Mountain biker Max Johnson of High Desert Devo in Cortez won the points crown in the boys varsity division of the Piedra League after finishing third Sunday in Nathrop.
The third-place victory, on top of two first-place finishes and another third-place finish, maintained his Johnson’s lead in the standings, one point ahead of Chatfield’s Ashton Lockhart.
Lockhart won Sunday in 1:15:25. He was followed by Liam Bezek of Durango (1:16:03) and Johnson (1:16:12). Bezek finished fourth in points, one spot behind teammate Chase Connors. Connors finished ninth in Nathrop (1:20:10), and Jacob Huber took seventh (1:18:29).
Three bikers from Durango ended the regular season as the points leaders in the Piedra League after winning their races on Sunday in Nathrop.
Riley Huston won the Chalk Creek Stampede’s girls varsity race by more than three minutes in 1:28:05 to pass Hayden Bevington of Salida and Rose Horning of Leadville in the Piedra League’s points standings. Huston finished with 1,746 points, based on her top-three results, to beat Bevington by a point. Huston now will get to wear Piedra’s leaders jersey at the state championships Oct. 22-23 in Glenwood Springs. Julia Glotfelty of Animas finished sixth in Nathrop and eighth in points.
Emmett McManus held off teammate Kai Lokey to keep the leader’s jersey in the JV boys division. McManus won his third race of the year on Sunday in 49:47, finishing 32 seconds ahead of Lokey in second. Lokey won one race and finished second in points. Chase Grom placed sixth on Sunday (54:15) and seventh out of 125 riders in points.
Betty Holcomb, meanwhile, completed her sweep in the freshman girls division by winning all four regular season races. Holcomb won Sunday’s race in 59:44 while three of her teammates also finished in the top five. Tilia Clausen finished second on Sunday (1:02:10) and second overall. Ellie Shaw placed third Sunday (1:02:11) to place fifth overall while Rowan Lott crossed fifth (1:02:12) to finish seventh in points.
In the sophomore boys race, Quentin DeLuca led DHS with a third-place finish in Nathrop (56:00) and ended up third in points. Cedar Bremner finished seventh Sunday (56:28) and sixth in points while Dylan Timmerman placed sixth on Sunday (56:20) and seventh in points.
Lauryn Christensen represented Durango in the JV girls race and finished 19th on Sunday (1:25:42).
In the freshman boys race, Jake Sandau of Animas finished third in Nathrop (53:43) and ended up fourth overall in points.
Durango also won all four of the Division 2 team titles this season. The Demons scored 5,209 points to win the Chalk Creek Stampede, followed by Montrose (4,522), Grand Junction (4,491), Taos Composite (4,329), Douglas County (4,311), Palisade (4,158), Buena Vista (4,044), Fruita Monument (4,024), Pagosa Springs (4,011), Cherry Creek (3,949) and High Desert Composite (3,334).
Animas finished fifth in Nathrop (2,054) behind Castle View (2,218), Leadville (2,198), San Luis Valley (2,078) and Fountain Valley (2,061). In the final Piedra standings, Animas was second behind Leadville.
Animas also got points from Brayden Harms (18th, varsity boys), Kadence Marion-Wagoner (79th, JV Boys) and Joseba Izaguirre (46th, freshman boys) at the Chalk Creek Stampede.
The state championships will be the first time this season Durango will compete against teams from the Yampa, Crystal and Platte leagues.
