JOHN WALK | Features Writer
Lancaster-based Yoder Performance triathlon group often does its swim training in the McGinness Pool inside the Kunkel Aquatic Center on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College. But two years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the swim sessions were held at Lititz recCenter in Lititz Borough.
That’s when founder and coach Andrew Yoder had two groups practice back to back. From the moment the first group entered the pool until the second group exited, a young woman in an adjacent lane was swimming laps back and forth.
“I remember thinking, ‘Who is this?’ ” Yoder recalled.
It kept happening in subsequent practices, impressing Yoder so much he eventually approached her.
“Who are you and what are you doing?” Yoder asked.
“I’m Ava Warfel,” she replied.
“Have you ever done a triathlon?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
One thing led to another and Yoder soon asked Warfel to join his group. Two years later, this Oct. 14, Warfel, now 23, was the first woman across the finish line in her age group (18-24) in the Ironman KONA 2023, the world championship of triathlons, in Kona, Hawaii.
“At the end of the day I won the age group,” Warfel said. “There’s another level of racing. It feels almost trite to be proud of something that isn’t … if I had won the entire thing that would be something to be proud of. It’s a confidence booster. Now it’s time to get back to work.”
For someone who has achieved so much in a sport in such a short amount of time, that response might leave others to wonder — as Yoder did two years ago — who is this woman?
Diabetes diagnosis
Student-athletes at Linden Hall School for Girls, in Lititz Borough, can now compete in PIAA-sanctioned cross country events through a co-op with neighboring Warwick High School. But seven years ago no such co-op existed for the Warfel sisters, Ava and Ella. So they formed their own team at Linden Hall with the help of a few more classmates.
Ava Warfel, then a Linden Hall junior, and Ella Warfel, then a freshman, placed in the top eight of the 2016 District Three Class 1A championship race to qualify for the state meet.
They made it back to the district championship race a year later, when Ava Warfel was diagnosed with Type I diabetes.
“It’s humbled me,” Warfel said of the condition.
Once known as juvenile diabetes, Type I diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin, the hormone that allows the body to use sugar, or glucose, to produce energy.
While the old school option is still available for those with diabetes to prick a finger to check blood sugar level, technology has advanced to where many now use a small electrical device called a continuous glucose monitor, or glucometer, that’s attached somewhere on the body, usually the back of the upper arm, that automatically checks their blood sugar levels.
A normal blood sugar level for Type I Diabetics is between 70 and 150 (measured in milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood).
If the levels are too low or too high, a person could suffer a seizure, go unconscious or go into a coma, among other side effects.
Low levels of blood sugar can be adjusted by consuming food, drinking a beverage, or even swallowing a glucose tablet.
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JOHN WALK | Sports Writer
When her levels are high, Warfel injects herself with insulin through a port in her torso. For many diabetics, insulin can be pumped from a small mechanical device.
“I built my own insulin pump,” Warfel said. “I did some biotech coding stuff in college. I didn’t like the commercial algorithms on traditional insulin pumps. I wanted something more aggressive.”
A Lititz Borough native, Warfel graduated from Linden Hall in 2018 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology at Bucknell University. While at Bucknell, a friend pushed her to come out for the Bucknell cross country team as a freshman, her lone season running as a college walk-on.
“That was not the greatest period of time in my life,” she recalled.
Still adjusting to life with diabetes, Warfel discovered she didn’t much enjoy life as a college student. It’s what propelled her to earn her degree in two and a half years, a stretch during which she worked part-time as a paramedic through college. She now works full-time as a nursing supervisor in neighboring Berks County.
Needing something to do outside of work, Warfel felt the urge to scratch her athletic itch again.
“I knew how to swim,” she said. “So I would go to Lititz recCenter and swim for two hours straight. Non-stop.”
Then came the meeting with Yoder, leading to her discovering a sport that gave her direction at a point in life when she felt rudderless.
