Eagle County runners lead Team USA to gold at International trail competition

A pair of Eagle Valley High School runners helped Team USA win the boys team gold medal at the 17th International U18 Mountain Running Cup on Saturday in Montana Palencina, Spain.

Rising junior Dylan Blair placed third overall, finishing just one second behind Mexico’s Jhonnatan Omar Reyes Rodriguez. Emilien Simoneau of France took the win, covering the 5.4-kilometer loop, which included 225 meters of elevation gain, in 23 minutes, 59 seconds. Blair’s time was 24:11. His twin brother, Tyler, finished 11th in 24:42.

“The race was really fun,” Dylan Blair told the U.S. Mountain Running staff member Paul Kirsch. The Devil was closing in on the silver medal but ran out of real estate in the final sprint.

“The uphills were really spread out, so then you had a ton of break on the downhill and everybody just started slowing down at the end,” he continued. “And that’s where we were all able to pass so our team got first.”

“I had some trouble getting out at the start, but passed a ton of kids on the up and then just sent it on the downhill,” added Tyler Blair. “(It) got super muddy, but a super fun race.”

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Coronado High School runner Boston Potts (24:13) finished fourth overall as the Team USA’s second runner. Salida’s Zeke Wilcox (25:49) was the team’s fourth finisher in 20th.

“It went pretty well,” Wilcox told Kirsch. “I got trapped, but that’s part of racing here in Europe. I’m super proud of these guys and they did what they need to do and I couldn’t be more proud.”

The U.S. boys team tallied 18 points to claim a second-straight team title in the 15-nation field. France (32) and Italy (35) finished second and third, respectively. In 2023, Battle Mountain alumna Will Brunner placed 11th to help Team USA take the win. Porter Middaugh was fourth overall in 2022.

The International U18 Mountain Running Cup started in 2006, but the U.S. sent its first squad to the event in 2017. Joslin Blair — the older sister of Tyler and Dylan — placed 11th at that inaugural showing and won the individual gold medal the following year. Her sister, Samantha, placed fifth in the 2019 race. Both were in attendance on Saturday, Team USA staff member Paul Kirsch said.

For the second-straight year, the U.S. girls took the team silver medal. Castle Rock’s Claire Guiberson led the way with a fifth-place finish. Guiberson was in the bronze position until getting passed in the middle of the race.

“Which was hard, but I knew mentally I had to stay locked in,” she told Hobbs. “I tried to catch them, I did not pass them at all but In the effort of pushing myself no-one passed me so I did a good job just keeping place and that’s how I did well.”

Fellow Coloradan Sierra Wall took 13th while Sophia Rodriguez of Mercer Island, Washington was the group’s second scorer in 10th.

The next International U18 Mountain Running Cup will take place in Slovakia, near Bratislava in June 2025.