YOUR AD HERE »

Summit MTB freshman Lasse Konecny stands out at Haymaker Classic, Tigers place fourth

Members of the Summit Tigers high school-aged mountain bike team cheer on a fellow teammate during the Frisco Bay Invitational on Aug. 25, near the Frisco Adventure Park. On Sunday in Eagle, the Tigers finished in fourth place of the North Division 1 teams at the Haymaker Classic, the program's final meet of the season before the Oct. 20-21 state championship in Durango.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com

The Summit Tigers high school-aged mountain bike team finished in fourth place of six teams at Sunday’s North Division 1 conference championship meet at the Haymaker Classic in Eagle.

Summit’s Tai-Lee Smith continued her successful sophomore season on Sunday by finishing in fifth place in the 29-rider North Division 1 varsity girls race. Smith’s time of one hour, 18 minutes and 25.56 seconds on the three-lap course was just over 70 seconds off the pace of varsity girls winner Ada Urist of Fairview.

In the Colorado High School Cycling League’s mountain bike circuit, each team is awarded points for its top 15 individual finishers. The higher a mountain biker’s finish, the more points they accrue for the team. Though the team competition is scored using junior varsity and freshman races as well, individual points are worth more in varsity races.



From the varsity girls race, Summit received a total of 1,841 points. Overall, spread across the varsity girls race as well as JV and freshman boys and girls races, Summit tallied 6,546 points. That total ranked behind Haymaker Classic Division 1 champion Boulder (7,795), Fairview (7,290) and Golden (7,084).

Summit’s top finishers in the varsity girls race alongside Smith included junior Elsa Bates (19th place, 1:26:42.09), Opal Koning (20th, 1:27:35.97) and Grace Karoly (29th, 1:40:39.16).



Beneath the varsity level, Summit’s other top point-earners on Sunday included standout showings from a group of JV boys and freshman girls. In the JV boys race, Tigers freshman Lasse Konecny finished just 13 seconds behind the champion of the 145-rider, three-lap JV boys race: Aidan Duffy of Eagle Valley. Konecny’s time of 1:09:54.56 was more than a minute faster than Steamboat’s Cam Owens, who currently ranks as the season points leader for the 2018 Division 1, JV boys series.

Konecny was joined in the top 10 for the JV boys race by two junior Tigers teammates in Max Bonenberger (6th, 1:13:43.55) and Finn Remias (9th, 1:14:28.99). Summit also received individual points from the JV boys race from senior Ryan Adis (17th, 1:16:55.38), junior Caleb White (32nd, 1:20:10.67) and junior Steven Jardim (34th, 1:20:30.61). In total, these six JV boys riders earned Summit 2,645 of the teams’ total 6,546 points — more than 40 percent.

And in the two-lap, 44-rider freshman girls race, Summit’s freshmen Samantha Hessell (5th, 1:01:28.86), Victoria Uglyar (7th, 1:02:23.91) and Marin Ward (11th, 1:03:50.59) continued to shine. In total, this trio earned the Tigers 1,332 total points.

Summit will next be in action when they conclude the season at the Oct. 20 and 21 state championship in Durango.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.