Mary Langenfeld
After finishing a 100-yard swim, Caitlyn Moreno, gets ready to bike 4.5 miles.
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.
Qualls says he was initially pulled into the program by a former physical education teacher and “fell in love with it.” Qualls took over as head coach in his second year. Over the years the program has helped him build strong relationships with students. “It definitely helps reduce behavior calls — or lessen the intensity — when kids have an adult they know and trust in school,” he says.
Qualls also sees the triathlon training as an accessible and fun opportunity for Lake View kids to get more exercise. “I feel like a lot of students in our neighborhood don’t get enough exercise after they leave school for the day,” he says. “Talking to parents, a lot of them say they don’t feel comfortable sending their kids outside for unstructured play.”
Exercise to Achievement is part of a larger program called Tri 4 Schools founded in 2011 by former Epic employee Katie Hensel. “I started seeing articles that this generation of kids will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents — by almost five years — if the childhood obesity rates continue to worsen,” Hensel says. “I didn’t want that fate for my kids, or any kids, so I decided to do something about it.”
According to Hensel, with cuts to health and physical education budgets, Dane County schools now spend about 50 cents per child on physical education each year. Tri 4 Schools uses funding from businesses, individuals and grants to offset costs so that 100 percent of race entry fees go back to schools for exercise, nutritional or health programs. Qualls says Lake View has received about $10,000 so far that they have used for recess equipment and student wellness materials. This year he hopes to have enough money to install new bike racks and start a bike-to-school campaign.
After swimming and biking, Moreno begins the 1-mile run on the track, smiling at her parents in the stands each time she passes them. Completing her fourth lap she runs for the finish line as an announcer booms, “Caitlyn Moreno, you are a triathlete!”
Crushing the race in under an hour, Moreno admires her medal and rips open a granola bar. When asked how she feels she says “good.” With a mouthful of granola bar she smiles and adds, “and hungry.”
Percentage of overweight and obese children in Wisconsin (according to 2016 State of Obesity report): 29.5
Recommended daily activity for school-age children by Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services: at least 60 minutes
Number of minutes of physical education classes for elementary students per week: 90
Daily recess minutes for elementary schools allowed by Department of Public Instruction 30
Participants in the 2018 Waunakee Kids Triathlon: 575
Money Tri 4 Schools raised for schools since 2011: over $270,000
