Summit JV girls cyclist earns conference title at Haymaker Classic in Eagle
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
FRISCO — Before the Summit High School mountain bike team raced at the Haymaker Classic conference championship Saturday in Eagle, head coach Fred Newcomer had something important to tell his team.
“That I had never seen a Tiger team this ready and well-prepared for conference finals and coming into states,” Newcomer said.
Summit proved its coach right, and the Tigers had several top 10 finishes pace the team’s third-place finish.
One of the team’s highlights came in the JV girls race, as Summit sophomore Victoria Uglyar clinched a conference championship for the 2019 season.
Uglyar put the exclamation point on her high school mountain bike season by finishing the two-lap, 47-cyclist race in 58 minutes and 50.45 seconds Saturday, sewing up the conference championship after finishing in second place at each race since the season began in August. Uglyar said her strong second-place showing on a dusty, hot course at the season-opening Frisco Bay Invitational gave her the confidence to aim for the North Division individual JV girls title.
Heading into Saturday’s race, Uglyar had the season points lead. Uglyar went out on the flat, fast 6-mile, 404-foot elevation gain course in the lead. Racing at about 7,000 feet, Uglyar set herself up well over the first lap before hanging on for the second and final lap to finish more than a half-minute ahead of third-place cyclist Keira Bond, of Fairview.
Looking ahead to the Oct. 11-12 state races in Durango, Uglyar is excited to see if she can finish within the top six racers, as the best from the North and South divisions combine for the race.
Uglyar earned the Tigers 530 points Saturday, their second-most behind sophomore Lasse Konecny (547).
Konecny once again was the top sophomore cyclist in the North Division’s highly competitive four-lap boys varsity race, rallying to finish in fourth place in the 46-cyclist race (1:37:29.36). The showing earned Konecny second place in this year’s North Division seasonlong competition.
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Summit Tigers Samantha Hessel, far left, and Victoria Uglyar, far right, flank the lead racers before the start of Saturday’s JV girls race at the Haymaker Classic conference championship in Eagle.
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
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Members of the Summit Tigers high school mountain bike team pose for a photo at Saturday’s Haymaker Classic conference championship in Eagle.
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
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Summit Tiger Samantha Hessel races during Saturday’s Haymaker Classic conference championship in Eagle.
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
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Summit Tigers high school mountain bike coaches pose for a photo with their third-place trophy from the Haymaker Classic conference championship.
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
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The Summit Tigers mountain bike team, far right, poses on the podium after taking third place in the North Division 1 seasonlong conference competition.
Linda Hessel / Summit Daily reader
“What I’m proud of this year is I’m starting to develop as an athlete with more responsibility and respect toward the sport,” Konecny said.
Another Summit sophomore, Marin Ward, won the 43-cyclist, two-lap sophomore girls race, placing third for the conference season. The victory earned the Tigers 500 points with Ward’s time of 1:03:23.59.
Aug. 25: Third at Frisco Bay Invitational
Sept. 8: Third at Showdown In the Boat in Steamboat Springs
Sept. 22: Third at Granby Ranch Roundup
Oct. 5: Third at Conference championship, Haymaker Classic, Eagle
Oct. 19 and 20: Third at State championship, Durango Mesa Pursuit
Konecny and Newcomer also lauded the performance Saturday by Caleb White in the three-lap, 164-cyclist JV boys race. The senior White earned the Tigers 512 points with his fourth-place finish, earning him sixth for the conference season.
“He’s really come on this year,” Newcomer said. “He just goes out and puts in his time on his bike and is so strong.”
Other top finishers for the Tigers on Saturday were junior Tai-Lee Smith in the three-lap, 22-cyclist varsity girls race (seventh place, 1:26:00.17, 523 points), senior Finn Remias in the varsity boys race (28th, 1:49:15.30, 411) and sophomore Samantha Hessel in the JV girls race (eighth, 1:04:48.36, 481). Smith finished seventh in varsity girls for the conference season while Hessel finished fifth in JV girls.
The Tigers finished the day in third place with 6,552 points. Boulder won the conference championship meet with 7,643 points, followed by Fairview (7,326).
For the conference season, Summit’s 24,938 points ranked them third of eight teams in North Division 1, behind Boulder (30,522) and Fairview (27,797).
Linda Hessel / Special to The Daily
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