Mountain Bike Team Races Local Lock 4 Trails in Preparation for State Championships

The trails in Gallatin are now pretty familiar to our team, and the Lock 4 trails are a fun mix of "flow" and "tech". To mix it up this year, the race organizers surprised us with a 1/4 mile long steep road climb from the start to help separate riders before they entered into the single track trails for a lap of about 4.2 miles. 

 

Our HS team placed 8th out of 26 teams, a respectable result considering we are missing 3 of our 4 veteran riders. Senior Jaimie List and Junior Christopher Haynes are unable to race because of recent injuries, while junior Benjamin Kampine is rebuilding his strength after a knee injury in the spring. This only left us  with 7 HS competitors for the day, but this small group powered through multiple laps to get the team into the top 10. Senior Els Shepard  took on 3 laps for a total ride time of 1:29:52, finishing 6th in the Varsity category. Junior Maya Guha raced in the JV category, feeling strong for a single lap race. Sophomores Leo Frein, Tate Green, Quinn Dehner and Rohan Ramachandran raced with the Sophomores, with Frein and Green again working together closely for 2 laps, finishing less than 0.5 seconds apart and achieving top 10 results in 7th and 8th place, a testament to some teamwork making their dream work. Quinn and Rohan finished close together in 20th and 21st places. Freshman Ryder Ortner, recovering from injuries and also a key member of USN’s cross country team, decided to race last-minute, using his mom’s race bike, Coach Smail’s jersey, and pulled off 3 laps in 1 hour, 10 minutes (fueled by Bojangle’s biscuits) to secure a 7th place finish in his upgraded JV category. HS team points came from Shepard, Guha, Frein and Ortner. 

 

Overall, the HS squad is now in 10th place for the season, and there’s a possibility at the state championship race to move up several spots. Individually at the state champs, Shepard could move into the top 5 overall. Frein and Green are currently 6th and 7th, and if they can continue to work together, they also have a good shot at both being on the podium in the top 5 for the series. Ortner is not racing State Champs as he focuses on the end of his XC season, but might still remain in the top 10 because the league scores the best 4 of 5 races.

 

Our middle school squad was in full force, fielding 17 riders total and with skills and fitness at near-peak levels, our younger riders raced into 14th place for the day, and now are 12th overall out of 24 teams. Our youngest 6th grade riders took on a single lap, with Brianna Castro, Harper Hughey and Elsa Absi finishing 12th, 14th, and 16th. Absi took home the perseverance award for the day after discovering a flat tire at her race start, getting it quickly fixed and then racing on to the finish. Charlie McNulty raced in the boys category, finishing his lap in around 43 minutes. Our big crew of 7th graders - 10 strong, but missing Maggie Weiss, out with an injury - raced very well, with Kevin Mehr, Aidan Harris, Basil Broemel, Garrett Northwall and Dalton Dervan all finishing in 18th to 27th places, with Mehr being able to make the time cutoff for a 2nd lap, finishing in 1 hour, 9 minutes. Our 7th grade girls looked strong, with Hannah Mackler finishing 7th in a sub-31 minute lap, with Adeline Miller, Asha Guha, Suzie Zhao and Nora Maragno grouped together in 11th through 15th places. 8th grader Avery Savona had 2 strong sub-30 minute laps to finish 13th, while Charlie Blau raced together with Savona on their fast first lap, but then suffered a series of crashes that left him proceeding on foot rather than riding. Blau still finished the 2nd lap after hike-a-biking probably 3+ miles. Coco Shepard also put in 2 solid laps finishing in 9th place. We also want to give a shout-out to 8th grader Molly O’Loughlin who races for the Oasis Bike Workshop team, finishing 7th in the 8th grade category. Overall for the individual series, we could see Hughey, Absi, Harris, Miller, Blau and Savona move into the top 10, while Mackler and Shepard have good potential for staying/getting into the top 5 and securing podiums.

 

The last 2 weeks have been about “tapering” for the team while also practicing tech skills like rock gardens, roots and drops, as well as running with the bikes, to prepare for a brand new and challenging race venue at Raccoon Mountain outside of Chattanooga on Sunday, October 23rd. With fall temps in the 70s and some sunshine, it should be a great State Championships race weekend - we look forward to this crew putting some icing on their fantastic season.