Entering another exciting race season, the Pagosa Springs DUST2 high school mountain biking team competed in its first race of the season last weekend.
The race was held on Sunday, Aug. 24, at the Frisco Nordic Center in Frisco, Colo. (9,026 feet).
This was the first time that DUST2 racers have competed at the Frisco venue, and the participants were all very excited to try a new course.
Taking place on the Frisco Peninsula Recreation Area, the course provided a mix of rocky doubletrack, windy singletrack and asphalt bike path with striking views of Lake Dillon, starting and finishing at the Frisco Nordic Center. Each lap included 552 feet of elevation gain running counterclockwise for 5.9 miles.
The theme of the event was socks. Each team was encouraged to wear crazy fun socks to receive recognition at the end of the event and boost spirit. Merick Halterman, a member of the DUST2 middle school team, sang the national anthem the morning of the event. The races began bright and early with the junior varsity (JV) boys.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m., the JV boys took off racing two laps on the course.
JV boys is Pagosa’s largest representative category with five athletes.
First of the team to come in was Eric Smith (junior) in 58 minutes, placing 14th, adding 442 points to the team total and passing 40 other riders along the way. Next to come in was Justin Sewell (junior) in 25th with a time of one hour, gaining 388 points for the team and passing 39 other racers. Shortly after that, Aaron Sowle (junior) raced in with a time of 1:03, gaining 324 points for the team and coming in 52nd. Van Halterman (junior) was next to come in with a time of 1:05, placing 62nd. Following right behind Halterman, Jackson Chaney (junior) raced in with a time of 1:05 to place 63 out of 115 riders.
JV boys is the largest and one of the most competitive categories of the cycling league, and all of the athletes did extremely well.
The next race to roll out was the boys’ and girls’ varsity categories at 9:50 a.m.
The varsity racers complete three laps of the course to total 18 miles. Pagosa had two athletes in this division. The varsity boys started first, and the varsity girls followed five minutes after.
Weston Phillips (senior, legacy) came in 27th out of 38 racers with a time of 1:28 for three laps, scoring 415 points for the team. Phillips is a legacy rider, which means that he has competed in races all four years of his high school career. Adelyn Hittle (junior) then raced in with a time of 1:35 for three laps to place 10th out of 21 varsity girls to score 502 points for the team.
The JV and sophomore girls were the next Pagosa athletes to compete at 12:55 p.m.
Due to developing weather, the girls were only able to complete one of their two laps.
Kaylee Hensle (senior, legacy) was the only Pagosa participant competing in the JV girls category, and she came in 19th out of 32 racers with a time of 38 minutes, scoring 415 points for the team. Hensle has also raced all four years of her high school career.
Gianna Shaeffer was the only Pagosa sophomore girl racer, coming in eighth out of 19 participants with a 34-minute lap, scoring 441 points for the team.
Hensle and Shaeffer raced hard, even through the confusion of the race being cut short.
The freshmen girls’ and boys’ race was also shortened to one lap and pushed to start at 1:45 p.m. due to the rising weather.
Since the freshmen had never raced before, instead of a mass start, the athletes were started in lines of four in intervals of 30 seconds. Their times were then recorded at the finish and taken as a time trial. They will start in a mass start next race.
Pagosa had three freshmen boys racing last weekend. Amon Phillips finished 29th out of 75 racers with a lap of 32 minutes and added 332 points to the team score. Ward Halterman was the next to come in, with a lap of 33 minutes to finish 40th. Shortly after that, Drake Anderson finished with a time of 42 minutes, placing 64th in his first high school race.
Quinn Howard was the only representative freshman girl who raced. Howard came in 11th out of 30 participants with a lap of 35 minutes, scoring 420 points for the team and passing some of the male riders in the end.
DUST 2 finished the successful race day with an overall 3,993 points. All of the riders tried new things and pushed through the weather changes.
All 13 DUST 2 racers are excited to participate in the Haymaker Classic on Sept. 6 in Eagle, Colo.
>