Battle for team win comes down to the wire at Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals

ANGEL FIRE, NM (ST) — On the final day of the 2011 Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships, with only the dual slalom left to race, single points separated the many of the top teams in the overall team omnium competition and similarly small gaps separated those riders competing in all four events aiming for an individual omnium title.

The dual slalom track had been covered in snow when racers first arrived on Thursday and had slowly been melting over the course of the weekend. The event director had kept the sloppy course closed until Saturday afternoon to preserve the track and then was forced to close it again after the first few riders carved deep ruts into the professionally built track during practice Saturday afternoon. To compensate, practice opened at 7:30 on Sunday morning, long before the sun could melt the course.

During the day, timing of runs was key as the course quickly melted and turned muddy as the sun hit different parts of the course. Combined with generator problems that stopped racing for extended periods of time, racers faced a multitude of conditions, from icy to muddy to dry, over the course of the seven hours of racing.

Qualifying, which was delayed halfway through, consisted of a run on each course with the combined time used for seeding. Unfortunately, gate problems caused over half the field to qualify on a far muddier, and slower course for their second run, leaving some riders seeded far lower than expected as they slipped and slid down a muddy course that had been frozen solid on their previous run. The difficult and variable conditions showcased the riders who were able to not only ride the course both frozen and in mud, but were able to handle both conditions on the same run. With the course changing rapidly between runs, racers were forced to improvise their riding and line choice, not only on each run, but each corner within a run.

In the DII men, Paul Mayes (Michigan Technological University) defeated defending champion Blake Carney (California Lutheran University) in the big final while Joseph Leahy, racing for the East Tennessee State University dual slalom powerhouse won the bronze ahead of Brad Nelson of Union College. The DI men saw another upset as Joey Schusler (University of Colorado) showed that he had improved his gated racing skills to win his second national title of the weekend, adding to his collection of four stars and bars jerseys won in the downhill. He defeated Timothy Price (University of Virginia) narrowly in both runs. The small final saw teammates Daniel Caluag and Chase Hines of Lindsey Wilson College pitted against each other with Caluag coming out ahead. Logan Collins, also of Lindsey Wilson, showing the team’s depth in gated racing events, finishing fifth.

The women’s DII saw the match-up of the Rocky Mountain Conference’s strong woman, Coleen Pacurariu (Air Force Academy) with defending mountain cross champion, Essence Barton (California Lutheran University). Barton showed that regardless of the gated discipline, she was the fastest woman down the hill. Kate Weisenfluh (Brevard) defeated Christin Boyer (School of Mines) for the bronze. In DI, Lindsey Wilson College once again dominated with Crystal Kalogris, Stephanie Barragan, and Madison Pitts places first, second, and fourth. Brittany Clawson (Fort Lewis College) was the only rider able to break the stronghold.

Fort Lewis wins D1 overall

Overall team omnium titles were awarded at the end of the weekend with Fort Lewis College beating the University of Colorado by a mere eight points for the DI title and Union College putting on a dominating display of teamwork and consistency to beat Warren Wilson College for the DII title.

FILED UNDER: News / Race Results