On Saturday, June 6, Princeton hosted its second-ever triathlon. Organized by the Princeton High School Triathlon Club in conjunction with the Princeton Recreation Department, the event attracted 16 participants from Princeton High School, as well as from eight states across the country.
The Princeton Triathlon Club has been working on this event for the past three years. The idea for the club started when Shawn Elwood ’26, now the Triathlon Club leader, thought that the school could use a Triathlon Club and that Princeton should host a triathlon. As a freshman, he started his own club and tried to start the Princeton Triathlon the first year the club existed. The first year it was attempted, Elwood and the other club members ran into issues with getting a permit from the township. While they weren’t able to hold the triathlon that year, they still had valuable planning that was reused for the second year, when they eventually got the permit.
“The township, actually, denied us access to a permit. So year one, we are already facing seemingly an impossible barrier,” said Elwood. “But the year after, we doubled down on planning, we compromised when we could, and were able to get the permit ... From there, we actually had to plan the event, which was a large amount of organization.”
Last year was the very first year of the Princeton Triathlon, and 250 people participated. It was a supersprint triathlon, which meant a 300m swim, a 5.5 mile bike and a 1.5 mile run. This year, along with the super sprint, they also offered a normal sprint triathlon, which is a 400-meter swim, 10.5 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. This year was also the first year that the duathlon (1 mile run, 5-mile bike, 1.5-mile run) and aquabike (300-meter swim, 5-mile bike) were offered, for participants not interested in racing the full length triathlon.
“We’ve expanded it to a sprint as well, so it’s not just the supersprint length ... which is really exciting. It means more ground to patrol and make sure everything’s good ... I think that would be the biggest thing [I’m looking forward to], I’m excited to see how it all works together,” said Braedyn Capone ’26.
Along with the more race options this year, the Princeton Triathlon offered merchandise, including t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles and more. The organizers of the event were also able to double the cap of participants to 500, up from the 250 that raced last year.They hosted a vlog contest for anyone who was participating, and the top three finishers of the vlog contest received a discount off the triathlon for next year, and had their vlog featured on the Princeton Triathlon’s social media account.
"Now that we have the organizational part of it under our belt ... we’ve invested much more in community engagement. For example, we’re introducing merch,” said Elwood. “We have a family corner. I think about 30-40 [percent] of our signups are from families, so we’re kind of branding ourselves as the Princeton Triathlon family.”
Many PHS students and alumni — including Martin Trkov ’29, Deniz Gawiser-Salur ’29 and Evan Raphael ’26 — participated in the race. A total of 497 people raced in this event, with 429 finishers. These participants put in a lot of time and effort in order to properly train for the event, practicing the swim, bike, and run in preparation.
“My training mainly consists of doing group runs as part of the track team ... as well as doing bluefish in their early season,” said Trkov.
Gawiser-Salur agrees that running for the track team has helped him train.
“I never got out of shape since I’ve been constantly training for track by running,” said Gawiser-Salur.
Similarly, lots of effort and preparation was put in from the volunteering and organizing teams, some of whom arrived at the venue at 4:00 a.m. to help set up. From putting up signs to directing people during the race, volunteers were present at every step of the event.
“I did [the super sprint] last year, and it was a lot of fun. ... I saw [Shawn] running around ... he was doing five different things at once and I thought, maybe this guy needs some help, which is why I [helped] him ... I [had] to get there at 4:30 and then he [started] bossing me around after that, I [helped] draw some of the bike course out, [or] just [got] people in lines,” said Sonya Keaney ’28, a volunteer for the Princeton Triathlon.
This year’s top finishers from the high school sprint triathlon were high schooler Luzi Meggers, and Evan Raphael ’26 for men, with times of 1:09:03.18 and 1:01:27.48 respectively. In the supersprint the top PHS finishers were Angelena Gonzalez ’29 for women, and middle schooler Nathan Ricciardi for men, with times of 44:38.19 and 44:16.34. Overall, the 2026 Princeton Triathlon provided a unique opportunity for people of all ages to experience a triathlon, and brought the community of Princeton together to support the race and all those participating. With new plans for next year already in discussion amongst the Triathlon Club leaders, it’s clear that the Princeton Triathlon is here to stay. Similarly, the Triathlon will only continue to grow with the continued support of eager Princetonians.
“My favorite part is on race day, seeing everything come together, and in the work that has gone on over the past few years ... standing out over the swimming start and watching the hundreds of people extremely excited to jump in and push themselves, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Elwood.