A WPIAL champ in track and swimming, Kiski Area’s Eliza Miller aims for big senior season before joining Duquesne’s women’s triathlon team

Every other day during the school year, Kiski Area senior Eliza Miller swaps her textbooks and pencils for a welding torch and goggles.

Miller has participated in the school’s vo-tech program since her freshman year, initially electing to partake in it because her older brother was also involved.

“It’s a good skill to have,” Miller said.

Miller’s welding skills have carried over to athletics, as this WPIAL track and swimming champion has welded together her talents in those sports with a newfound liking of cycling to compete in triathlons, of which she has completed eight.

“She obviously has a lot of internal motivation, and she works so hard,” Kiski Area track coach Tom Berzonsky said. “Her training is so consistent, and that just carries over from one sport to the next. She has a really good attitude, and she’s a team-first person.”

Miller will compete on Duquesne’s triathlon team in the fall and will swim for the Dukes next winter, so in what could be her final season of track this spring, she’s hoping for more success while ascending up the list of the top 800-meter runners in WPIAL history.

As a standout in cross country, swimming and track, Miller has accomplished a ton in her high school athletic career, with the highlights being her winning WPIAL swimming gold in the Class 2A 500-yard freestyle and WPIAL track gold in the Class 3A 800, both during her junior year.

In cross country, Miller has three top-5 finishes at the WPIAL championships and three top-11 finishes at the PIAA championships. In swimming, she has seven top-3 finishes at WPIALs and seven top-5 finishes at PIAAs. And in track, Miller has medaled (top-8 finish) four times at WPIALs and once at PIAAs. Overall, she has competed in the WPIAL championships 11 times and the PIAA championships on nine occasions.

Since Miller’s seasons run so long, there’s really no runway to the next. She always hits the ground running (or the water swimming). That was the case recently after Miller claimed bronze medals in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle on consecutive days at the PIAA Class 2A swimming championships March 15-16 at Bucknell University. Miller’s final race was on Saturday, and by Tuesday she was on the track practicing. And a day after that, she competed in Kiski Area’s tri-meet at Latrobe, running the 3,200 to simply get her legs stretched out a bit.

“With her triathlon experience, for her that transition from swimming to running seems to be a lot easier. Still a challenge, but a lot easier,” said Berzonsky, who said Miller is the only triathlon competitor he has had in his 25 seasons as coach.

Miller enters the season as the defending WPIAL Class 3A champion in the 800. She topped the field in the event last spring at Slippery Rock University before running a personal-record time of 2 minutes, 10.88 seconds a week later to finish fifth at the PIAA championships. Only seven girls in WPIAL history have run a faster time, according to track historian Jim Faiella. Shady Side Academy graduate Melissa Riggins, now an All-American at Georgetown, ran a 2:08.86 at the PIAA championships her sophomore season in 2019, a mark that stands as the record. Former Moon star Mia Cochran (2:09.58) is the only other WPIAL runner to go sub-2:10.

“I definitely want to try to break 2:10, and I want to break 4:50 in the mile,” Miller said.

Miller’s PR in the 1,600 is 4:56.79, which she ran when she placed 12th at last year’s PIAA championships. Miller said she will focus on the 800 and 1,600 this season, but she also plans on competing in the 300 hurdles. In addition, she has her eye on the school record in the 400, a mark held by none other than Miller’s mother. Kim (McDermott) Miller is a 1994 Kiski Area graduate who also holds the record in the triple jump and is in the school’s sports hall of fame.

“I think whatever she wants to be good at, she’ll do it,” Berzonsky said. “She’s a great athlete overall. I know she actually pole vaulted for a little while. I think she cleared 9 feet, and that’s just from her dabbling in it.”

Miller started dabbling in the triathlon the summer following her sophomore year, with the flame of intrigue being sparked by a conversation she had with Joella Baker, who was named head coach of the inaugural Duquesne women’s triathlon team that same summer. 

“I was with my club swim team doing open water, and I ended up talking to my college coach,” Miller remembered. “She was like, ‘I think you’ll be really good at [the triathlon].’ I tried it, and I did turn out to be good at it.”

Lengths of the different disciplines are modified for youth and junior athletes competing in the triathlon. Youth athletes (13-15) swim 375 meters (410 yards), bike 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), and run 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles). It’s then doubled for juniors (16-19), who swim 750 meters (820 yards), bike 20 kilometers (12.4 miles), and run 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). Those same junior distances are used in the NCAA triathlon. Olympic triathlons consist of a 1.5-kilometer swim (0.9 miles), 40-kilometer bike ride (24.8 miles), and 10-kilometer run (6.2 miles).

Already being a competitive runner and swimmer helped Miller’s cause, but cycling was a different story.

“We always went on these little bike rides as a family, but I only recently actually started cycling,” she said. “It’s really new and really different, and it’s taken a lot of practice.”

Miller’s first triathlon came at Moraine State Park in 2022, with one of the most recent coming last August in Milwaukee, Wis., when she placed fourth in the Junior Development Women division at the USA Triathlon National Championships.

While her next triathlon won’t come until the summer, Miller’s training this spring will include both swimming and cycling, upon the recommendation of her future college coach.

Duquesne is one of 42 NCAA schools to sponsor women’s triathlon. While not yet a full-fledged NCAA championship sport, it has made significant progress since becoming an NCAA Emerging Sport for Women in 2014. Duquesne took part in its inaugural season last fall when it placed 10th at the Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships in Tempe, Ariz. 

Miller said she will major in forensic science at Duquesne, adding that she has wanted to be a pathologist for as long as she can remember. 

Her athletic path has included lots of running, swimming and now cycling, skill sets that make Berzonsky believe that Miller is setting herself up for more success.

“The triathlon really suits her well because she’s so good at doing multiple events. She kind of thrives in that area,” Berzonsky said. “I think that whatever she puts her mind to, she can do it.”