The Warren Wilson College mountain bike team finished third at the 2009 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in Truckee, California.  The mountain bike program has now finished in the top three of the DIvision II portion of the past seven National Championships.

To go along with their third place finish, junior Linden Blaisus finished fifth in the Men's Omnium highlighted by a 4th place finish in short track and a 13th place finish in the cross country.  Other highlights included Ileana Anderson's 3rd place finish in the Four Cross, Becca Parish's 4th place finish in the downhill, and Nina Otter's 6th place finish in the cross country.

The first day of racing was the cross-country event, a 7.5 mile loop with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain per lap.  First up were the ladies who diligently knocked off three laps in quite a calculating fashion.  The ladies took 4 of the top eleven spots with Otter placing the highest in 6th place.  The men's race included one more lap than the women's but was easily handled by Blaisus who placed highest for the owls in 13th place.

Saturday was the double header of bike racing with the short track race in the morning and the four cross event in the afternoon.  The short track pitted racers up the slopes of the ski resort once again but this time in a much shorter one mile loop.  In the women's race it was Otter who placed highest in 7th place.   The men's short track race was an incredible breakthrough race for both Alec Hamilton 9th place and Blaisus taking an amazing 4th place.  The afternoons four-cross races were exciting to say the least as the racers zigzagged their way down a steep ski slope with rock gardens and LARGE jumps on every straight away.  Ileana Anderson feeling in her element on the four-cross course stepped it up to wooden box for the 3rd spot on the podium.  While Phil Martin took top honors for the men in 17th place.

The final day of racing was reserved for the downhill course.  Huge rock gardens and large drops defined the downhill course.  With several mechanicals we still had a great showing with Becca Parish taking 4th for the ladies top finish.