The Colorado High School Cycling League State Championship Spring Valley Scramble took place last weekend on the grounds of Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, October 21 – 22, 2023. Twenty athletes from Steamboat Springs competed in the event—twenty-three originally qualified. The Steamboat High School Mountain Bike Team won the Division 2 overall category, winning five of five team competitions for the season, the top ten finishers score points and are combined for a team score. The team also won the highly coveted Team Spirit award, showing the strongest team spirit out of 87 teams—this year’s theme at state championships was DISCO.

More than 850 riders competed in the races on Saturday and Sunday. Varsity men and women raced a 16.5-mile course and all other categories raced an 11-mile course. Steamboat Mountain Bike Team posted top ten results in three of the four categories for women and one top ten in the varsity men’s race. For the freshman girls, Whitney Warnke was 4th overall (83 freshman female competitors) after winning every race in the regional races. For the JV girls, Anna Rhodes was 8th overall (102 junior varsity female competitors), and for the varsity girls Mary McLarnon was 5th overall (56 female competitors) after winning every race in the regional series, and Eva Minotto was 10th after placing 2nd in every race in the regional series. Aidan Haack also posted a strong result for the varsity boys with a 6th place finish (95 male competitors). 

FULL Results for Steamboat athletes are listed in the chart below. Races with a Legacy after their name have raced all four years of high school. Six Steamboat athletes have achieved this distinction, Liz Lipscomb, Aidan Haack, Kyan Strong, Primo Famiglietti, Jace Rabesa, and Curtis Zanni.

The Colorado League has more than 160 high schools from Spearfish, South Dakota, to Taos, New Mexico. Team sizes range from five to 100+ riders. The 2023 race series has four regions, Yampa, Crystal, Piedra, and Platte. Steamboat Springs High School students and Steamboat Mountain School students race in the Yampa division. Each region has four races and the State Championships with top qualifiers from each region in each category. The Colorado High School Cycling League (Colorado League) is an independent 501(c)3 registered non-profit established in 2009. The Colorado League facilitates the development of interscholastic mountain bike cycling teams for grades 9 – 12. The program promotes positive youth development through interscholastic mountain biking for high school students in Colorado, southern Wyoming, northern New Mexico, and recently Spearfish, South Dakota.

The Colorado High School Mountain Bike League State Championship Results (FULL RESULTS HERE)