Animas and Durango high schools combined to win four conference championships during the Colorado Cycling League’s regular season of mountain biking, while the Durango Demons won the Division 2 south conference title.
Through four races, the Demons scored 19,986 points as a team to finish well ahead of Highlander Composite, which scored 18,649 points, and Animas, which was third with 18,599 points.
Now, the Demons will try to repeat as state champions when they host the Colorado Cycling League state title races Oct. 20-21 at the trails at Durango Mesa Park.
Durango sophomore Ruth Holcomb continued her dominance when she won the conference championship race last Sunday at Eagle’s Haymaker course. She finished three laps in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 9.27 seconds to beat Cheyenne Mountain’s Taegan Steinfort by more than three minutes. Holcomb swept the regular season races to score 1,750 points, while Steinfort was second in the series with 1,711 points. Animas’ Sage Davis was a contender for the overall title, but she didn’t race the conference championship race and finished fifth in the standings with 1,661 points.
Animas’ Riley Amos wrapped up a south conference points title in the varsity boys division. The junior edged Durango junior Cobe Freeburn by 38 points in the standings. Amos won the race in Eagle, as he completed four laps in 1:30:53.08. Evergreen’s Robbie Day was second nearly a full minute back, while Freeburn was third.
Chatfield freshman Mia Aseltine secured the junior varsity girls conference title with a win in Eagle, while Animas’ Abbey Shepard is second in the standings. Animas’ Ainsley Haggart also was fifth among JV girls. In Eagle, Aseltine finished two laps in 54:38.52, while Shepard was third in 55:18.71 and Haggart was seventh in 59:47.77.
Durango’s Aleah Austin won the sophomore girls race in Eagle and wrapped up the conference’s series overall title. She finished two laps in 58:58.98 to finish nearly three minutes ahead of Evergreen’s Alyssa Leifer. Durango’s Kelsey Nicholson was fifth in 1:02:43.61, and she also was fifth in the overall points standings.
High Desert Composite, a team made up of Cortez, Dolores and Mancos athletes, earned a south conference title, as Thorin Howell won the sophomore boys points standings. He was 20 points ahead of Evergreen’s Zach Footer, who won the race in Evergreen in 48:48.91. But Howell was fifth in 49:59.15 to score enough points to retain the overall points lead.
The freshman boys division continued to be ruled by Durango, which swept the top-five positions in Evergreen. This time, Colby Simmons won the two-lap race in 46:27.84. Ivan Sippy was second, 18 seconds behind Simmons, and Ian Kutzleb placed third, 26 seconds behind. Jaden Kirk was fourth and Riley Jaber was fifth for the Demons. Kutzleb edged Sippy by nine points in the standings, while Simmons was only 15 points back. Jaber finished fifth in the conference overall standings.
In the freshman girls standings, Crested Butte’s Sarah Bivens held off Durango’s Lauren Aggeler in a spirited back-and-forth battle. Bivens won by 10 points thanks to her win in Eagle. She finished two laps in 58:01.03, while Aggeler was second in 58:27.10. Durango’s Hannah Garvey was fourth in 1:00:11.41. Garvey also was fourth in the conference points standings.
More than 700 riders are expected to descend on Durango for the state championship races. The Colorado Bycling League is part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
