High School Mountain Bike Team Opens 2026 Season with Division 1 Victory at Frisco Bay Invitational

The Steamboat Springs High School Mountain Bike Team opened the 2026 Colorado High School Cycling League season with a strong team performance Saturday, August 29, winning the Yampa Region Division 1 competition at the Frisco Bay Invitational.

Thirty-seven Steamboat athletes competed across eight boys’ and girls’ categories, combining for 7,573 team points. Steamboat finished ahead of Boulder with 7,442 points and Summit with 6,987 to take the first Division 1 victory of the four-race regular season. Fourteen Steamboat riders finished in the top 10 of their respective categories, including three top-three finishes.

The Frisco Bay Invitational course started and finished at the Frisco Nordic Center and featured a 5.95-mile counterclockwise loop with 512 feet of climbing per lap. Racers faced a mix of singletrack, doubletrack, and dirt roads punctuated by frequent short climbs and descents. Varsity racers completed three laps for 17.9 miles, while the remaining categories raced two laps for 11.9 miles.

Steamboat’s returning riders made an immediate impact after moving into new categories for 2026. Junior Quinn Dressen opened his Varsity Boys season with a second-place finish, while Odin Gruben placed fourth and senior Jackson Rosencrantz finished eighth. On the Varsity Girls side, senior Whitney Warnke also took second, followed by juniors Sydney Soard in third and Lucia Magnotta in fourth.

Varsity Women’s Podium

Varsity Men’s Podium

The results continued throughout the younger categories. Sophomore Samara Lambert placed fifth in JV Girls, with Zoe Chase finishing 10th. Jayden Hargis led the JV Boys in sixth place. Sophomore Boys Andrew Melzer and Fritz Gamber finished fourth and fifth, respectively, separated by less than a tenth of a second after two laps.

Steamboat’s newest racers also made an immediate contribution. Freshman Sasha Wodnik placed fourth in Freshman Girls, while Charlotte Linford finished ninth. Paddock Whitten led the Freshman Boys with an eighth-place finish.

The overall result highlighted the depth that has become a hallmark of the Steamboat program. The team victory was built not only on podium finishes, but on athletes scoring throughout the lineup. Fifteen Steamboat riders contributed to the Division 1 team score, with the final scoring position coming from Robbie Wodnik’s 17th-place Varsity Boys result.

The Frisco Bay Invitational was the first of four Yampa Region races during the 2026 regular season. Steamboat now gets the opportunity to race at home when the series comes to Howelsen Hill for the “Showdown in the ’Boat” on Sunday, September 13.

The home race will give the team an opportunity to build on a successful opening weekend while showcasing high school mountain bike racing on Steamboat’s home trails.

The Steamboat Springs High School Mountain Bike Team is run through Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. The Colorado High School Cycling League, now in its 17th season, consists of more than 160 high schools. The 2026 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. 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 Spearfish, South Dakota.

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