Lehi Sports
Pioneers earn two podiums at state mountain biking finals
The Lehi mountain biking team had two medalists at the truncated Utah High School State MTB Championships on October 19 in Cedar City.
Pioneer sophomore Brielle Adams, the Region 5 champion in Girls Varsity, finished eighth among 108 competitors at the state event. Micah Gunnell came in 10th of 194 racers in the Senior Open Boys division.
“Brielle is just a sophomore and had an amazing performance competing against the best racers in the state,” said Randall Adams, assistant head coach. “Micah got a surprise podium after thinking he placed 11th only to find out at podiums that the results had been corrected and he placed 10th.
“Many others had great races and moved up tens of spots from their initial position. This goes to show how fast our region is. Lehi, Wasatch, Skyridge and Lone Peak are some of the fastest teams in the state,” Adams said.
All things considered, they were lucky to be able to compete at all.
“This was a whirlwind,” the coach said. “On Friday morning we woke up to six inches of heavy wet snow. This was chaos, not only for the trails, but also for the team pit zones.
“Lehi and Skyridge were lucky to not have extensive damage but many team tents were destroyed, costing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage,” he continued.
“One bright spot was that the teams rallied to help each other,” Coach Adams said. “Volunteers poured in to help clear snow, salvage tents, and even lend extra tents to teams that had lost so much.
“This is actually typical of the mountain bike community. We compete fiercely but will always be there to help when needed,” he said.
As for the races, all were canceled on Day 1, which meantFreshman Boys, JV C Boys, JV C Girls and JV B Girls all did not get the chance to race. The team competition was also scrapped since not all events could be contested.
“The league did a good job and was able to move the senior open race to Saturday and also moved all seniors to the open category who would have otherwise not been able to race,” the coach said. “After a lot of trail work, derailed plans and emotional roller coasters, the races were on for Saturday.”
Sophomore Ashlyn Adams was the second-highest scorer for the Cavemen, finishing 16th in the JV A Girls division.
The team’s other top scorers are:
Varsity Boys: Junior Taylor McKay, senior Isaac Boushka andsenior Daxton Peterson.
Varsity Girls: Senior Zoe Adams, senior Livvy Stringham, senior Gwen Turner and senior Rachel Thurgood.
JV A Girls: Senior Kara Prime and junior Emery Wilkinson.
JV B Boys: Junior Troy Pickett and junior Mike York.
Senior Open Girls: Madison Hyde and Natalia Borba.
“For many, this was the last NICA race they will participate in,so we had to make it fun,” he added. “Lehi handed out gag items at the feed zone which included cotton candy, lollipops, happy meals and buckets of KFC chicken.”
The seniors loved it, and the Pioneers definitely made the most of what could otherwise have been a real downer.
