Durango Devo mountain bikers representing Durango and Animas high schools competed in their first cross-country race of the season Sunday in Snowmass.
The local riders swept the varsity titles and scored first-place finishes in the sophomore boys and freshman boys races.
In the varsity girls race, the top four riders were from Devo, with Durango’s Bailey Cioppa winning the three-lap race by more than 6 minutes in 1 hour, 13 minutes, 40.87 seconds.
“It was a really good race for her,” said coach Levi Kurlander.
Hannah Garvey (1:19:47.22) finished second, Maddy Glotfelty (1:26:22.69) of Animas placed third, and Ellie McLean (1:26:22.69) finished fourth.
Ivan Sippy, meanwhile, won the varsity boys race comfortably in 1:03:09.22, finishing ahead of runner-up Sterling Schrader of Palisade by about 1 minute, 15 seconds.
“He sort of rode away with it right from the beginning,” Kurlander said. “(Bailey and Ivan) just rode alone the whole race.”
Also in the boys varsity race, Jesus Vargas finished sixth (1:06:57.68), Riley Jaber crossed seventh (1:08:4082), Jack Lootens finished ninth (1:09:02.66), Ben Mackenzie finished 11th (1:09:41.99), and Nicholas Elliott placed 15th (1:14:42.01).
In the junior varsity girls race, Julia Glotfelty finished second in the two-lap race in 58:23.63.
Orrin Bleth and Jacob Huber both finished in the top five of the the junior varsity boys race, which had the largest field in Aspen with 91 competitors. Bleth placed fourth in, riding the two laps in 47:22.70, and Huber finished fifth in 47:37.31.
Bryan Hastey won the sophomore boys race with several of his teammates on his heels in 45:14.87. Liam Bezek finished second in 45:29.75, followed by Brayden Harms (fourth, 46:32.18), Braden Amos (fifth, 47:51,15) and Chase Groom (seventh, 49:18.39).
Five Devo riders also finished in the top-10 of the freshman bots race, led by the winner, Chase Connors (47:25.93). Kai Lokey finished second in 47:51.93, followed by Emmett McManus (fifth, 51:21.54), Zach Oliver (ninth, 53:18.82) and James Garvey (10th, 53:20.94).
“Chase was a little disappointed after Nathrop, but came in motivated to improve on that,” Kurlander said. “We had a really strong performance from the freshman boys.”
The teams didn’t have any girls compete in the sophomore or freshman races.
Durango and Animas, however, both still captured team titles.
Durango won its inaugural Division 1 race with 7,720 points, followed by Salida (7,114) and Chatfield (6,143).
Animas, meanwhile, bested nine teams in Division 3, taking first with 2,392 points. Pagosa Springs took second with 2,329, and Regis Jesuit (2,133) was third.
In Division 1, the top 15 riders from each team score. Ten riders score in Division 2, and the top five score in Division 3.
“We had really good showings from both schools,” Kurlander said. “We were at the top of the field in almost all of the races.”
The teams will next race Oct. 9 at the Haymaker Classic in Eagle.
