Cedar Hill dirt, drama, distinctions for mountain bike team at state championships

Steve Smail
The National Interscholastic Cycling Association State Championships were held at Cedar Hill Park in Madison, marking the mountain biking team's fifth and final race of the season. The team spent the last several weeks riding the 3.5-mile loop at the park, and that preparation of at least 10-20 practice laps over the past month served our 21 racers well across all the race categories. Read the race results here.
By Steve Smail, Head Mountain Biking Coach

All the girls began the day in Wave 1, and once again our veteran juniors Jaimie List and Els Shepard paved the way for the rest of the team, with Jaimie riding her usual consistent and speedy 23 minute laps, coming in 5th for the day, while JV Point Leader Els Shepard perfectly executed a simple race strategy of getting into the woods first, and keeping steady pressure to extend their lead through all 3 laps, finishing first across the line with 3 sub-20 minute laps showing only 6 seconds of variation, and the only JV rider to finish 3 laps under an hour. New riders Rose Collins and first-time racer Penelope Graham also put in season-best rides, with Rose completing 3 laps all under 30 minutes and Penelope achieving her goal of 2 laps of around 35 minutes each, a great result for each of these girls who put a lot of effort into improving their endurance and skills since August. Coco Shepard was our 7th grade shredder, finishing 2 laps in 56 minutes, a great ride and putting her in 6th place. Our Fab Four 6th grade girls were amazing in this last race, with Maggie Weiss and Adeline Miller both completing the 2 laps in about 52 minutes, giving Maggie 5th place and Adeline 6th. Asha Guha and Suzie Zhao each paced 31 and 35 minute laps, an awesome accomplishment for all these new cyclists. 
 
Our MS boys also dug deep, with Chip Sigmund pulling off a superb top-20 finish in an intense and crowded 8th grade boys field, riding a second lap more than a minute faster than his first, our most significant “negative split” for the day. Charlie Blau pulled off 22 minute laps and Avery Savona at 25 minute laps, finishing 16th and 25th in a big 7th grade boys field. Great work by these guys learning this trail and their limits so well.
 
When the HS boys began, all eyes were on our seniors Issac Gorden and Luca Smith, who finished the last race only 0.01 seconds apart in a sprint “photo finish". Would they work together and push each other even harder for this final race of their career, and still come out to the finish line side-by-side? The answers are yes, with the boys were trailing each other by only a few seconds over their grueling 4 laps, and yes, with a all-out sprint finish too close to call, the clock eventually showing only 0.05 seconds differential, with Luca finishing 17th and Issac 18th out of 41 racers. 
 
To close out the day, we had a big contingent in the last wave with Sophomores Christopher Haynes, Benjamin Kampine and Jack Wellons followed by freshman Quinn Dehner, Leo Frein, Tate Green, and Rohan Ramachandran all in pursuit of 3 quick laps. Christopher Haynes pulled off a stunning 16:20 first lap, entering the woods in 6th position and completing his first lap still in 6th. Kampine and Wellons were just a minute or 2 back, also going hard to create space in the largest race fields NICA has. But disaster struck in lap 2 for Christopher with a surprise crash and then again in lap 3 with a broken chain. Kampine ended up passing Christopher in the last few minutes while Christopher ran his bike to the finish for more than half a mile, with Wellons coming across a few minutes later. In the meantime, Leo and Tate were pulling off 18 and 19 minute laps, with Leo sustaining an unfortunate chain drop in the finish line sprint, and Tate tangling handlebars with a rider on a pass and tagging a tree with his face. Adding to this dramatic scene was a motorcycle accident not 100 feet away on Old Hickory Blvd while Quinn and Rohan were out on their finishing laps of about 25 minutes each. To add even more drama plot points, Rohan suffered a flat tire on his 2nd lap and was delayed nearly half an hour while he was getting this mechanical fixed. Benjamin finished 19th with Christopher in 27th and Jack in 35th place for the day, with Leo 19th and Tate 25th, Quinn and Rohan 43rd and 47th out of 50.
 
With the Race 5 finishes in the books, the race computers did their thing to calculate the season-long results, which take the best 4 races and adding 25 point bonus if you complete the State Championships race. When the digital dust settled, the USN HS team finished in 6th place out of 20 teams, narrowly missing 5th place. The MS team finished in 8th out of 17 competitors. Els Shepard received State Championship hardware, with Jaimie List nearby gaining a 4th place medal, narrowly missing 3rd place by 2 points. Christopher Haynes finished with a 9th place medal out of 57 Sophomores, and Coco Shepard and Adeline Miller both received 5th place overall for 7th and 6th grade girls categories with Maggie, Asha and Suzie 6th, 7th and 10th. Other strong season-long finishes were Charlie Blau (13th out of 52 7th graders), Chip Sigmund in 33rd out of 68 even though he only had points for 3 races total, Leo and Tate in 16th and 25th out of 70 freshman, and Luca and Issac 18th and 19th out of 54 to complete their mountain bike careers at USN.
 
Helmets off and great work to all these veteran and new riders on our growing team, back at it after a forced pandemic year off, and we look forward to some off-season rest and the 2022 season ahead.
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