To put an end to another spectacular racing season, 10 DUST2 racers traveled to Glenwood Springs, Colo., for the Colorado High School Cycling League State Championships that took place last weekend (Oct. 30-31).
The race was situated around the Spring Valley Campus of Colorado Mountain College and included doubletrack and gravel hills, as well as fun, flowy downhill singletrack and a technical singletrack climb to come into the finish. Each lap included 5.6 miles and 653 feet of elevation gain from a starting elevation of 5,760 feet.
Because the race took place on Halloween, the theme of the race was “haunted beach party,” and the DUST2 team came prepared. It showed up with Hawaiian shirts, beach balls and plenty of spooky decorations to bring some stoke to the race.
Due to very rainy weather in the area, the race was postponed from Oct. 24-25 to preserve trail conditions. Instead of a two-day event as the state race has been in the past, the race was also condensed to one day because of the predicted rainy weather for Sunday, which made for a very full day as the race course had to accommodate 792 racers from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Beginning the first race of the day were the freshmen boys at 8 a.m. completing two laps. Elias Gorman was the sole DUST2 racer competing in this category, and he raced in with a time of one hour, three minutes to place 91st out of 142 participants. Gorman added 245 points to the team total.
Following shortly after the freshmen boys were the junior varsity boys at 9:25 a.m. with two Pagosa Springs racers. Jackson Chaney (senior, legacy rider) raced in first for Pagosa Springs with a time of 58 minutes for two laps to place 116th (260 points). Aaron Sowle (senior, legacy) rolled in shortly after Chaney with a time of 59 minutes to place 120th (256 points). There were 134 participants in this category.
At 10:50 a.m., the next category took the course. This category was junior varsity girls with one DUST2 rider. Gianna Shaeffer (junior) represented this category and logged an impressive time of 1:05 to place 35th and add 354 points to the team total. There were 99 participants in this category.
The sophomore girls took the course next at 12:15 p.m. with one rider representing DUST2. Quinn Howard raced across the line with a time of 1:09 for two laps to place 38th and tally 306 more points for the DUST2 team. There were 57 participants in this category.
Beginning next was the sophomore boys’ category at 1:40 p.m. with DUST2’s largest representation of three riders. Ward Halterman was the first Pagosa Springs rider to race in for two laps with a time of 1:01 to place 94th out of 134 (242 points). Coming in shortly after was Amon Phillips with a time of 1:03 to place 105th (231 points). Drake Anderson followed behind Phillips with a time of 1:11 to place 124th (212 points).
As the sophomores began, so did the rain, making the course slippery and muddy, but the riders persevered.
The varsity boys and girls were the last to race the course, with the boys beginning at 3:15 p.m., and the girls following a few minutes after.
The varsity riders raced three laps on the course, but, due to the trail conditions from the sophomore race, part of the course was cut off to make each lap around 1 mile shorter.
Justin Sewell (senior, legacy rider) was the only DUST2 varsity boys rider, and he raced in with an impressive time of 1:06 for three laps to place 61st out of 99 competitors and add 350 points to the team.
In the varsity girls’ category, Adelyn Hittle was the only Pagosa Springs rider. Hittle raced in for three laps with a time of 1:13 to place 28th out of 58 riders and add 411 points to the team total.
The Yeti Skills course, a technical short course for riders to test their bike-handling skills, was set up during the day. Coaches Janine Emmets and Weston Phillips logged the fastest times on the course for the female and male coach categories, respectively.
At the awards ceremony following all of the races, DUST2 was honored with placing third in the Golden Pick Award, which is an award given to teams that log the most trail work hours per athlete. The team put in the work this year, and it shows in the local Pagosa Springs trails.
Overall, the team tallied up 2,867 points on the day, and had a fantastic day of racing.
This state championship race signaled the end of the Colorado High School Cycling League’s 2026 season, and the end of the six DUST2 seniors’ spectacular racing careers.
The whole team was thankful to make it home safely from the race before the flood began to worsen.
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