Joe Maloy experienced a lot of success, won quite a few races and earned some pretty prestigious awards as a high school and college athlete.

Now the former Wildwood Catholic High School star athlete can add national champion to his athletic resume.

The 24-year-old Maloy, currently an assistant swim coach at Boston College, his alma mater, won the age group national triathlon championship in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday. Maloy, who only began training for and participating in triathlons last year, finished the 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run course in 1 hour, 57 minutes, 23 seconds. Maloy finished 12 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, 27-year-old Sean Jefferson of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

"I always hope to win no matter what the race or what the competition," Maloy was quoted as saying in a report on the USA Triathlon web site. "But this is my first year competing in triathlon, so I'm getting used to all the rules. In Philly I was penalized six minutes because I didn;t know all the bike rules. So I keep learning every race as I go. There's just so much more that goes into this sport."

A full report on the event can be found online at http://usatriathlon.org/news/article/15310.

You can also read more about this story in this week's editions of the Leader and the Gazettes.