Graves and Pabinquit will also race the downhill, a 1.33-mile, gnarly, steep singletrack trail that drops 973-feet and swerves with drop offs and other obstacles. Riders race one at a time in the downhill, and the rider with the fastest time wins.
Mulleary will compete in the endurance events, making several laps in the 7.1-mile cross country course and in the short track. HSU is in Division II. A race schedule and map are attached. All events take place at Northstar Ski Resort.
To qualify for nationals, Category A racers (the highest category of A through D collegiate racing categories) must have solid finishes in at least three events in their discipline (gravity or endurance) prior to nationals. That's not easy. Each school receives limited slots, so most teams can only have up to four riders per event, unless other schools sacrifice their placings. Also, there was little time to qualify.
In the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference (which includes California collegiate teams), there were only three weekends of racing prior to nationals. That meant that riders who wanted to race at nationals were forced to participate every race weekend and do well. HSU attended all three race weekends and kicked butt; the first was at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, the second was at UC Berkeley and last weekend was at the University of Nevada, Reno. Graves, Pabinquit and Mulleary had top fifteen finishes during those weeks, which qualified them for national championships.
Regional Championships will be held in San Diego in mid-November, and HSU will be competing to defend that title by racing through November. "Nationals were scheduled prior to Regionals simply because of the weather-- it snows in Tahoe in November," said Vicky Sama, HSU's cycling club faculty adviser.