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Breckenridge’s O’Keefe takes second at Leadville mountain bike, wins Arapahoe Basin trail run

Silver Rush 50: Mountain bike

Top-10 Summit County finishers

Name age residence place time

Sam O’Keefe 24 Breckenridge 2 4:02:36

C.J. Castle 44 Dillon 61 4:58:56

Greg Gerloff TK Breckenridge 85 5:11:03

Max Bonenberger 16 Breckenridge 195 5:49:25

Lee Hewitt 38 Dillon 154 5:35:59

Andrew Steele 44 Breckenridge 190 5:47:!6

Mike Leighton 30 Breckenridge 255 6:12:23

Eddie Rose 32 Silverthorne 262 6:15:36

Veronika Hewitt 34 Dillon 320 6:34:32

Andrew Opdycke 36 Silverthorne 343 6:45:28

Silver Rush 50: Trail run

Summit County finishers

Helen Cospolich 41 Breckenridge 83 10:12:18

Jaime Falcon 40 Breckenridge 165 11:30:25

Max Bonenberger 16 Breckenridge 167 11:30:39

Kate Tsai 42 Breckenridge 227 12:07:47

Brandon Williams 44 Dillon 338 13:20:50

Shannon Williams 44 Dillon 339 13:20:51

A-Basin Summer Trail Run No. 1

Top-3 male finishers

Name place time

Sam O’Keefe 1 42:37

Mason Osgood 2 45:38

Eric Black 3 47:32

Top-3 female finishers

Jane Murawski 1 54:10

Erzebet Nagy 2 55:54

Alana Vaughn-Phillips 3 1:00:47

What a weekend it was for Sam O’Keefe of Breckenridge.

On Saturday, 24-year-old O’Keefe took second place at the Leadville Race Series’ Silver Rush 50 mountain bike race, a 50-mile, out-and-back course that is essentially half of the esteemed annual Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race — minus all of the easy sections. Then on Sunday, O’Keefe won the first race of this summer’s Arapahoe Basin Trail Running Series, completing the 4.9-mile, 1,300-feet of elevation gain-course more than three minutes faster than his nearest competitor.



A-Basin Summer Trail Run

The A-Basin victory for O’Keefe came on a course that required runners to depart from the ski area’s base area and ascend up the Argentine-North Fork Trail to the middle of the mountain. Racers then continued up Grizzly Road to the top of Pallavicini before traversing across the ridge to the West Wall run, where they descended to the ski area’s Summer Road to the mid-mountain Black Mountain Lodge. The race concluded the way it started: down the Argentine-North Fork Trail and back to the finish line at Mountain Goat Plaza.



O’Keefe completed the A-Basin course in 42 minutes and 37 seconds, three minutes and one second faster than second-place finisher Mason Osgood (45:38). In the women’s race, two runners distinguished themselves from the competition as they were the only two women to complete the course in under an hour. Race winner Jane Murawski and runner-up Erzebet Nagy finished the course in 54:10 and 55:54, respectively.

“I’ve made it a goal to incorporate more trail running into my routine as a way to explore the county, integrate into the community, and diversify my fitness,” O’Keefe said. “I love skiing A-Basin but had never been on-mountain over the summer.”

Leadville Silver Rush 50

O’Keefe’s second-place showing at Saturday’s Silver Rush 50 mountain bike race came on a course that saw racers traverse 8,000-plus feet of elevation gain through the historic mining district on the east side of Leadville before passing gold and silver mines, an iconic halfway point at Stumptown and other treacherous terrain surrounding the town at 10.152-feet.

O’Keefe completed the course in four hours, two minutes and 36 seconds, equating to a pace of 12.37 miles-per-hour. The time was just over five minutes behind the championship time of race-winner Ryan Petry of Boulder (3:57:11).

“It was a really wonderful, but arduous, experience,” O’Keefe said. “And now, I’m looking ahead to the Leadville 100.”

Other top local finishers included C.J. Castle of Dillon, who completed the course in 61st place overall with a time of 4:58:56, which earned him a 13th-place finish in his specific age-group division. In 85th place overall, Greg Gerloff of Breckenridge completed the course in 5:11:03, which was good enough for 24th place in his age-group division.

Another standout from the weekend who played double-duty at two different races was Breckenridge youngster Max Bonenberger. The 16-year-old finished in ninth place for his age-group division and 195th place overall in the mountain bike race with a time of 5:49:25. Then on Sunday, Bonenberger followed up his top-10 divisional showing in the mountain bike with a top-20 showing in his division for the trail run. Bonenberger’s time of 11:30:39 put him in 167th-place overall and 16th for his division.

On the women’s side of the mountain bike race, the top Summit County finisher was 34-year-old Veronika Hewitt of Dillon. Hewitt took 320th place overall and sixth in her division with a time of 6:34:32.

At Sunday’s 50-mile Silver Rush trail run, Breckenridge 41-year-old Helen Cospolich posted the fastest time of any Summit County entrant. Cospolich’s 10:12:18 equated to a pace of 12:15-per-mile and an overall finish of 83rd place. Cospolich also garnered 14th place for all female racers and third place for her division. Another Summit County woman in Breckenridge, Jaime Falcon also finished in the top 10 of her age-group division, as the 40-year-old raced to a time of 11:30:25, 32nd-place overall for all women.


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