USN Mountain Bikers Pedal through Race #2 in Jackson

MTB Team Coaches Steve Smail & Amy Dortch
After a week of HS retreats followed by Labor Day weekend interrupted our usual training, the mountain bike team roared back into action on September 8th on the Bourne Park trails outside of Jackson, TN.
The Jackson trails are a little unusual because they were recently built and thus super smooth but also super twisty, so there’s not a lot of opportunity to gain momentum in the 3.1 mile laps. Add in dry conditions and some slippery dust, some repeated short ups and downs, and our team basically is repeating dozens of interval workouts every lap. Luckily, breezy conditions and only 73 degrees made most of the riders forget somewhat about their efforts on each lap.
 
Let’s first talk sibling pairs on our team of 6th through 12th graders. First up we have sisters Hannah and Sylvie Mackler. Hannah suffered 2 crashes and some twisted handlebars in the 3-lap Freshman girls race, but pedaled strong to a 6th place finish with 21 minute laps. Sylvie, competing in her first ever race, pulled off 26 and 28 minute laps finishing 14th in 8th grade girls. Seth and Rosie Hauser are next up, with Seth pulling out 3 consistent 21 minute laps for Freshman Boys, while Rosie did 2 nearly identical 33 minute laps to finish 19th in 7th grade girls. We missed having Peter Weiss racing this time due to an injury recovery, but we all cheered on Maggie Weiss riding superb 21 minute laps, working with Hannah Mackler and snagging 5th place for Freshman girls, our highest spot for the day. 
 
Moving into the Band of Brothers category, 4 brand new teammates pulled out great performances, with Allen Chen completing 3 21-minute laps for 23rd in 8th grade boys, Barry Chen posting 2 23-minute laps in 7th grade boys, and 7th graders Townes and Vincent Van Zandt both finishing both of their 2 laps in under an hour, all great results for some of our new and youngest racers just getting used to the race environment. Because they have raced together for so many seasons, I’ll also include our senior co-captains Tate Green and Leo Frein as honorary brothers (from different mothers). Tate suffered through 4 laps with leg cramps but still posted 20 and 21 minute laps, while Leo (in his final race with us before taking on swimming full-time), screamed through his 4 laps in 18:07, 18:05, 18:08 and 18:24, posting our team’s fastest laps ever on this course and moving a minute faster per lap than he did in 2023. Kudos to you Leo for a great career with our team and ending with such a speedy and consistent final bike race.
 
But wait -  there’s more than just siblings….
 
Rounding out our HS team performances, freshman Adeline Miller, Asha Guha, Suzie Zhao, Aidan Harris and Basil Broemel all raced strong, with Miller posting 24 minute laps and Harris 21 minute laps. Senior co-captain Quinn Dehner paced through 3 super-consistent 23 minute laps but unfortunately was pulled from the race by mistake before taking on his 4th lap. Sophomores Avery Savona and Charlie Blau worked well together for a few very quick sub-20 minute laps with Savona finishing 3 in under an hour, but Blau had to slow a bit after suffering a flat tire through his final lap.
 
Our powerful group of 8th graders lead our Middle School squad, with Elsa Absi posting a 7th place with 23 minute laps, Brianna Castro racing 26-minute laps with only 2 seconds differential for 11th place, and Charlie McNulty also posting 22 and 24 minute laps. 7th grader Mac Perry raced 27 minute laps for 13th place. Our youngest shredder of the day was experienced BMX'er Emmett Cheney who raced 2 consistent 26 minute laps, a great result for a new rider who is accustomed to short sprint race lengths.
 
Team points for this race were secured by finishes from Weiss, Mackler, Miller and Frein for HS, while Absi, Castro, Perry and Allen Chen gained points for MS. The high school squad remains in 18th place out of 30 teams in the overall standings after 2 of 5 races, with the Middle School ranking 12th of 26th. Full results are posted here: https://my.raceresult.com/307576/results#0_E025ED
 
Our closest local race of the season takes place on Sunday, September 22nd at Lock 4 trails in Gallatin and we’d love to see an ambush of tiger fans out at the race!
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