The High School Mountain Bike Team defended its home trails Sunday with another strong all-around performance, winning the Colorado High School Cycling League Yampa Region Division 1 competition at the Showdown in the ‘Boat.
Steamboat scored 7,634 points, finishing ahead of Boulder with 7,307 and Summit with 6,998. The victory gives Steamboat two consecutive Division 1 wins to open the four-race 2026 regular season. The team produced 16 top-10 finishes, five top-three performances and two individual victories.
Racing on familiar terrain did not make the challenge easy. The race traveled through the Emerald Mountain Trail Network, combining technical singletrack, doubletrack and dirt roads. The 5.5-mile lap included approximately 684 feet of climbing, with Varsity racers completing three laps and the remaining high school categories racing two.
Senior Whitney Warnke delivered one of Steamboat’s biggest performances, winning Varsity Girls in 1:21:25.60 and taking over the category points lead. Sydney Soard finished fourth and Lucia Magnotta seventh, putting three Steamboat riders inside the top seven.
Women’s Varsity Podium
Men’s Varsity Podium
The Varsity Boys were equally strong. Quinn Dressen finished second, only 1.68 seconds behind race winner Taavi Snapp of Centaurus, while Odin Gruben took third. Jackson Rosencrantz added a seventh-place finish.
Sophomore Fritz Gamber earned Steamboat’s second victory, winning the Sophomore Boys race in 52:44.89. Andrew Melzer finished fifth and Nicholas Tanyuk ninth, giving Steamboat three top-10 riders in the category.
Steamboat’s younger riders added significant points. Samara Lambert finished fourth and Zoe Chase ninth in JV Girls, while Jayden Hargis took eighth in JV Boys. Sasha Wodnik finished fourth in Freshman Girls.
Freshman Boys produced one of Steamboat’s deepest performances of the day. Paddock Whitten finished third, followed by Grip Goldstein in fifth and Emmett Neely in sixth. Whitten missed second place by less than one second.
Goldstein’s race also earned him the Slingshot Award, which recognizes a rider who makes an exceptional charge through the field by gaining positions from their starting position during the race. It provided another highlight from a Freshman Boys group that placed three Steamboat riders in the top six.
Steamboat’s depth ultimately separated the team from its competition, with its 15 scoring riders combining for a 327-point victory over Boulder.
The Showdown was the second of four Yampa Region regular-season races. With victories in both Frisco and Steamboat, the defending state champions are 2-for-2 to begin the season.
Men’s Sophomore Podium
WOMEN
Varsity Girls
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Whitney Warnke | 12 | 1:21:25.60 |
| 4th | Sydney Soard | 11 | 1:28:51.42 |
| 7th | Lucia Magnotta | 11 | 1:31:36.96 |
| 15th | Allie Reznicek | 12 | 1:37:18.18 |
| 17th | Lindsay Berke | 12 | 1:39:02.98 |
JV Girls
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th | Samara Lambert | 10 | 1:01:08.24 |
| 9th | Zoe Chase | 12 | 1:06:00.12 |
| 12th | Ellis Dressendorfer | 11 | 1:06:24.50 |
| 18th | Della Cunningham | 11 | 1:11:54.78 |
Sophomore Girls
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20th | Zoe Finnegan | 10 | 1:17:59.61 |
Freshman Girls
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th | Sasha Wodnik | 9 | 1:05:15.05 |
MEN
Varsity Boys
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Quinn Dressen | 11 | 1:13:44.13 |
| 3rd | Odin Gruben | 11 | 1:14:50.95 |
| 7th | Jackson Rosencrantz | 12 | 1:17:34.37 |
| 13th | Robbie Wodnik | 11 | 1:20:59.50 |
| 15th | Henry Davis | 11 | 1:22:28.59 |
| 23rd | Oscar Libin | 12 | 1:28:16.91 |
| 30th | Soren Shepherd | 11 | 1:31:25.57 |
JV Boys
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8th | Jayden Hargis | 10 | 55:06.24 |
| 13th | Mateo Rodriguez | 12 | 57:33.23 |
| 19th | Logan Drury | 12 | 59:31.00 |
| 78th | Mason Lipscomb | 11 | 1:17:38.84 |
| 94th | Morgan Garrett | 12 | 1:32:47.79 |
Sophomore Boys
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Fritz Gamber | 10 | 52:44.89 |
| 5th | Andrew Melzer | 10 | 53:38.43 |
| 9th | Nicholas Tanyuk | 10 | 56:18.12 |
| 12th | Oliver Nylen | 10 | 56:35.93 |
| 31st | Miles Chase | 10 | 1:02:23.77 |
| 49th | Mason Sloop | 10 | 1:10:36.87 |
Freshman Boys
| Place | Name | Grade | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | Paddock Whitten | 9 | 59:53.74 |
| 5th | Grip Goldstein | 9 | 1:00:46.86 |
| 6th | Emmett Neely | 9 | 1:01:10.07 |
| 19th | Archer Middleton | 9 | 1:05:58.83 |
The Yampa Region next races Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Haymaker Classic in Eagle, the third stop of the regular season.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.
