CHS senior Sam DeAngelo trains twice a day for most of the year in order to stay in shape.   He races in triathlons, which are endurance events that consist of swimming, biking, and running, in that order.

Recently, DeAngelo competed in the Sprint Distance National Championship Triathlon, consisting of a 750 meter swim, 20 kilometer bike ride, and a 5 kilometer run, and qualified for the world championships by finishing in the top 25 in his group.

DeAngelo commented on his qualification for the race, saying, “It felt awesome to know that I was one of the best in my age group for the nation.  My favorite part of the race was the biking portion, and I’d much rather go on a long bike ride rather than a long run.”

The world championship race was hosted in London and it consisted of many runners from around the world.

DeAngelo said the triathlon was “really cold and rainy but it was so fun racing with so many people from different countries.”

Overall, DeAngelo placed 40th and he was the fifth place runner from the USA.

Jason Griffith, sophomore English teacher and DeAngelo’s swim coach, has seen how DeAngelo has improved over the past few years in order to get better for triathlon.  Griffith said, “A lot of triathlon participants are weak swimmers, so being on the swim team has helped him become better then his competition.”

DeAngelo is a multi-sport student athlete, so his time management skills have become very sharp.  In regards to the future, Griffith believes DeAngelo will stick with triathlons with the possibility of going pro at some point.

DeAngelo’s brother, Joe DeAngelo (a high school junior), trained with his brother  this summer and also competes in triathlons.  He said, “Sam is a great training partner, especially on the bike.  When out on the road for two to three hours, it is always great to be with a rider as good as Sam.”

“Being able to race with Sam allows me to have friendly competition to push me to achieve things that at first I don’t think are possible,” said Joe DeAngelo.  “Sam works hard, getting up at 5 am before school to do a pool workout, and then proceed to run at cross country practice in the afternoon.  This hard work and motivation will allow him to steadily improve into the future, and achieve his goal of competing in college.”

When it comes to the future, Sam DeAngelo plans to keep training and participating in races.  Later on, he hopes to start participating in longer distance races and keep getting better.