The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Snowmassive effort
[ by Than Acuff ]
The Crested Butte Devo high school race team just won another Division 3 team title in the Crystal league at the Snowmassive Chase race in Snowmass on Sunday, September 25. Seven of the 12 athletes posted a top 10 result with Finn Veit, Piper O’Neill, Lance Lakoski, Katie O’Neill and Samuel Bullock racking up the team points. Local riders Ty and Eli Nolan both race for the Colorado Rocky Mountain School with Ty taking second place in the freshman race and Eli placing 18th in the varsity race.
“It was pretty sweet, we’re three for three,” says coach Jenny Smith.
The course lent itself to success for the Titans and the team was at full strength when they headed over to compete.
“For the most part, everyone was healthy, and they all love the Snowmass course for sure,” says Smith.
Veit continued his attack in the JV Boys classification as he placed second in Snowmass and remains at the top of the leaderboard so far this season. The varsity riders had a standout day as well as Piper and Katie placed seventh and ninth place respectively while Lakoski mashed his way to an eighth-place finish, his best result thus far this year.
“It was really awesome to see,” says Smith. “After getting crashed out by someone else the first race and sick at the second race, he was back to himself in Snowmass.”
Bullock put the finishing touches on the team total taking second place in the sophomore race and moving his way into first place in the overall points standings.
Bullock continues to gain ground with each race as he has now climbed to the top of the leaderboard in the sophomore race class with a second-place finish in Snowmass.
And while those were the athletes scoring the team points, the rest of the team had standout performances as well. Oliver White cracked the top 20 in the varsity race, Benjamin Geisler placed seventh in the freshman race and Luca Loperfido overcame a mechanical on course to finish 22nd in the varsity race.
“He just took the timer and repaired his bike and got to the finish line,” says Smith.
Kenny Bullock and Ebbet Weinberg placed 10th and 17th respectively in the sophomore race with Weinberg taking the biggest jump in his results profile.
“He has moved up a ton and showed big improvement over the season,” says Smith.
Connor Knight and Cy Davis finished 27th and 28th in the JV race to round out another top shelf showing from the Crested Butte race team as they are all rolling forward with the post season drawing near.
“Some are steadily moving up and others have had big jumps this season,” says Smith. “Currently, it looks like everyone is in a position to qualify for the state championships.”
The bike team heads to Eagle for their next race on Saturday, October 8 with the state championships slated for Saturday and Sunday, October 22-23 in Glenwood Springs.
