The Summit High School mountain bike team is perhaps having its best season in program history.

After attaining its first Division 1 win in team history this fall, Summit has continued to go on a tear, securing top-10 finishes and being crowned team champions.

Coming off its third-straight team win at the Cloud City Challenge in Leadville on Sept. 21, Summit traveled to Buena Vista for its final regular season race — the Chalk Creek Stampede — on Saturday, Oct. 4.

Spearheading the results for the team was sophomore Marin Little. With already two first-place finishes under her belt from earlier in the season, Little took to the two-lap course in Buena Vista poised to have another awe-inspiring performance. 

Confident in her fitness and riding abilities, Little ranked first overall through the first revolution of the course. As the trailing field tried to respond to the hot pace, Little dug deeper to widen her lead. Little crossed the finish line in a time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 39.67 seconds to win her third race of the season. 

The victory also secured Little the Piedra Region sophomore girls championship title for the 2025 season. Little will now get the opportunity to start on the front row of the sophomore girls race at the state championship race in Glenwood Springs.

“I am so happy that the season went that well,” Little said. “I was a little worried that it wasn’t going to go well because of my last race. I just had an off race, but I am happy that I was able to pull out another win. … I definitely feed off of everybody’s energy so when everyone’s spirits are high, everybody does better and we are able to connect as a team.”

Little was followed in the sophomore girls race by New Mexico’s Abigail Thornton of Taos Composite in second (1:06:08.63) and Summit’s Piper Rabinowitz in third (1:07:49.41). Little and Rabinowitz combined for 981 points, giving Summit an immediate jolt in the team rankings. 

Nico Florio had his own top-10 finish in the sophomore boys race, finishing in seventh place with a time of 57:54.46.

Leading the team in points was senior Finn Brown in the varsity-boys race. Brown was able to finish within the top 10 of the three-lap race, taking ninth overall in a time of 1:18:53.97. Brown added 509 points to the team’s final score while junior Trent Granshaw scored 489 of his own by taking 12th overall (1:21:37.67). 

Junior Devin Mumford was the final Summit cyclist to crash into the top 25 in the varsity boys race, finishing 22nd overall in a time of 1:28:12.91.

Senior Fiona Florio was the top finisher for the Tigers in the varsity-girls race. Wanting to continue to add points to the team’s final score, Florio pedaled hard from the start line. Florio ranked fifth after lap one, but fell a few places over the subsequent laps. 

Florio took 12th overall in the varsity girls race in a time of 1:40:21.42. The finish was good enough for 489 points.

Similar to previous races, a large amount of Summit’s points came from the freshman girls race. Four athletes finished within the top 10 of the race with Lucy Greenwood taking second in 1:03:58.37. Greenwood was preceded by Ponderosa’s Kinley Griffith in first place (1:02:44.63) with Durango’s Janelle Dingler taking third (1:04:44.45). 

Maeve Niemkiewicz finished close behind Greenwood in fourth (1:06:22.41) with Kita Riter taking seventh (1:12:37.75) and Kaia Riter finishing in eighth (1:13:46.23).

The quartet of Summit girls scored 1,851 points — over a fourth of the team’s final score.

Summit was just as dominant in the freshman boys race where the team managed to put five athletes within the top 15. Elliot Drumwright recorded the highest finish among Summit freshmen, finishing in fourth place with a time of 55:46.06. 

Benjamin Gervais took seventh (57:25.64), Thomas Suding finished in ninth (58:43.26), Dillon Marts took 10th (1:00:13.60) and Ryan Levi crossed the finish line in 14th (1:00:46.00). Nikolas Kutsch barely finished outside the top 15, placing 18th (1:01:25.30).

The Tigers had four athletes finish within the top 25 in the junior-varsity boys and girls race. Junior Heidi Frey, junior June Baniewicz and junior Charlotte Wolf all placed within a couple of places of one another. Frey took 17th (1:14:42.3), Baniewicz finished in 18th (1:15:14.62) and Wolf took 21st (1:19:19.74).

Junior Braydon Ernst took 22nd in the junior-varsity boys race with a time of 59:10.34. 

With a total of 6,983 points, Summit was named the champions of the Chalk Creek Stampede. Montrose took second (6,493) and Salida finished in third (6,476).

Due to the team’s four first-place finishes throughout the season, Summit was also awarded the Division 1 Piedra Region overall trophy. 

Summit will conclude the season by competing at the Colorado High School Cycling League’s state competition at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs from Saturday, Oct. 18, through Sunday, Oct. 19. 

“I am really looking forward to racing against different regions,” Little said. “I am excited to see the different competition. I am really excited to see the state atmosphere.”

The Tigers are slated to have 27 athletes compete at the championship event including 11 freshmen.
For a full schedule of events, visit ColoradoMTB.org.