The 2024 state mountain biking race took place on Saturday, October 19, at the Three Peaks Trail System in Cedar City. Despite the first day of the competition being canceled, all the Panguitch seniors were able to race the next day, and many came home with state awards for spirit and leadership.
As thousands of mountain bikers prepared for the state race in Cedar City, the storm clouds rolled in as well.
Panguitch had just won the region competition in Gunnison two weeks earlier, and they were looking forward to another test of their hard-earned skills at state.
Late Thursday night, though, the Panguitch team got a call saying the next day’s races were canceled because of snow. Friday instead of racing, they had an ice cream party and hoped that they would be able to get on the track the next day.
“I’m just happy that we were able to have state,” said Kadee Harland, one of the seniors on Panguitch’s team. After hearing about the first day being canceled, the team was worried they would not be able to get on the track the next day. In the end, all the seniors got to race.
“The only one from our team that missed his race and wasn’t able to make it up was Lincoln Henrie. That was a big bummer for him,” said Kadee. Lincoln, a sophomore in his first year of racing, worked very hard to get to state this year, but his race got snowed out on Friday.
The course itself had to be modified because of the snow. The final course was only four miles to avoid potentially dangerous course conditions on parts of the track. Some of the snow on the modified course melted, but the rest was covered for padding in “hero dirt,” a mountain biking term for dirt with really good traction.
But the snow didn’t stop the course from being one of the most difficult of the season.
“The state course is really hard,” said Kadee. “Being able to ride it and make it up both the big hills and the switchback without crashing was big for me.”
One of Panguitch’s biggest accomplishments at state was in their awards for the season. Each region received eight individual rewards. In Region 6, Panguitch won the majority of them.
Head coach Eric Fawson won coach of the year. Coach Kim Harland got the spirit award. Zoey Fawson received the leadership award, and Steven Armstrong got the victory award.
Kadee, who started the team in 2019 with Zoey, said the past six years were “just a fever dream. From the get-go it was such a different experience from anything I’ve ever done before.”
“I’ve learned a lot from this season, a lot about myself,” she said. If she could pick just one word to describe the whole experience, it would be “life-changing.”
– by Abbie Call
Feature image caption: Kadee Harland and Zoey Fawson (both 12th) at one of their mountain biking races this season.
Read about last year’s state race in No Challenge Is Too Big for the Panguitch Mountain Biking Team.
Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri
Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway. She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking.
Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call or contact her at [email protected].