Crushing It

Isthmus, May 31, 2018

As Caitlyn Moreno runs barefoot from the Waunakee Community High School swimming pool into the parking lot, she hears the voice of her coach, Tom Qualls, in her head yelling: “Towel off your feet!”

The 11-year-old Moreno grabs a towel from her neat pile of workout gear and sits down to dry off her feet before slipping on her sneakers. Then she fastens her kitten-eared helmet and jumps on her bicycle.

This is Moreno’s fourth triathlon — she completed her first as a second grader — but this year she has set her sights on a tougher goal; her first attempt at the long course which includes a 100-yard swim, a 4.5-mile bike ride and a 1-mile run.

“It’s not about placing for me, it’s about finishing,” Moreno said at a practice a week earlier. “I want to prove to myself that I can do it.”

Moreno is a fifth grader at Lake View, an elementary school tucked into a grove of oak trees on Madison’s north side. According to the Department of Public Instruction’s 2016-17 School Report Card, 72.9 percent of students at Lake View are “economically disadvantaged.”

Qualls, or “Mr. Q” as he is known to students and staff, is the school’s behavior interventionist teacher. He has also served as coach of the school’s triathlon team for five years through an eight-week program called Exercise to Achievement. Since March, Qualls has been training Lake View’s team of 13 students, grades second through fifth, twice a week after school and on Saturdays. During practices, the students run, bike and swim, as well as do strength and mindfulness conditioning.