The Maverick Cycling Team started the season off on the right foot during their first major race of the year. Despite only being able to train on a track for one weekend of the year, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) took home a pair of national titles and finished third overall after four days of racing.
Last year, CMU upset Marian University’s (MU) 16-year monopoly of Track Team Omniums, which is equivalent to a team national championship in other sports. This feat is all the more impressive when one considers that MU has a velodrome track on its campus, which they can access 365 days a year. CMU, on the other hand, only gets to practice for four days in Colorado Springs
“We ride in the velodrome one weekend in Colorado Springs during the first week of classes in the fall semester and then we go to Nationals two weeks after. That’s pretty much all the all the training we get,” cyclist Sindre Hvesser Brein said.
This year, however, MU and Milligan University were narrowly able to edge out the Mavericks in the team standings.
Nonetheless, Kate Seiler and the women’s team relay team brought home two national titles, which now gives CMU 75 all-time individual/event national titles.
The team traveled to Trexlertown, Pennsylvania on Thursday Sept. 14 for the first day of racing. Olivia Cummins started off with a respectable third-place finish in the women’s scratch race, followed by teammates Mia Deye and Katie Clouse for fourth and fifth place.
Then, the women won the aforementioned women pursuit while the men finished third. The women’s team was composed of Seiler, Cummins, Mia Aseltine and Katie Clouse.
“Winning this event has been a big goal for me and the Team Pursuit girls for the past couple years, but this year it felt a lot more achievable. Going into the event, the girls and I were clearly nervous but had quite a bit of confidence. With little practice, we had run many clean and fast practice runs and knew we had an extremely good chance of winning if everyone gave it their all,” Seiler said.
The men’s relay team finished third, six seconds behind MU.
“We don’t have a track to train on like regularly and so neither do most athletes throughout the country. So, you could tell that, you know, there were some tactical mishaps,” Head Coach Patric Rostel said.
Cummins racked up an impressive showing early on. Outside of her contribution on the relay team, Cummins got a third-place finish in the Sprint Tournament and a second place posting during the women’s scratch race.
Cummins, Seiler and Clouse would then place third, fourth and fifth respectively during the women’s individual pursuit while Brein posted the highest men’s individual finish of the tournament with a fourth place standing
“Our main problem is that we need three guys to perform in every event. In most events, we had one or two guys that were able to get a top 10 or top 15. That was pretty much how it was for every discipline and that’s just not good enough in the long run. You don’t get enough points and that’s why on the men’s side, we were not really close to where we wanted to be.” Brein said.
On the last day with sore legs and recovering from strep throat, Seilers won her second-ever individual national title during the Women’s Point Race.
“I am usually not a big fan of this race, as it is very complicated and has never felt like it fit my racing style. Going into the race, I was quite tired after a full weekend of intense racing while on antibiotics, but I knew everyone was tired and I had to just put my own dent into the race. Coming across the line, I still did not know I won, but after riding around on the track for a lap, I could see my parents and my whole team with their hands in the air, cheering for me. It is always a good feeling to win a National Title but to do it with your best friends and have your parents there to watch is like no other feeling,” Seiler said.
Even with a third-place finish and two titles, the team was not content with how things played out.
“We have been pretty, pretty good the last two years just because you know, we had really good riders. But when you graduate four of your best riders on the track side, you can feel the pain the next year. But they know what they have to do to step up again,” Head Coach Patric Rostel said.
The Maverick Cycling Team will next compete during the Mountain Bike Nationals starting on Oct. 12 in Ride Rock Creek, North Carolina.
