Arizona triathlon, Kelly Wetteland 'built something really special' at the UA

Since the inception of Arizona triathlon in 2023, the Wildcats have won three national championships. 

Arizona's national championship-winning run from 2024-26 is the only three-peat in UA history — for all sports. The program was recently inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame. 

Before Arizona won three national championships, the Wildcats' arch rival Arizona State won the previous six national championships. ASU finished second in all three of Arizona's national championships; the last two were at Tempe Town Lake, the Sun Devils' home course. 

"It's hard to put into words," said head coach Wesley Johnson. "Honestly, I'm still processing it. It's just incredible. ... We just keep bringing the right people on and it's amazing what we continue to do every single day." 

Arizona senior Kelly Wetteland put a bow on her illustrious UA career with back-to-back individual national championships; she had the best time for the Wildcats during their first national championship run. 

In the women's collegiate national championship in Tempe last week, Wetteland recorded a first-place time of 1:00:43.7 and was one of four Wildcats to place in the top 10, along with Amit Ben Adiva (1:01:24.4), Molly Lakustiak (1:01:34.6) and Regina Michel Camacho (1:01:38.4).

The event turned into a duathlon after the water quality in Tempe Town Lake didn't pass inspection for the race. 

Swimming is how Wetteland came to Arizona. The Maryville, Tennessee native graduated from Los Alamos High School in New Mexico and signed to Arizona swimming's 2022 recruiting class. 

Even though her preferred leg of the triathlon was eliminated from the national championship, Wetteland still found a way to win her second straight individual title.

Wetteland has been the foundational piece to Arizona's success as a triathlon program. After she heard about Arizona starting up the triathlon team while she was a freshman at the UA, she was interested in trying something new.

She had experience swimming and running. Cycling was a different story. 

"I never rode my bike outside of riding around my neighborhood as a kid, but I ran cross country in high school," Wetteland said. "I walked up to Wes' office, knocked on his door and said, 'Hey, man, I'd love to be a part of this. I don't know if you have people yet.' He was like, 'Yeah, sure. Why not? Come over.' " 

In one season, Wetteland was a three-sport athlete at Arizona, competing in swimming, cross country and triathlon, the UA's newest NCAA-sanctioned sport.

"It was probably the least amount of homework I did in my entire life, which is not great, but I eventually figured out the school thing," Wetteland said. "I got to be a part of three Arizona sports teams. It's amazing." 

Wetteland worked out a deal with her UA coaches, where she gets to compete in triathlon before competing in other sports. 

Her cycling experience — or lack thereof — showed in her first event in Richmond, Virginia. After the swimming portion of the triathlon, Wetteland was confident she was going to win. 

"I get on the bike and immediately start getting passed by all sorts of people," Wetteland joked. "'What's going on? I'm biking really hard. What's happening here?' It's raining, so I'm getting dropped from packs." 

Going down a steep hill, Wetteland had to make a sharp turn, but she feared she'd hit Johnson, who was standing on the sidewalk at the turn.  

"I was like, 'I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it,'" and closed her eyes and hoped for the best, she said. "I opened my eyes and kept going," she added. 

Wetteland was in fourth place and finished last after the cycling portion of the triathlon.

"There was definitely a learning curve," Wetteland said. "Biking is no joke." 

Wetteland wasn't the only person who was learning on the fly. Johnson hails from a Paralympic and Olympic background. As a leader and team captain, Wetteland "just had a really good intuition on those kind of things" to be a student-athlete at the highest level. 

"We learned together on it and have helped each other," Johnson said. "She helped me a lot with ideas and how we can start the culture from the very, very beginning. ... It feels like we started it together, which is really special." 

Added Johnson: "We've leaned on each other a lot during this process. We learned about what it would take and there's been trials, there's been tears, there's been everything. We learned a lot and we're still learning a lot, but we're enjoying it.

"Every single season, there's been ups and downs. But what matters is that we put it together at the end of the season, which is fulfilling and exciting."

Now that Wetteland has ended her time competing for Arizona's triathlon team, she's "really in the mix" to compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. 

"It's a high standard, but the fact that she's in the conversation, it's exciting," Johnson said. "We set up a good foundation and we're going to pursue that next dream." 

Wetteland is currently in a master’s program for international security studies, with hopes to become a judge advocate general (JAG).

When she leaves Tucson, she'll be one of the most decorated and accomplished athletes in UA athletics history.  

"That's unreal," Wetteland said. "I came into college sports with the utmost respect for everything that happens here. The whole life leading up to college is all about how I can get myself to get into a position to get a degree and be on a team that I love. 

"There's a little bit of delusion involved in this crazy dream that I get to live. When I race, I think I can do anything. That's the power of sport: you trust yourself and the team around you and anything is possible. I don't know if I'm the most decorated athlete of all time, but I'm definitely the most fulfilled. I've become such a better person and I get to leave the Arizona nest with all of these lessons and abilities." 

What's next for Arizona in the post-Wetteland era?

"I hope big things," Johnson said. "We built an amazing foundation and we have incredible people that are going to carry that torch forward. We have exciting prospects and recruits looking at us, because of the foundation Kelly helped build.

"We built something really special that a lot of people want to be a part of. We have to keep growing and learning and adapting and evolving to the different team we have every single year. ... There's so much excitement happening, but we have to keep moving forward and investing into those people we have.

"We're ready to do it."