Sisters Anna and Leah Morozowich represented the Durango Devo on the championship podium at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships on Saturday in Hartford, Connecticut.
Anna won the national title in the junior women 11-12 division. She completed three muddy laps in 27 minutes, 22 seconds to cross first 22 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, Abby Cole. The gold improves upon the bronze Anna won at last year’s championships in Chicago.
Leah, meanwhile, finished second earlier on Saturday on a frozen course in the junior women 13-14 race, finishing behind Meegan Delaney of Littleton. Leah pedaled four laps in 31:22 to win her silver.
“They had great races,” said coach Chad Cheeney. “Anna had a big gap on the second-place finisher. She was pumped. Leah had a great race too.”
Next year, the sisters will be in the same age group so they’ll get to race each other.
Several other Durangoans raced at the cyclocross national championships while most of the Fort Lewis College cyclists raced in the U23 championships after the team finished second in the collegiate team omnium race on Thursday and Friday.
In the U23 women’s race, all five of the Skyhawks who competed finished 14th or better.
“It was a super-strong ladies field,” Cheeney said. “That race was truly epic. It was very muddy, there was a lot of running and a lot of mechanicals.”
The coach said Natalie Quinn was in the mix early on but had a mechanical issue that forced her to run her bike for a while and she ended up placing 14th in 57:27.
Michaela Thompson finished eighth in the five-lap race in 53:29 to lead FLC. Ruth Holcomb finished ninth in 54:38, Sabrina Hayes crossed 11th in 55:43 and Madelyn Roberson placed 13th in 56:43.
“Sabrina had her best performance ever; she was jazzed,” Cheeney said.
Quinn, meanwhile, reached the cyclocross podium in the collegiate women’s race earlier in the week, which was the fourth different discipline she reached a podium in this season. She also won a national title on the track, was part of the silver medal women’s time trial team at road nationals, and placed in both the short-track and cross-country mountain bike races at nationals.
“That’s sweet: I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone do that,” Cheeney said.
The men’s U23 race took place after the women, and the conditions were equally difficult. The coach said all of the team’s riders, who each had two bikes, were coming into the pit zone at least once per lap and switching bikes often. The team’s mechanics and staff would then run to power wash the bikes and do some quick fixes before trading bikes on the next lap.
“It was booby-trappy mud,” Cheeney said. “It would just take you and throw you into the woods.”
Senior Garrett Payer made his first national team for the Skyhawks. After placing 22nd in the varsity collegiate race, however, Payer crashed and separated his shoulder in the U23 men’s race.
“He was super-bummed,” Cheeney said.
Since Fort Lewis mostly trains in local cyclocross races, the riders didn’t have many season points and had to start in the back of the field of 56 riders. The Skyhawks, however, passed rider after rider and Carson Beard ended up leading the team with a 12th-place finish in 55:28, finishing just 14 seconds after his brother Austin, who won the collegiate title earlier in the week for Colorado Mesa.
George Piepgras finished 14th after six laps in 56:11, followed by Cobe Freeburn (16th, 56:41), Adrian Magun (21st, 58:14).
“It was a huge field and they did really good, considering (they’re starting positions),” Cheeney said. “It was an epic race, and they all had so much fun. Even Garrett was happy to have been in the mix.”
Guy Leshem, the team’s top finisher in the collegiate championship on Thursday, is from Israel so he was unable to race for a national title.
Madigen Munro, who won the women’s varsity collegiate race for Colorado Mesa, also won the U23 women’s title in 48:50 while Andrew Strohmeyer won the U23 men’s race (52:33). Durango graduate Ivan Sippy finished ninth (55:36).
A handful of Durangoans and FLC alumni also raced in the pro, singlespeed and master races at the championships. It began snowing right when the pro men were starting on Sunday, making the course even more slippery. There was one off-camber turn, for instance, that nearly every rider ran with their bike through and the vast majority of them still fell down.
Johnathan Anderson led the local pro men with a ninth-place finish in 1:08:21 after seven laps. Sam Brown placed 14th (1:10.50) and Keiran Eagan placed 16th after just missing the cutoff for the seventh lap in 1:01.88.
FLC alumna Sophie Russenberger, meanwhile, finished 11th in the five-lap pro women’s race (56:45) and third in the three-lap women’s singlespeed championship (36:18).
A lot of local guys also raced in the singlespeed championships. Eagen placed 10th after four laps in 40:09 and Freeburn finished 34 seconds later in 12th. “They did really good in the singlespeed race; they were up there,” Cheeney said.
Cheeney started in the 93rd position, passed almost 60 riders and placed 36th in 44:47. FLC Cycling director Ian Burnett finished 61st (37:56). Kobi Gyetvan was also racing hard in the singlespeed, but crashed and broke a part on his bike so he did not finish.
Steven Morozowich, Anna and Leah’s dad, also raced in the master men’s 50-54 division and placed 54th in 50:10.
After the championships, the Skyhawks had a group meeting and the team’s seniors all had to give five-minute speeches.
“The advice they gave was pretty special,” Cheeney said. “It was just a good transfer of wisdom from the older riders to the younger ones. We have a cool team feeling, and this year was a special one.”
