On Sept. 4, over 1,300 racers came to the area to compete in the second race of the Central Region. “We are so fortunate to have a venue here in Carbon county for our team to race at ‘home’ and for the communities business’s,” said head coach Mark Jespersen. “A big thank you to Carbon County and Price City leaders and representatives for all their support and helping the Price venue to be one of the leagues favorites in Utah.
There were two Dino standouts. Tacoma Smith took first in the intermediate eighth grade boys while Betty Olson finished on top in the beginner girl division. “Betty Olson was not able to race at Powder Mountain [so] she started at the very back of the pack as the 64th rider. The course is approximately five miles, but after the first mile Betty was already in the middle of the pack.” Jespersen continued, “at the halfway point, [she] had just a few riders to pass to take over first position. She finished a solid 17 seconds ahead of the second-place rider. Way to send it Betty!”
Points leader Boyd Bradford took second in the JV A Boys D2. He came in just over a minute behind first-place in the hour-long endurance race. Nathan Engar took 11th in that same race with Joey Barlow in 24th. In the JV B Boys D2, Ryu West ended in 11th and Russell Seeley took 17th.
Andrew Loveless took fourth in the freshman A Boys D2. Meanwhile, in the JV A Girls, Lindsey Jespersen took 18th overall. As a team, Carbon took first in Division 3 with a score of 1,119. Provo (1,099) came in second with Jordan (1,096) in third.
“Like Betty, Andrew started in the back of the group, [and] tworked his way quickly to the front but didn’t have quite enough steam to overtake the top three riders.That was an impressive showing and we expect him to take it to the next level at the Cedar City race this weekend. Other riders like Ruth Olson, Beckham Leonard, Spencer Tullis, Nathan Engar, Ryu West and Russell Seeley moved up placement spots to better position themselves for qualifying for state next month.” Jespersen added, “Lindsey Jespersen had another memorable race. Getting repositioned into the back of her group, like Betty and Andrew, she had to work through the pack to finish in the front. Despite a crash coming off one of the downhill berms, she bounced up and finished the race getting into the top 20 with a major muscle bruise from the wreck.”
Jespersen concluded, “Carbon Mountain Bike team would like to thank all those who volunteered at the Price race and came out to watch and support the team.”
Full results can be found here.
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- Photos by Jeff Barrett
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- Photos courtesy of Mark Jespersen
