Last Saturday (Oct. 5), the Taos Composite High School Mountain Bike team competed in the Colorado High School Mountain Bike League Conference Championships in Nathrop, Colorado, where three athletes placed in the top five of their respective divisions.
The 13-strong Taos Composite team had two individual podium finishes and secured second place for the Division 3 teams in the season. The competition determined who qualifies for the state championships in two weeks in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
The 12 state qualifiers heading to Glenwood Springs for the state championships are O’Reilly, Thornton, Conn, Cassily, Vincent Brady, Villarreal y Montoya, Breier, Chavez, Flora Mack, Rand, Edmonds, and Verswijver.
On that cold Saturday morning in Colorado, the junior varsity, sophomore and freshman girls were first on the 6-mile course, completing two laps each. On JV, Isla Chavez placed 11th and sophomore Eleanor Breier finished 15th. The freshmen girls Bernice O’Reilly and Abby Thornton placed fifth and ninth overall. Thornton is still suffering from a knee injury sustained from last winter.
As for the boys, freshmen Col Cassily and Silas Conn placed in the top five finishers in the freshman boys class, with Cassily placing second and Conn at the fourth spot. Sam Villarreal y Montoya took the 33rd spot to meet his goal of qualifying for the state championship. Continuing with the boys’ JV squad, Luke Rand placed seventh overall, followed by teammates Ryan Edmonds at 24th, Ethan Quintana de Andres at 36th, Rowan Higdon at 50th, and Rocco Siegele at the 97th spot.
Both Andres and Rowan missed the qualifier due to missing a race earlier in the season and losing the “bonus points” earned by riders who completed four regular season races. Siegele soaked up the moment and chose to enjoy the ride near the back of the pack with some friends from other teams.
On the final day, varsity rider Keaton Verswijver ended the race with a 13th-place finish in the three-lap varsity races, but mechanical issues cost him over a minute in lap time to start the race. Fighting hard for three laps, Veswijver went from the middle 30s to his final position at 13th.
In the conference standings, Conn and Cassily wrapped up the regular season in second and third overall in the Freshman Boys category. The Taos Composite team finished the season in second overall.
The 12 state qualifiers heading to Glenwood Springs for the state championships are O’Reilly, Thornton, Conn, Cassily, Vincent Brady, Villarreal y Montoya, Breier, Chavez, Flora Mack, Rand, Edmonds, and Verswijver.
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