Hundreds of high school mountain bike racers gearing up for state championships near Cedar City

Written by Jeff Richards
October 19, 2023

CEDAR CITY — Hundreds of high school mountain bike athletes from around the state, along with plenty of coaches and family members, will converge in Iron County this weekend for the Utah High School Cycling League’s annual state championships.

Riders compete in a regional Utah High School Cycling League mountain bike race at Three Peaks Recreation Area in Iron County, Utah, Sept. 2, 2023. The state championship races will be held at the same venue on Oct. 20-21, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

The two-day event will be staged Friday and Saturday at Three Peaks Recreation Area northwest of Cedar City, with the first races scheduled to start at 9 a.m. both days.

The Three Peaks venue will already be familiar to the riders in Region 6, as the second race of the fall season was staged there on Sept. 2. The other three Region 6 races were on Aug. 19 at Manti, on Sept. 16 at Beaver and on Sept. 30 at Eagle Mountain.

It was a tight race for first place all season in the region’s Division 2, with Dixie ultimately edging Snow Canyon by just 10 overall points to capture the top spot, 9,134 to 9,124.

Dixie head coach Sam Stoddard said the Flyers won the first two races of the season, then finished runner-up to Snow Canyon in the other two. The Warriors finished third as a team at Manti and in second place at Cedar City two weeks later.

Also in Division 2, the Iron County Composite team, also known as Iron Giants, placed fourth as a team in the final season standings, while Hurricane took fifth, Cedar High placed sixth and Pine View finished seventh.

In Division 1, which encompasses larger teams, Southern Utah schools Desert Hills and Crimson Cliffs placed a respective second and third overall, while American Fork took first.

And in Division 3, the smallest classification, Moab’s team placed first, with Panguitch taking second, Enterprise third and the Creek Valley Composite team from Hildale and Colorado City finishing fourth.

Riders compete in a regional Utah High School Cycling League mountain bike race at Three Peaks Recreation Area in Iron County, Utah, Sept. 2, 2023. The state championship races will be held at the same venue on Oct. 20-21, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Individually, Kyler Keenan of Crimson Cliffs finished first among varsity boys in Region 6. Keenan won three of the four seasonal races and placed second in the other, achieving a perfect score of 900 (his lowest score of 899 was dropped). Also placing highly was Jordan Porter of Desert Hills, whose season point total of 894 landed him in third place overall.

Meanwhile, in the varsity girls category, Dixie’s Lily Tritle finished third in overall season points with 896 points, while Gwen Tuttle of Crimson Cliffs placed fifth with 888.

Stoddard told St. George News he and his athletes are looking forward to the upcoming state races.

“We never know what’s going to happen for sure, because there’s lots of kids we haven’t raced against,” Stoddard said. “But it’s always exciting. So we’ll see how we do. I mean, we expect good things, but anything can happen on race day.”

Stoddard said he considers a primary goal of the sport to be having fun while promoting health and fitness.

“I’m definitely more interested in the riding for life than for the racing, but the racing helps build strong character, so I love that,” he said.

Snow Canyon head coach Nate Hansen said his athletes have enjoyed being in close competition with Dixie throughout the season.

“It’s been a fun battle back and forth this season with Dixie,” Hansen said. “We are looking forward to the state race and having all six regions race together. It’s a good course with some demanding climbs, rocky downhill, and flowy single-track into the finish. It’s just fun to see the best in the state throw down everything they’ve got for the top spots.”

Cedar City last hosted the high school mountain biking state championship races four years ago in 2019, with the event being held at St. George for three straight years after that. The Three Peaks course features a six-mile loop that has a net elevation change of 499 feet. For Region 6’s complete season results, click here. Individual season scores by category can be found here. Additionally, a fact sheet with complete information about the state championship races can be found here.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons and one granddaughter. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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