Coach Sonni Dyer has led the varsity women’s triathlon team to five consecutive USAT Division II National Championships. The 2019 season finally saw the Royal men earn their first USAT Collegiate Club National Title. The Queens mixed-team-relay is the 2x defending National Champs in that discipline.
And the program earned the most coveted trophy in all of collegiate triathlon by earning the USAT Overall-Combined National Championship title in 2019 as well.
Dyer joined Queens University in 2014 with over 23 years of athlete-development experience.
Serving for thirteen years (2006-2019) as the as Head Coach for Studio7Multisport, Dyer helped equip athletes with the necessary tools to perform and has developed over 39 athletes who've won state, National, and world titles in long-course/short-course triathlon, Xterra, cross-country, track-&-field, and all cycling disciplines as well.
Prior to Studio7Multisport, Dyer spent three years as USA Triathlon's Mid-Atlantic Region Athlete Development Coordinator.
In addition to holding a USA Triathlon Coaching Certificate, Dyer was an AAFA certified personal trainer in exercise science and physiology for 11 years and has been a endurance sports nutrition consultant for 14 years. He was a USA Swim Master's swim coach from 1998-2001 and a USA Cycling Level-1 Coach with several years of experience.
Dyer produced two World Champions for Duathlon-short-course and Long-course & XTerra in addition to 21 national champions during his coaching tenure. He has also guided numerous All-Americans and professional athletes to success at the highest levels.
In 2016, he coached the USAC Jr National road-race and time-trial champion who went on to place 5th at the Jr-Elite UCI World time-trial championships.
Personally, he is a former International Triathlon Union (ITU) Draft-Legal professional triathlete who competed in the 2000-2004 "Road-2-Athens" series of Olympic selection races. Dyer is also a six time All-American, & 3x National AG Champion for USA Triathlon in both duathlon and triathlon disciplines.
Before multisport, he was a professional cyclist in Europe & U.S. ('91-'93), a former D1 cross-country and track athlete who graduated from Appalachian State University, and high-school state cross-country (team) champion at Pine Forest HS in Fayetteville, NC.
Married to Sandy Dyer, they have 2 sons, Gideon and Jeremiah; both who serve in the US military.
Sage Maaranen joined the Royals as assistant triathlon coach in the Fall 2022.
Maaranen comes to the Royals after most recently serving as head coach of the varsity mountain biking and road cycling teams at Westminister College. She has also been the head swimming coach at Judge Memorial High School since 2015 and I.J. & Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center since 2021. Additionally, Maaranen has been involved in personal training in triathlon having started Sage Training Multisport, LLC in 2015.
Maaranen is a 2010 graduate of the University of Missouri where she double majored in anthropology and journalism, and graduated with honors.