miles he'd have to log a day later. While his finishing time of 2:07:32 was only five minutes slower than his 2023 pace, it cost him nearly 20 spots in the final men's standings, finishing 62^nd among the 552 male participants and 64^th overall. Garr was still a good pacesetter, though, for Canode, who – in his first-ever nationals appearance – finished just out of the top 200 men in the event while crossing the tape 226^th-best overall with a time of 2:22:53. Not far behind was Stukas, who wound up a banner junior season with a performance that cut a full five minutes off last year's time, and was highlighted by the 14^th-best run portion (just under 41 minutes) and 32^nd-fastest swim (1:14:37) among females. 10 minutes behind Stukas was the man who helped lead the Lopes to their first-ever nationals appearance as a Lopes' senior two years ago, Lopes' Assistant Coach Matt Johnson, who used the 112^th-best run of the race to finish just out of the race's top 400 performers.
 
"All of our athletes were competitive and our combined team score was higher than any past year we have raced nationals," said outgoing Lopes' Head Coach Nick Windauer. "I am happy to have spent the season with such an awesome group of student-athletes. Their discipline, maturity, and competitive nature made coaching a joy. I am proud of their accomplishments through every season I have coached, and I hope they continue in the sport and grow the team on campus."
 
The Lopes' full results are below:

DRAFT LEGAL RACE (SATURDAY)
NAME	TIME	OVERALL FINISH
Stephen Garr	56:36:00	7th
OLYMPIC DISTANCE RACE (SUNDAY)
NAME	TIME	OVERALL FINISH	DIVISION	M/F FINISH
Stephen Garr	2:07:32	64th	Olympic Distance Male	62nd
Josh Canode	2:22:53	226th	Olympic Distance Male	207th
Shoshanah Stukas	2:26:13	266th	Olympic Distance Female	25th
Aidan Perales	2:51:09	633rd	Olympic Distance Male	453rd
Lindsey Philips	2:57:59	708th	Olympic Distance Female	225th
Paige Muller	3:09:17	806th	Olympic Distance Female	286th
Matthew Johnson (Asst. Coach)	2:36:31	414th	Olympic Distance Male	341st