Fort Lewis College junior Sofia Gomez-Villafañe added to her impressive collegiate résumé on Friday with a win in the USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Champion Division I women’s race in Asheville, North Carolina.
Gomez-Villafañe’s time of 36 minutes, 7 seconds bested second-place finisher Allison Arensman from Brevard College by 39 seconds.
“Sofia’s performance was really exciting to watch,” FLC coach Ian Burnett said in an email to The Durango Herald. “To see her reach a goal that she has been working so hard for for so long was amazing.”
Gomez-Villafañe continued her strong season after winning the individual omnium championship at mountain bike nationals in 2015. This was her best cyclocross finish of the year, and it came at a perfect time.
“She was extremely prepared both mentally and physically coming into the race and had one goal in mind, to win,” Burnett said. “She took control of the race from the very start. She was in the lead within the first half of a lap, never looked back, kept pushing and rode very smooth.”
Fort Lewis’ Jenna MacPherson finished 13th with a time of 40:12. Erin Quinn (47:25) took 28th and McCauley Smith finished 32nd.
On the men’s side, five Skyhawks finished in the top 20, as Ian McPherson led the charge with a third-place finish. Cody Cupp took fifth, Kolben Preble was seventh, Payson McElveen finished 11th and Jon Anderson crossed the line 20th. Official times for the men’s race were not immediately available.
“We had a really strong men’s team and we knew that coming to nationals,” Burnett said. “This made making our call-up selection, which determines which line they start from, very challenging. All of our guys could have been a first call up on a lot of other teams, which goes to show how equally matched and deep our team goes. We knew each guy had a strength and the combination worked out great. All the guys had a great start which set them up to have a great race.”
Burnett said the men raced on a slippery course after rain the night before. He said the course firmed up and became faster as the day went on. By the time the women hit the course, the sun was out.
Racing will resume Saturday with the team relay races. FLC is looking for a 23rd team omnium national championship in program history. Official results were not posted Friday, but Burnett said the team got together and did the math and believe they are tied with Marian University going into the relays.
Herald sports writer Joe Fries contributed to this report.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
