Who says mountain-bike racing is dead? From the looks of it, the sport has a bright future. All you have to do is look in the right places.

Last weekend, for example, all you would have had to do was look at the muddy trails around an abandoned air strip near Nevada City, California, to understand just how vibrant the sport really is.

This year, an influx of new coaches, and the young teams they lead, raised the competition to a new level. New coaches meant new riders and, in some cases, entire new schools choosing to become involved in an increasingly competitive high school mountain bike series.

All season, competitors in the third Nor Cal High School Mountain Bike Racing Series have been fighting a tight battle that eventually came down to the final event: Sunday’s state championship. As buckets of rain fell Saturday, it became clear that the final race in the series was to be a mud-laden affair. Early arrivals found that simply navigating the parking area at the old air field near Nevada City was enough to force a trip to the mechanic. Indeed, by Sunday many wondered how a race could even be contested in this thick, sticky muck.

Wizened racers carried their bikes to the start. Some even opted to run the opening meters of the course after the gun went off to avoid the traffic jam caused as some riders fish-tailed their way down the air strip while others fell into the slick reddish clay.

Still, despite the clogged up start, riders quickly adapted to conditions and were soon riding swiftly through the pine forests, where pine needles and more solid ground made for much better conditions than the muck and mire at the start/finish strip.

In the first race of the day, the team from Redwood High continued its dominance of the 16-and-under class. Dylan Meredith took his turn of leading for the Redwood High team right from the start. Meredith was followed closely by Michael Hosey of Petaluma High. Finishing just a minute back, in third place, was another Redwood rider, Rikkard Grunnan.

Redwood High

Jenny Cornelison of Rocklin High finished a flawless season with her sixth victory of the season. Tracy Smith was there to put the pressure on Cornelison as she has in the past and finished second and racking up valuable points for Nevada-Union High team. Misha Lebell of Nevada City tied her personal best of the season with a third place finish.

The upset of the day was in the 18-Under Category where Garrit Gibson of St. Ignatious High surprised everyone with an outstanding performance. Gibson started the season strong with a fifth place finish, but only competed in one other league event - placing 15th at Billycross. But that didn’t stop him from taking this race seriously.

From the gun Gibson, rode away from the field and actually appeared to be thriving on the conditions.

Michael Roye

"I saw him descending the slippery switchbacks; he planted his foot and swiveled around with out losing any momentum. I've only seen a few pro's ride like that," remarked sadistic course designer Dylan Gradhandt.

Division leader Michael Margraf of Rocklin High had to settle for second place this day, followed by Matt Whittler of Nevada-Union High who had his best race of the season.

By the time the expert race came around much of the mud had either been packed down, or carried off on riders’ bikes and faces. Rand Miller, wearing the series leader's jersey for the first time, picked a well-worn path down the middle of the course and quickly found his tempo, and the lead.

He was followed by Nick Agate of Albany High and Matt Goebel of Sir Francis Drake High.

The final tally
When the team points were all added up for the day, the hometown team had done it again. Nevada Union High won the state championship title for the third year running. It was a big turnaround for the team after a less-than-stellar season.

An even bigger surprise was to see newly dominant Redwood High shut out from the podium altogether. The bigger and more experienced Berkeley High team showed up with a full squad of fifteen riders and earned top-ten placings in each category, finishing the season in second-place overall.

Bolstered by very high finishes in two categories, Sir Francis Drake managed to finish third overall at state -- a place worth celebrating for this team at the end of its debut season.

The race offered up an exciting conclusion to an increasingly competitive series. More info at www.norcalhighracing.org.

Final series standings - School
1. Redwood High
2. Nevada Union High
3. Berkeley High
4. Rocklin High
5. Sir Francis Drake High

Final series standings - Individual
Men 16-Under
1. Rikard Grunnan - Redwood High
2. Aaron Varn - Redwood High
3. Allen Hardin - Redwood High
4. Dillon Meredith - Redwood High
5. Luke Brechwold - Nevada Union High
6. Gabriel Boghosian - Berkeley High
7. Michael Hosey - Petaluma High
8. Michael Roye - Redwood High
9. Tyler Stauts - Rocklin High
10. Kevin Bernotas - Sir Francis Drake High

Men 18-under
1. Michael Magraf - Rocklin igh
2. Alex Weissman - Berkeley High
3. Matt Wittler - Nevada Union High
4. Russ Forthuber - Benicia High
5. Tsering Alleyne - Southfork High
6. Daniel Fink - College Park High
7. Ben Mac Lingo - Berkeley High
8. Stephen Lam - Archibishop Riordan High
9. Joshua Miller - Berkeley High
10 Bryan Garwood - Redwood High

Women 18-under
1. Jenny Cornelison - Rocklin High
2. Lauren Willis - Redwood High
3. Misha Lebell - Sir Francis Drake High
4. Elena Splitter - Berkeley High
5. Mira Radosevich - El Cerrito high
6. Emma Worldpeace - South Fork High
7. Tracy Smith - Nevada Union High
8. Lia Windfield - ?
9. Tesia Blonski - Casa Grande High
10. Jenny lacy - El Cerrito high

Jr X Men
1. Rand Miller - Pleasant Valley High
2. Nick Agate - Albany High
3. Matt Goebel - Sir Francis Drake High
4. Paul Thoman - Homeschool
5. Chris Spencer - Lowell high

Jr X Women
1. Michele Gibson - St Ignatius High