On December 12th, the Colorado Mesa University's Mountain bike team traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas for the 2024 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships. CMU traveled a total of 22 riders, 11 male and 11 female. After competing for four days in dual slalom, cross country, short track cross country, downhill, and team relay, Colorado Mesa University won the Varsity Collegiate National Championship title for the fifth consecutive year. There was 35 club colleges and 17 varsity colleges participating with Cal Poly winning the club section  and CMU winning the Varsity section of Nationals. The weekend featured 9 races and the CMU team scored 674 points over Brevard college at 664 points and FLC at 592 points. Full results can be found here https://my.raceresult.com/317380/results
 
Thursday – Dual Slalom:
The first event featured 50 participants in the men's varsity dual slalom race. Jack Spranger led the Mavericks out with a strong start to the competition, taking home 1st place and earning himself a National Title. The three spots next to him on the podium were also claimed by CMU riders. Matt Sterling took 2nd, Grant Lampson took 3rd, and Evander Hughes took 4th place, to finish off the top four spots on the podium. On our women's side, Sophie Allen secured 5th place, while Maylei Leaneagh and Sydney Nielson came in shortly after.
 
Friday – Cross Country:
On the second day of the event CMU placed two riders on the podium on the men's side. Ivan Sippy secured 3rd place with a time of 1:19:14, just seconds later came Jack Spranger with a time of 1:19:51 claiming 4th place earning himself a spot on the podium yet again. Ruby Ryan finished the race with a time of 1:17:49 earning herself 5th place on our women's side.
 
Saturday – Short Track Cross Country
Passing the halfway mark for the national championships, our CMU mountain bike team are now going into short track cross country on the third day. On our men's side, Jack Spranger is yet again seen on the podium after claiming 3rd place with his fastest time being 2:02. Aiden Lemorande claimed also claimed a spot on the podium, finishing 5th with his fastest time being 2:06. On our women's side we also as two riders place on the podium. Makena Kellerman finished in 4th place, with her fastest time being 2:23. Finishing in 5th place was Ruby Ryan, with her best lap time also being 2:23.
 
Sunday – Downhill & Team Relay
The fourth and last day of the National Championship ultimately depended on the downhill and team relay events. The Mavericks knew they had to step up and push down on the gas
pedals, which is exactly what they did. On the men's side, CMU placed three riders on the podium. Matt Sterling came out strong and claimed 2nd place with a time of 2:25.2. Matt was just a few seconds faster than his two teammates Travis Poole and Grant Lampson who claimed 4th and 5th place for the men's team. CMU placed two riders on our women's side, our first rider, Sydney Nielson finished 3rd overall with a time of 3:36.6, while Sophie Allen grabbed 5th place to finish of the podium. The Mavericks finished 2nd place in the team relay composed of Jack Spranger, Makena Kellerman, Aiden Lemorande, and Ruby Ryan with a total time of 43:30.
 
The team has some downtime before they travel to Louisville, Kentucky early in December to compete in the Cyclocross National Championship