The Summit Tigers have been in a heated battle with Steamboat Springs throughout the Colorado High School Cycling League’s fall mountain biking season.

The two Yampa Region teams have exchanged spots on top of the Division 2 podium throughout the season with Summit winning its home meet back in August before falling to Steamboat in the subsequent two races. 

Wanting to even the score against its opponents from the north, Summit traveled to Fruita on Sunday, Oct. 6, for the the Yampa Region Championship race.

Leading off the performances for the Tigers was senior Aila Harmala in the varsity girls race. Similar to previous races earlier in the season, Harmala put herself at the front of the race and narrowly led the rest of the field through lap one of the three-lap race.

After splitting a time of 26 minutes, 43 seconds through the first lap, Harmala kept pace with Green Mountain’s Claire Pekarek and Ralston Valley’s Clara Appel on the second revolution of the course. With a lap to go, Pekarek and Harmala pulled away from Appel before challenging one another to the finish line.

In the end, it was Pekarek who won the race in a time of 1:17:08.40. Harmala followed in a close second (1:17:25.19) and Appel took third (1:17:30.55). Although Harmala was unable to win the final regular season race of the season, the skilled cyclist scored enough points in other races in order to be crowned the overall champion for the Yampa region.

Junior Fiona Florio also notched a top-10 finish for the Tigers in the varsity girls race. Florio finished the race in 1:26:20.07 to place seventh. 

Needing to score as many points as possible if the Tigers wanted to beat Steamboat in Fruita, senior Isaac York and senior Nicolas Bonta combined for a total of 1,062 points in the varsity boys race. York scored 539 points with his fifth-place finish (1:11:57.65) and Bonta recorded 523 points by taking seventh overall (1:12:18.65).

Junior Noah Dippenaar finished six spots behind Bonta in 13th (1:14:03.75) and was also awarded the slingshot award for passing the largest percentage of the race field. Senior Mason Wescott finished in 17th (1:15:37) and senior James Sowers took 20th (1:16:41.47).

In a dramatic display of grit and determination, senior Reid Litwiller sprinted across the finish line in his bike shoes while carrying his broken-down bike. The awe-inspiring performance ultimately earned Litwiller 27th overall in the varsity boys race, scoring as many points for his team as he could. 

With no girls entered in the junior varsity girls race, Summit made up for any lost points by putting two athletes within the top 25 of the junior varsity boys race. Sophomore Devin Mumford took 15th on the two-lap course (51:05.86) and senior Penny Amsbaugh took 21st (51:55.29).

Summit was even more impressive in the sophomore girls race, putting a pack of three athletes within the top 20. Heidi Frey led the string of cyclists, taking 12th overall in a time of 1:02:50.51. Frey was followed by June Baniewicz in 14th (1:05:51.19) and Charlotte Wolf in 16th (1:09:42.20).

Trent Granshaw earned a podium finish in the sophomore boys race. Granshaw took second behind Centaurus’ Taavi Snapp (46:43.88) in a time of 48:21.15.

Summit put two athletes within the top 15 of the freshman girls race. Marin Little took sixth (57:18.17) and Piper Rabinowitz finished 11th (58:36.05). Rounding out the results at the regional race, Leo Zazueta Reynoso took 25th in the freshman boys race with a time of 55:16.74.

Scoring 4,920 points, Summit successfully defeated Steamboat Springs to win the Yampa Region Division 2 team race.

“We had a lot of people have really good days in Fruita,” York said. “… It means a lot to beat Steamboat, not just because it is a rival school, but also for endurance athletes Steamboat is huge. They have a professional program and they have a large amount of training assets. To see ourselves competing at that level is really cool to see.”

Although the Tigers won the final race before state, Steamboat Springs narrowly topped Summit  in the overall team standings.Steamboat Springs was crowned the overall season champion with a total of 19,508 points, Summit took second with 19,335 and Nederland took third with 15,855.

Nearly 30 Summit Tigers mountain bike athletes will now prepare for the state championship race in Glenwood Springs from Oct. 19-20. 

Qualified Summit athletes include Harmala, York, Bonta, Florio, Dippenaar, Wescott, Litwiller, Sowers, Mumford, Granshaw, Frey, Baniewicz, Wolf, Reynoso, Little,Rabinowitz, Elsie Robinson, Nico Florio, Sonja Waldes Jude Kaltenbach, Braydon Ernst, Gabi Bonta, Finn Brown,Eli Love, Kate Williams and Axel Crawford.

“For me personally, going to state this year is a huge deal,” York said. “I seriously started training last year and making states was a huge goal of mine, but it didn’t pan out. To be able to come and have a strong finish and make it to states in my senior season makes me so happy. The amount of people on our team that have qualified this year is so inspiring to see.”