Collegiate Nationals: First-time titles in short track and DH
- By Eszter Horanyi
- Published Oct. 31, 2011
- Updated Dec. 2, 2011 at 9:15 AM UTC
ANGEL FIRE, NM (ST) — Day 2 of Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals dawned cold and clear. With clear skies at night, the temperatures plummeted, freezing the short-track course overnight. When the DI women lined up at 9 am, temperatures hovered in the mid-20s despite the brilliant sunshine. The course consisted of an 80-vertical foot climb up to the Angel Fire Bike Park, through the pump track, and then sped back down a fast and straight fire road to a sweeping right hand turn into the start finish.
Unlike in the XC Friday, Lauren Catlin (Fort Lewis College) was unable to get off the line quickly. While the rest of the field got off smoothly, Catlin slipped a pedal and was last off the line. While Catlin was working her way back through traffic, her teammate Sarah Sturm quickly went to work stringing the field out. Then disaster struck Catlin as another rider stalled over the pumptrack during a pass and took both of them down.
Back in last again, Catlin nearly gave up. She credited her coach, Dave Hagan, with making her get back on her bike and continue chasing. As Catlin made an impressive charge in the second half of the race to finish an amazing 2nd, the ride of the day came from Sturm who rode consistently fast laps to claim her first individual national championship. Jill Behlen (University of Wyoming), Claire Bensard (University of Colorado), and Diedre York (University of Colorado) rounded out the podium.
The DII women saw far less drama in their race as Rebecca Gross (University of Denver) went to the front of the field and led wire to wire to win her first national title. Friday’s XC winner, Alexis Skarda (Colorado Mesa University), worked her way up from a start near the back of the pack to finish second.
The massive group of DI men took to the course just as the sun was starting to melt the ice and turn the track into a sloppy mess. With the 80 percent rule in effect, the entire field raced full speed off the line but with a short course and a big field, the first group of nearly 40 riders was pulled less than 10-minutes into the event. Rotem Ishay and Howard Grotts, both of Fort Lewis College quickly went to the front of the field and put a gap on Kerry Werner (Lees-McRae) and the rest. Grotts sat patiently on his teammate’s wheel until three laps to go when he put in an attack on the hill. Ishay quickly closed the gap down and was able to pass his teammate back through the start finish in the same lap, and while he was unable to shake him on the final two laps, Ishay was able to hold onto the lead for his 3rd short track National Title. The smaller DII men’s field saw another dominating performance from the University of Denver by Matt Lyon. Like his teammate in the women’s race, he led the race wire to wire. Matt Schiff, the XC winner the day before, put in a valiant chase but was unable to close the gap down.
Gravity
In the afternoon, it was time for the gravity riders to test themselves against each other and the mountain. While the top of the course was still covered in snow and ice, parts of the trail lower down were turning into a quagmire of mud and riders were finishing their runs looking like they had rolled in a mud puddle. In the DII women’s field, Colleen Pacurariu showed that her domination of the Rocky Mountain conference was no accident by posting the fasted female time of the day by nearly a minute and a half. Kate Weisenfluh (Brevard) posted the second fast overall time of the day and Eva Wilson (Warren Wilson) finished 3rd in the division that has consistently posted the fastest times in the women’s races this weekend.
In the DI race, Andrea Napoli (University of Nevada) took the win over Fort Lewis’ Brittany Clawson who just got doctors clearance to race after she suffered a shoulder injury a few weeks before.
Few surprises came from the men’s race as riders rocketed down the rapidly deteriorating course. In DI, Joey Schusler (University of Colorado) took his 4th Collegiate National Championship title after getting caught up in traffic from the DII women. Because of the long track, officials had decided to race the fastest qualifiers in each category first, but even with a 12-minute gap between the final woman and Schusler, the professional downhill racer was forced to pass several women during his race-winning run. David O’Day (Colorado State University) and Michael Larson (University of Colorado) both finished within 10 seconds of Schusler on the nearly 8-minute course.
In DII, Alex McAndrew (Clarkson) was able to avoid traffic and post the fasted time of the day of 7:35:89. He was followed by the Western State College of Colorado duo of Owen Tulip and Collin Pickett.
Racing concludes on Sunday with a dual slalom.
FILED UNDER: News / Race Results