The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks traveled down to Albuquerque, N.M. over the weekend for Collegiate Road Nationals that displayed the top club and varsity programs in the country. It was an eventful and windy weekend that featured the CMU Mavericks displaying their A-game for the 2024 USA Cycling Road Nationals. CMU is one of 281 schools that make up Collegiate Cycling broken into 11 conferences. The Mav's had a target on their back heading into the 2024 season as the defending 2020, 2022, 2023 overall Omnium National Champions. However, they accepted the challenge and set the bar high as the premier Cycling program in the Country.
 
The Mav's sealed the deal with the win at Road Nationals which provided them essential points towards the overall prestigious Year-Long-Omnium award that goes to the best overall cycling program in the Country. Break out performances from Cassidy Hickey winning 3 National Championships helped the Mavericks edge out Lindenwood and Marian college in overall points to take the crown as the overall Omnium National Champion for the 4^th consecutive year.
 
The win on the season and at Road Nationals bring their resume to:

• 7 Omnium (overall) National Championships
• 18 team (discipline) National Championships
• 84 individual National Championships

 
2024 National Championship events:
Track National Championship (3^RD PLACE)
Sept 14^th, 2023 at Trexlertown, PA
 
Mountain Bike National Championships (NATIONAL CHAMPS)
Oct 12^th, 2023 at Ride Rock Creek, NC
 
Cyclocross National Championships (NATIONAL CHAMPS)
Dec 5^th, 2023 at Louisville, KY
 
Road National Championships (NATIONAL CHAMPS)
May 3^rd, 2024 at Albuquerque, NM
 


Road Nationals recap:
Friday kicked off with the Team Time Trial which covered 30.1 kilometers.

On the Varsity Women's side, Colorado Mesa University's Clouse, Cummins, Hickey, Seiler stopped the clock at 40:18.83, which was good enough to secure first. The CMU ladies where trailing Marian University and Fort Lewis College by 30seconds at the halfway mark but rode a phenomenal race to overtake Marian in the last meters by a margin of 0.82 seconds. The CMU team consisted of three riders that won the Team Pursuit National Championship earlier in the season at Track Nationals at the velodrome. This was Katie Clouse's 10^th National Championship emerging her as the most successful CMU athlete in history.

On the Varsity Men's side, Marian University took first, finishing in a time of 35:07.10. Fort Lewis College earned silver, and Lindenwood University took bronze, the CMU men finished in fourth.
 
On Saturday, women and men raced a looped course (two laps totaling 105 Kilometers) just outside Albuquerque in Sandia where they had to overcome the famous Heartbreak Hill, a climb that is up to 16% in gradient.
In the Men's Varsity race CMU's top finishers were Iver Skaarseth in 9^th Vaughn Veenendaal in 11^th and Luke Elphingstone in 14^th. The CMU team missed the decisive move in lap 2 and was but on their backheels. They fought hard but couldn't bring back the break in the end. The team score however was still good enough to finish 2^nd behind FLC for the event.

The Women's race was highly animated by the CMU women, who had the momentum on their side after the TTT success. Cassidy Hickey rode away with two other riders in lap one after the climb and quickly established a lead of more than 1:30min. CMU controlled the chase group and made sure to control the gap. In the final Cassidy Hickey out sprinted Lizzy Gunsalus (Marian University) and won her first individual national championship in cycling. Katie Clouse won the sprint of the chase and finished 4^th. Ruby Ryan, a household name in MTB, rode to a strong 7^th place after leading out Katie for the last 2k. Rounding out the strong team performance where Olivia Cummins in 10^th, Kate Seiler in 11^th and Chloe Fraser in 15^th. The team results put CMU in the lead after day 2 in front of FLC and Marian University
 
Resilience, speed, and precision were on display for the final day of the 2024 Collegiate Road National Championships, where the Albuquerque wind with up to 40mph gusts posed quite the challenge for the competitors. A 1.8-kilometer circuit was used for all the criterium events.

There was another close finish in the Women's Varsity event, where a group of 16 entered the last lap for a group sprint. On the last meters Stephanie Lawrence form Marian University snagged the gold medal beating Olivia Cummins from CMU. Katie Clouse finished 3^rd in her last collegiate race for CMU. Cassidy Hickey finished 4^th which about sealed the deal for the team omnium competition, giving the men a comfortable lead before the last event.

The Men's Varsity event was fiercely raced form the beginning dropping the number form 60 starters to about 25 riders left in contention in the first 15min. Jonas Walton from Belmont Abbey College broke away from the pack after 25min in the race and continued to advance that lead throughout, finishing over a minute-and-a-half ahead of the chasers. After many attacks from the chase Vaughn Veenendaal broke away with Keelen Caldwell from FLC, who ended up sprinting for 2^nd. Vaughn ended up losing the sprint and finishing 3^rd. Luke Elphingstone placed 7^th and Aiden Lemorande finished 13^th. 
 
The team's performance was good enough to finalize the win for the Team Omnium and ensuring the 3^rd consecutive Team Road Omnium National title.

In the Individual Road omnium (points form RR and Criterium) Cassidy Hickey scored the most points in the Women's competition grabbing another National Title. Olivia Cummins placed second after a strong Criterium performance and Katie Clouse finished 4^th. In the Men's individual omnium Vaughn Veenendaal was the best CMU rider finishing 5^th.

CMU had 4 women and 2 men achieving the All-American Status, which combined all points from the TTT, Road Race and Criterium. Vaughn Veenendaal, Luke Elphingstone, Olivia Cummins, Kate Seiler, Cassidy Hickey, and Katie Clouse
 
Varsity Road points toward overall Omnium:
1.  – 446 points
2.  – 430 points
3.  – 410 points 

Overall Omnium from 2024 season:
1^st Colorado Mesa University                 368 points
2^nd Marian University                              346 points
3^rd Lindenwood University                       287 points