Last year, the team won the Division 1 mountain biking state championship after an eight-year drought. Pete Stoughton, Park City’s mountain biking director and head coach at the high school, said he wants to focus on more than just winning this year.

“We really want to focus on being a fun team. It’s really, you know, cycling is an individual sport in many ways, but we really try to bring the team together to support each other, laugh, work hard and have fun together.”

That “have fun” mentality paid off at the first competition of the year on Saturday, August 17, at Soldier Hollow. The team took home six first place medals in all age groups and categories, despite half of the team being unable to compete due to weather.

The team of 235 athletes includes racers from seventh to twelfth grade and is divided into a junior development team and the high school team.

Stoughton said he is especially excited to see what the high school team does this year. He said it is the first time the boys’ varsity and junior varsity teams have been as competitive as the girls.

“We had three in the top 10 on the varsity team and three in the top 10 on the junior varsity team. And this is the first time we’ve had three in the top 10 on the varsity team and junior varsity team for both boys and girls.”

The team will travel to Manti for its second meeting on August 31.

A link to the results of Saturday’s competition and a schedule of upcoming races can be found here.