Mountain biking team claws into Rockabilly Ridge Trails

USN mountain bikers successfully navigated their way through the team's second race of the season on Sunday, September 10 at Pugh Bourne Park near Jackson. A shorter and faster race lap was deceptively challenging due to the deep trail dust and increased lap counts, but the team found its way to more consistent lap times, some negative splits, and three top-10 finishes.
USN fielded a total 19 racers out of 422 total students competing on the Rockabilly Ridge trails, a fun and fast course made more challenging by dust and sand sections, repeated short and steep climbs, and increased lap counts on the 3.1 mile loop. Senior Maya Guha '24 and Hannah Mackler '28, newly upgraded to the ninth grade category, rightly started the High School team, with Maya riding a second lap nearly two minutes faster than her first — what we call a negative split — for a 14th place finish in the junior varsity category. Hannah biked consistent 21-minute laps, showing a negative split by 30 seconds and earning a sixth place finish. She was very close to a podium medal awarded five deep at  NICA/TICL races.
 
Juniors Tate Green '25, Quinn Dehner '25, and Leo Frein '25 along with Senior Christopher Haynes '24 endured a very challenging four laps later in the day for the junior varsity category. Christoper posted the Tigers fastest team lap of the day at 18:19 and showed only a few seconds variation for each of his four laps. He finished in just under 1:15, earning him the 23rd position out of nearly 70 riders. Leo was only a few pedal strokes away from finishing one minute back from Christopher, having posted consistent 18-minute laps and finishing in 28th place. Tate started fast but slowed in later laps for a 47th place finish. Quinn had one of his best race laps ever to start the event, but then, he suffered through his second lap, recovering nearly one minute in his third lap for a 55th place finish. Freshmen Charlie Blau '27 and Avery Savona '27 completed consistently quick laps, 20-21 minutes, good for 55th place and 30th place respectively in a very competitive category, in the hottest part of the day. The heat was paired with a course that was effectively like "Mad Max: Fury Road," a dust storm experience after a few thousand laps raced by everyone earlier in the day. 
 
High school team points were accumulated by finishes from Maya, Hannah, Christoper, and Leo, landing the Tigers in 18th place out of 27 teams for the day. USN moved into 17th place out of 27 teams for the overall series.

Maggie Weiss '28, Adeline Miller '28, and Nora Maragno '28 all cruised through two laps. Maggie snagged a top 10 finish in seventh place with 23 laps. Adeline and Nora turned 29-minute laps for 13th place and 15th place respectively. Brianna Castro '29 and Elsa Absi '29 rode most of the race only seconds apart through two 27-minute laps, finishing in 10th place and 11th place respectively. Mac Perry '30 also finished in 11th place. 

Peter Weiss '30 and Owen Spangler '30 had strong races, finishing only seconds apart in 22nd place and 24th place respectively. Owen had the most consistent lap times of the day with only a three-second variation. Charlie McNulty '29 found his race legs and pulled consistent laps good for a 44th place. Aidan Harris '28 and Basil Broemel '28 battled a large field but finished in 52nd place and 66th place respectively. Aidan was on the course for over 83 minutes through three laps, quite the display of endurance from one of our younger riders.

Middle School team points were scored by finishes from Maggie, Brianna, Elsa, and Peter, placing the Tigers in a solid 12th place out of 26 teams and moving the squad into 11th place overall.
 
Tiger mountain bike fans get their best local opportunity to catch the team in action at the fast and flowy Lock 4 Park trails in Gallatin with racing all day on Sunday, September 24. Find race day details here, and the team would love to see fans cheer them on in the coming weeks. 
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