‘There are champions everywhere’
Yoder, 34, is a Hempfield graduate who founded Yoder Performance a half-dozen years ago. He welcomes folks of different shapes, sizes, ages and stages of life. The current crop is made up of clients ranging in age from 16 to 65, some of them on an elite scale and others just looking to stay in shape. Yoder also provides individual instruction to some top racers across the country.
Among those in the group is Hempfield senior Ella Wolfe, who won the USA Triathlon National Championship Olympic Distance race in August and followed that by taking gold medals in the Lancaster-Lebanon League girls cross country championship and District Three Class 3A girls cross country championship races in October, will compete in triathlon at the University of Arizona next year.
“The first time I met Ava was at a group run session,” Wolfe recalled. “I kept lapping her on the run. She was smiling the whole time. I told her to stick with it. … Andrew will make you into a great athlete.”
Wolfe admitted Warfel now laps her on the running sessions.
“When I met Andrew I was at a phase in life where I was trying to figure out who I was,” Warfel said. “What do I want life to look like? How do I let go of things in life I’ve shackled myself to?”
Triathlon has given Warfel peace and purpose. It’s also unlocked a potential in Warfel she didn’t know she had. After all, she hadn’t ridden a bike since she was a girl, evident in her first biking practice session with her Yoder Performance teammates.
“My first biking session I finished three hours behind,” Warfel said. “It was an 80-mile loop. I was like a turtle. It was so bad.”
She returned to the parking lot from which the group started thinking everyone surely must have left. Except, there was Yoder. Waiting for her.
“One of the things I center myself on with coaching is there are champions everywhere,” Yoder said. “You just have to find them and nurture them. Ava struck me as having something there. You could see the approach in her work ethic. As novice as she was, her training and commitment were at a professional level.”
Still, Yoder said he had no idea then how quickly Warfel would rise in the sport.
‘Where I thrive’
Warfel trained for a year before participating in her first triathlon, competing in the 2022 Bear Triathlon in Delaware. It’s there she learned the basics of the three-part race.
“I didn’t know how to rack my bike in the transition area,” she recalled. “I was asking others, ‘Please, help me.’ It was very much like a small child learning what to do.”
Many triathlons are held at the 70.3-mile distance, half that of a traditional Ironman race.
“I don’t want to sound greedy, 70.3s are great, but the full Ironman distance is where I thrive,” Warfel said.
Lititz Borough native Ava Warfel, 23, won her age group (18 to 24) at the Ironman KONA 2023, the world championship of triathlons, on Oct. 14, in Hawaii. She did so just two years into the sport.
It’s a discovery she made in her next race, the 2022 Ironman Maryland, where she finished as the second woman overall after completing the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run (the run portion alone is equivalent to a marathon).
“I realized I don’t suck at this,” she said.
She placed second overall again in her next race, the 2023 Eagleman 70.3 Ironman in Maryland in June.
In each of those races, Warfel trailed the eventual first-place competitor by double-digit minutes off the bike, but had closed the gap to four minutes or less by the end.
At the KONA Ironman, Warfel stood in second place in her age group off the bike. She trailed by 13 minutes at that point. She proceeded to take over first place and won her age group by 16 minutes. In other words, she crushed the running portion.
“That’s my strength,” Warfel said. “I knew I was back (of first place coming off the bike) but not how far. Somebody in the crowd yelled to me how far back I was … I know if I could just make up a minute per mile on her (in the run), I could get her. It worked.”
On one hand, Warfel isn’t satisfied and now has a dream of one day winning the KONA Ironman world championship race.
On the other hand, she said she doesn’t care about her placement in races and is just grateful for a sport and teammates that have given her direction.
“Beyond just my family, I always wanted to find people who care about each other and lift each other up,” Warfel said. “How are you grateful enough to have things you always wanted? ... My teammates have shown me you have to keep showing up, keep trying. … This sport has transformed my life.”
