Colorado Mesa University’s cycling team secured its seventh consecutive national mountain bike title on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships held at Powderhorn Mountain Resort. The Mavericks navigated rain showers and muddy conditions throughout the weekend on their home course.
Colorado Mesa accumulated a total of 664 points to claim the championship. Rival Fort Lewis College of Durango finished second overall with 612 points, narrowly edging out Brevard (North Carolina) which scored 610 points.
Freshman Mary McLernon, from Steamboat Springs, was a key contributor to CMU’s final-day charge, earning a decisive victory in the women’s downhill race. She completed the tricky, slippery descent on Powderhorn's Pinball run in 5 minutes, 44.31 seconds. McLernon had also secured a third-place finish in the dual slalom two days earlier. CMU teammate Maylei Leaneagh finished second in the downhill, making McLernon and Leaneagh the only two riders to average more than 35 kilometers per hour on the descent.
On the men’s side, senior Austin Beard led CMU’s cross country efforts, winning both the long cross country race and Saturday’s short track race. Beard, a two-time national champion, collected two red, white, and blue USA jerseys for his victories. Teammate Kai Lokey worked through traffic early in the long cross country race to climb to second place, giving CMU men a 1-2 finish in that event. The longer race required cyclists to complete six laps on a 2-mile course, featuring 500 feet of climbing per lap, for a total of 3,000 feet of climbing over 12 miles. In the men's downhill, Tanner Castagnetto finished sixth and Max Brown seventh.
In the women’s short track race, Elisabeth Knight led CMU with a fifth-place finish, followed by Kira Mullins in seventh and Estelle Slingsby in 10th. Knight also placed fifth in the long cross country race, with Slingsby seventh and Mullins ninth, ensuring multiple Mavericks in the top 10 for both events. The upper division women’s cross country races were won by Jette Alken of the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Longtime CMU cycling coach Brian Flaherty, now in his 14th season, noted the difficulty of the weekend. “This weekend was challenging. This one was the hardest one we’ve had,” Flaherty said, citing weather delays and schedule changes that complicated equipment selection and meal planning. He added that the team is "really young this year, probably the youngest team we’ve had in the seven years that we’ve been doing this.” Despite the unusual muddy conditions, Flaherty said it was good to know the team could perform. He also thanked fellow coaches Patric Rostel and Brady Kappius, and highlighted strong support from the administration and sponsors.
Austin Beard, originally from Vermont, appreciated racing the national championships so close to campus, describing it as "really cool to race here at home … have the national championships 40 minutes away from campus." He leveraged his familiarity with the Powderhorn trails, pushing the pace on descents to create separation in his races. Beard's primary competition in the short track came from his twin brother, Carson Beard, who races for Fort Lewis College and finished second to Austin. Carson Beard also finished fourth in the long cross country race and won the individual omnium (all events) title in the top classification. Kai Lokey, a sophomore from Durango, described the long cross country start as "super hard" but worked his way to the front, adding, "I do really well with the higher-altitude stuff."
USA Cycling concluded the 2026 championships by announcing that the 2027 Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals will be held in Bentonville, Arkansas. In the lower division at the nationals, Colorado School of Mines repeated as omnium winner, with the University of Colorado second and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo third. Justin Peck of the University of Colorado won the men’s individual omnium in that division, and Avah Cherry of the University of Utah won the women’s individual overall title.
