The Carson Senators mountain bike team was back in action on Sunday at the High Sierra showdown. Fifty Senator cyclers made the trip to Mammoth Mountain, nestled 9,000 feet above sea level in the eastern Sierra, to lay it on the line for the fourth race of the season.
Under a pristine Sierra sky, the High School Boys started making their way to staging at 9:15 a.m. The Showdown started at 9:30AM featuring 15 athletes in the varsity boys category. For the second time this season, Asa Morway crossed the line 9th after 4 laps and 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 24 seconds of racing. Jax Huntington was the lone Senator finishing in the top ten of the JV boys category. Jax’s 3rd place finish brings his tally of third place finishes to three, adding to a 4th place finish at the Northstar Navigator race.
A 2026 surprise standout for the Senators, Jackson Isom continued racing in top form with a second-place finish. Jackson, along-side an Incline Village racer, went wheel-to-wheel for two laps that ended in a thrilling sprint finish decided by less than a second after nearly forty minutes of racing.
The day’s biggest showdown unfolded during the second wave of racers on course – the High School Girls. All four laps in the varsity girls category delivered inspired racing. Three racers, including the Senators’ Riley Kuhlman, pulled away from the pack over the first two laps.
After lap three, only Riley and one other racer remained off the front heading into the final 4.3 mile lap.
In a venue that offered friends and family a chance to see the competitors race by the finish area roughly 1 mile before the actual finish line, spectators started amassing at the finish to watch what was shaping up to be another electrifying finish – and the racers did not disappoint!
Despite crossing the finish line in second, Riley co-authored an epic race by driving a hard pace on all four laps that delivered one of the most fiercely contested sprints in the 11-year history of the Nevada North Interscholastic Cycling League.
In the JV High School Girls category, Senator Adeline Jensick’s tenth place finish rounded out the top 10. Evie Huntington (1st), Syrae Lenz (4th), Maddy Cranston (9th), and Lucy Wacker (10th) claimed 4 of the top 10 spots in the Level 4 category, and for the fourth time this season, Evie and Syrae have finished in the top 4.
Among Middle School Girls, the 3rd wave of racers contesting the High Sierra Showdown, Clara Morway finished 10th in the Level 3 category. Clover Sibenaller (7th) continued her run of top 10 finishes in the Level 1 category and was joined by teammate Ainsley Lenz (10th) who, for the first time this season, cracked the top 10.
In another 2026 first, the Senators added two more top 10 finishers in the Middle School Boys categories. Max Giurca finished seventh in the competitive Level 3 category, the fastest Middle School Boys category, and sixth-grader Quest Dunbar crossed the finish line in 10th in the Level 1 category, finally breaking into the top 10 after an eleventh-place finish at the Capital City Crusher. Level 1 boys are consistently the largest group on race day. In Mammoth, 59 Level 1 racers vied for a spot on the podium.
As a team, the Senators finished third overall in the Division 1 category. The team lines up for the Tahoe-Donner Dash, the final race of the season, on Oct. 18. For more information about the team, please visit us at SenatorsCycling.org.
