Last year the team rode away with the Division 1 state mountain bike championship after an eight-year drought. Park City Mountain Bike Director and high school head coach Pete Stoughton said this year he wants to focus on more than just winning.
“We want to really focus on being a fun team. That's really, you know, biking is very much an individual sport in a lot of ways, but we really do try to bring the team together to support, to laugh, to work hard and to have fun together.”
That “have fun” mentality paid off in the first competition of the year Saturday, Aug. 17, at Soldier Hollow. The team took home six first place medals across all age groups and categories. And that was with half the team not able to race because of weather.
The 235-athlete team includes racers from seventh to 12th grade and is separated into a junior development team and the high school team.
Stoughton said he is especially excited to see what the high school team does this year. He said it's the first time the boys team Varsity and Junior Varsity teams have been as competitive as the girls.
“We had three in the top 10 for varsity and three in the top 10 for JV-A. And that's the first time that's ever happened where we've had three in the top 10 in varsity and in JV-A for boys and for girls.”
The team will travel to Manti Aug. 31, for its second meet.
A link to the results from Saturday's competition and a schedule of upcoming races can be found here.
