Temps Back Down but Dust Kicks Up for MTB team at Lock 4

 

In the HS categories, Claire Dehner suffered a dropped and stuck chain on her 2nd lap through a tricky rock garden halfway through this long and tough 4.5 mile course, but held on for 7th place in JV2 while also racing 5 minutes faster than a year ago on this same course. Dehner holds on to her 6th pace overall standing, our highest-placed rider so far. Brianna Castro and Clio Cherry-Pulay dropped an amazing 7 and 8 minutes respectively in their JV3 category. Adeline Miller and Asha Guha were able to make the time cutoffs for solid 2-lap races and Suzie Zhao also dropped time compared to last year. Elsa Absi again battled a tough and talented field of JV1 girls finishing 12th, covering 2 laps in just over 60 minutes, and inching up into 11th place overall.

 

 For our HS boys, Basil Broemel raced in JV3 boys finishing in 46 minutes, while Aidan Harris and Charlie McNulty raced together nearly the entire 54 minutes for their laps, finishing 22nd and 25th with McNulty dropping almost 4 minutes from his time last year with a 54 minute 2-lap race. A highlight was finally having our 2 senior captains racing, with Charlie Blau blasting through 3 laps in JV1, including a negative split from lap 2 to 3, and also posting the team’s fastest single lap at 24:26. Blau finished 29th while fellow captain Caden Carrabba found his JV2 race legs for the first time this season and finished 30th. Allen Chen raced in his upgraded JV1category and was not far behind Blau, finishing in 41st after posting a very quick 24:36 first lap, before fading in laps 2 and 3.

 

Our MS racers fared well, with Sarah Absi dropping 8 minutes from last year finishing 12th in 7th grade girls, and Mateus Byndloss and Julian Schuetz Sevin finishing 47th/54th over a single lap in the large 7th grade boys field. Emmett Cheney also found his form, finishing 2 laps for 35th place in just over 59 speedy minutes.  

 

Now past the halfway point of our season, we look forward to Races 4 and 5 in the month ahead, with our next battle on October 11th on the unique trails of Winged Deer Park outside of Johnson City, our race furthest from home. The team will then conclude its season on Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga for the State Championship race on October 25th.