The Cuyuna Lakes mountain bike team was named the Division II state champion at the season finale awards program Sunday at the University of Minnesota's Northrop Auditorium.
One state title wasn't enough, Crosby-Ironton placed third in the state as well.
The Cuyuna Lakes mountain bike team is technically made up of two high school teams. Crosby-Ironton has enough athletes to be categorized as its own team, while the Cuyuna Lakes team is made up of students from Brainerd, Pequot Lakes, Lake Region Christian School and home school students.
"The two teams practice together, attend races as one team and wear the same jersey, but are scored separately according to the Minnesota High School Cycling League," said head coach Shaun Anderson. "For the first part of the season, many of the kids didn't even know we were technically two teams. They were just one team encouraging each other every day at practice and at every race.
"Even after they realized they were being scored separately, that didn't change. They all still work to make each other better racers and push each other every day."
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While the Cuyuna composite team held the top spot in the standings for much of the season, Crosby-Ironton was just outside of the top three teams in the state among 36 Division II teams.
Several racers helped C-I jump to third overall. Connor Rono, a C-I junior, won the boys junior varsity race at their home meet Oct. 11 in Cuyuna and finished the season's final race at Mount Kato in second place.
Samuel Elson, a Pequot Lakes junior, was the highest-scoring varsity boys racer for DI and DII. He won all but one race and finished the season with a commanding 3:26 lead over the field, while climbing more than 2,000 feet of elevation on the 20-mile course at Mount Kato.
In the middle school level, Crosby-Ironton placed fourth and Cuyuna Lakes placed 31st.
Cuyuna Lakes mountain bike team coaches are Shaun Anderson, Kate Kunz and Brandt Elson.
Final Division II standings: 1-Cuyuna Lakes, 2-Southwest Minneapolis, 3-Crosby-Ironton, 4-Lakeville North, 5-Minneapolis Southside comp, 6-Roseville Area Comp, 7-Mankato East, 8-Eastview, 9-Hutchinson, 10-Bloomington Comp, 11-Maple Grove, 12-Rochester Area Comp, 13-Osseo Comp, 14-Burnsville, 15-St. Croix Valley Comp, 16-Chaska, 17-Apple Valley, 18-Winona comp, 19-Patrick Henry, 20-Duluth Area Comp, 21-Eagan, 22-White Bear Lake, 23-Highland, 24-Cannon Valley Comp, 25-Austin Comp, 30-Northwest Comp, 31-Shakopee, 32-Face to Face Academy, 33-New Prague Comp, 34-St. Paul Central, 35-Totino-Grace, 36-Twin Cities Academy
Final Division I standings: 1-Duluth East, 2-Hopkins, 3-Stillwater, 4-Edina Cycling Team, 5-Prior Lake, 6-Chanhassen, 7-Washburn, 8-Wayzata, 9-Minnetonka, 10-Armstrong Cycle Club
Area Individual standings:
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Boys varsity: 1-Samuel Elson, Pequot Lakes, 18-Jack Nierenhausen, Home School, 19. -Dale Yotter, Crosby-Ironton
Girls varsity: 11-Sofie Carlson, Brainerd, 13-Nikita Finnerty, Crosby-Ironton
Boys junior varsity D2: 2-Braeden Anderson, Brainerd. 3-Connor Rono, Crosby-Ironton, 13-Tyler Nordick, Lake Region
Girls junior varsity: 6-Courtney Johnson, Crosby-Ironton, 8-Margaret Stokman, Crosby-Ironton
Boys sophomore D2: 4-Cuyler Rono, Crosby-Ironton, 32-Nick Krantz, Brainerd,
Boys freshman D2: 5-Noah Coughlin, Crosby-Ironton, 7-Austin Schroeder, Crosby-Ironton, 9-Caleb Wood, Brainerd, 11-Kaden Sheflo, Brainerd, 12-Mitch Pontius, Home School
Girls freshman: 4.-Gracen Hardy, Home School
Boys grade 8: 6-Shane Donovan, Crosby-Ironton, 20-Josh Yotter, Crosby-Ironton, 23-Trevor Hutchison, Crosby-Ironton
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Girls Grade 8: 8-Madison Weigel, Crosby-Ironton, 10-Naomi Strange, Crosby-Ironton
Boys Grade 7: 6-Javan Hemsworth, Brainerd
