High school riders from Chatelech and Elphinstone used the familiar trails around Halfmoon Bay to their advantage on Saturday.
The B.C. High School Mountain Bike Championships went off without a hitch as 250 cyclists representing 28 high schools from around B.C. took to the 6.5 km course.
Weather and trail conditions were perfect, making for a fast race in each heat.
Chat riders fared very well, with nine riders finishing in top-10 spots. Matt Cottrell and Chris Bates, who finished second and fourth, led the senior boys to the podium. Brett Wildeman rounded out with an eighth place finish. These results also brought home the senior boys' first place team trophy, an award based on a school's top three male riders.
The juvenile (Grade 9) boys were again led by Sean Stanhope, who finished first. In the junior (Grade 10) category, Jesse Horn finished eighth.
In the senior/junior girls' category, Christine Lynch placed fifth and in the juvenile/bantam categories, Katherine Short finished first in juvenile girls and Julie Wildeman finished fifth. The juvenile/bantam girls also brought home the second place trophy in the team standings.
In addition to the awards above, the Chat team placed second overall in the aggregate team standings. This award is the total points accumulated by an entire school team.
"This is an amazing accomplishment considering the size of large teams, like Don Ross from Brackendale that won the aggregate title," said Chat coach and race director Dave Bates. "I would like to thank all the parents and community volunteers for helping to make this a very successful season for the Chat cycling team."
Elphi cyclists also had a strong day on Saturday.
In the bantam boys' heavy bike division, Paul Fromager finished fifth and Dillon Mennie finished 10th.
In the bantam boys' regular division, Brad Adnitt finished ninth and James vant-Schipp finished 15th. Claire McGillivray did well and finished fourth in the bantam girls' with Jessica Stephens-Whale close behind in seventh. Dylan Dunkerton had a great ride to finish fifth in the juvenile boys' division and James Law raced hard to finish ninth in the very competitive junior boys' division.
Curtis Robinson had his best race of the season with an 11th place finish in the senior boys' division. Colwyn Sleep placed 12th and Robert Crawford 20th.
"I am extremely proud of my entire team," said Elphi coach Mark Goerzen. "It was a very hot day for racing and everyone put out their best effort to land our team in third overall for the entire province. Our Grade 8 riders have come a long way since their first race early this season and we have some great talent throughout the team to carry us into next year.
"Thank you to everyone who put in so many hours to pull off this event. Special recognition goes to Laurie Short for pulling it all together. It was an extremely well organized race and a great day for high school sports on the Sunshine Coast."
Sam Scorda, B.C. mountain biking commissioner, called Saturday's event "one of the best provincial championships ever."
"The facility and the course are perfect for high school competition. The organizing committee and all the volunteers have been tremendous, and the whole community has been great to work with," Scorda said.
"The Coast schools have done tremendously well. What is nice about these kids is that they work hard and they really appreciate what is being done for them. I've always been impressed with the students from this area."
