MISSOULA, MONT.— The 2018 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships began kicked off today with the cross-country races for all groups, and the day finished out with the dual slalom seeding runs. In contrast to last year’s wet fall weather creating muddy conditions, this year’s event is seeing dry conditions which are accelerating race speeds.
In the cross-country races, Fort Lewis College and University of Colorado – Boulder putting in commanding performances, taking 5 and 6 of the 20 available podium spots, respectively. In the Varsity Men’s race Cole Paton (Cashmere, Wash./Fort Lewis College) beat out teammates Cooper Wiens (Gunnison, Colo.) and Henry Nadell (Carbondale, Colo.) to take the top step of the podium with a final time of 1:37:00.3. Wiens and Nadell took silver and bronze respectively. Liam Earl (Boise, Idaho/Colorado Mesa University) would come in fourth and Nash Dory (Phoenix, Ariz./Fort Lewis College) would round out the podium.
In the Club Men’s event, Alexander Sugarman (Santa Rosa, Calif./University of Colorado – Boulder) would take a commanding lead in the race, finishing over two minutes ahead of the next racer, with a time of 1:39:35.5. Nicholas Lando (Ringwood, N.J./University of Vermont) would repeat his efforts from last year, taking the second step of the podium. Matthew Behrens (Park City, Utah/California Polytechnic Institute – San Luis Obispo) would take home bronze. Sugarman’s teammates Reade Warner (Golden, Colo.) and Jerry Norris (Estes Park, Colo.) would take 4th and 5th respectively.
Former Junior Cross-country National Champion, Gwendalyn Gibson (Ramona, Calif./Colorado Mesa University) would claim her first collegiate stars-and-stripes jersey, winning the Women’s Varsity cross-country race in a time of 1:15:24.8. Salvia Blunk (Inverness, Calif./Fort Lewis College) just missed out on the gold, finishing less than one second behind Gibson. Last year’s winner McKenzie Myatt (CAN/Savannah College of Art & Design – Atlanta) would take third. Marian University’s Emma Swartz (Madison, Wis.) duplicated her efforts from last year’s cross-country race, taking home fourth place. Madeline Bemis (Corona, Calif./Milligan University) would round out the podium for the race.
Alana Faller (Highlands Ranch, Colo./University of Colorado – Boulder) would improve her fifth place finish from last year’s Club Women’s cross-country race to taking home gold this year. Faller would win the race in 1:22:08.03. Faller’s teammate Harper Powell (Boulder, Colo.) would take home the silver. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kathryn Lawrence (Boulder, Colo.) would take third. Lia Westermann (Salt Lake City, Utah/University of Utah) and Meg O’Connell (Steamboat Springs, Colo./University of Colorado – Boulder) took fourth and fifth respectively.
Racing concluded today with the seeding runs for the dual slalom event. Riders will be seeded within their category based on the their total time after doing 1 run of each run. Dual slalom will conclude tomorrow in the first ever evening dual slalom competition in the history of Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships.
Tomorrow’s racing picks up with seeding runs for the downhill races, the short track cross-country races, and the conclusion of dual slalom racing. You can follow the action on USA Cycling’s @USACCollegiate Twitter account as well as the @usacycling Instagram account, and follow along with others posts by using the hashtag #CollNats .
Photo Credit: Dejan Smaic
