Cheyenne Meek Nixon placed first place in the female 30 to 34 division and qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. (Submitted photo)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

PORT CLINTON – A Port Clinton High School (PCHS) Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and Ohio State University swim team alumna is making waves in a new sport: triathlon. Cheyenne Meek Nixon, a PCHS 2014 graduate, competed in the Ironman 70.3 Ohio triathlon in Sandusky on July 19 and placed first in the female 30 to 34 age division and placed second overall for women, trailing the first place leader by only four seconds.

Nixon has come a long way from her first triathlon in July, 2024, when she placed 95th in the women’s division. At the time, she was happy with that standing because her goal was to simply finish the grueling race.

“Like everything in life, I set out to do my best,” she said.

But, walking away from that race, she knew her best could be better. This year’s success qualified Nixon to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga in August, 2027, and this August, she will compete in the USA Triathlon National Championship.

The July 19 Ironman revealed that Nixon had reawakened the fiery athlete that gained her notoriety in high school, where she earned five SBC and school records and three district records in swimming. She took that athletic drive to OSU, where she earned four varsity letters and All-Big-10 honors as a junior and qualified for USA Junior Nationals, USA Winter Nationals, and USA Olympic Trials.

Then, Nixon graduated and life moved on, but eventually, she missed the physical ambition that once defined her life.

Cheyenne Meek Nixon is still applying lessons she learned in the Port Clinton High School pool as champion swimmer. (Submitted photo)

“Athletics and being healthy was always a big part of my life, but then after college, when I was done being a student-athlete, I felt like there was something missing from my life, something fundamental,” she said. “I wanted a challenge. I missed training hard for something and looking for that next goal.”

After completing her first Ironman 70.3 in 2024, she competed in a full Ironman and had a stronger finish.

“But I wanted to get better, so I trained harder and started working with a coach,” she said. “I knew that if I ran the Ohio 70.3 again, I had my eye on getting the tape. You can’t control everything in a race, but you can control yourself. You can do your best.”

Her best took her to the top spot in her female age division and second overall for women. What is most impressive is that she achieved that success despite the fact that the swimming portion of the Ironman race – which is her strongest discipline – was canceled because of unsafe conditions on Lake Erie.

Nixon was grateful to return to Sandusky for the race, where many hometown supporters lined the streets to cheer her on. She completed her first triathlon in Sandusky and then returned and triumphed. She said it felt like a heartwarming, full-circle moment.

“Seeing the local support, seeing the people I grew up with, made the race more special,” she said. “The race got hard in parts, and hearing the cheers gave me the strength to keep going.”

Nixon said she was always surrounded by support, including her Port Clinton High School coach Dan Diaz who taught her the benefits of training hard.

“We practiced in the morning, in the evening, and on weekends. That was the first time I had pretty hard training. That taught me how to be mentally tough and build endurance, and those lessons carried into this new journey in life,” Nixon said.

Nixon has achieved much in life, and she is ready to put in the work to earn more wins. But she believes her success doesn’t have to be as atypical as some people think it is.

“We are capable of so much more than we think. Our minds fail us before our bodies do,” she said. “I’m thankful that triathlon has allowed me to realize that.”