Mountain Bike team rocks Raccoon Mountain at State Championships 

By Steve Smail, Website Manager, HS Science & Art Teacher, and Mountain Bike Team Head Coach

With nearly three months of practices, training, and four races under our helmets, the Mountain Bike team was up for this final challenge and poised to let it rip around the technical Raccoon Mountain trails. A unique course setup with a shorter three-mile first lap followed by longer successive laps all included 2.5 miles of some of the most technical terrain the team has navigated this year, with some sections effectively unridable for all but the most experienced racers. These trail conditions made for for some difficult and drama-filled laps, including lots of rider traffic jams and broken bike parts, often forcing our cyclists to run through technical bottleneck sections of the trail blocked with bodies and bikes that were unable to ride cleanly through slippery, boulder-strewn sandstone rock gardens.

 

Our veteran Seniors Maya Guha, Christopher Haynes, and Benjamin Kampine ended their long National Interscholastic Cycling Association race careers leaving everything they had out on the trail. Maya finished 14th for the day through two laps in about 70 minutes, also ending up in 14th position overall for the season in a talented group of junior varsity Girls. Christopher and Benjamin, battling more than 70 super-fast JV boys category riders all season, finished 25th and 44th after three laps, ending up 21st and 45th overall for the race series. Christopher once again had our team’s fastest first “short” lap of the day, just a few seconds under 18 minutes, followed by consistent 27-minute laps. Benjamin clocked a 20-minute first lap followed by two 30-minute laps. Both senior boys returned from injuries last year, and all three had nearly flawless race performances all season long. These three seniors will now hand the racing torch to some talented underclassmen teammates. 

 

Juniors Quinn Dehner '25 and Tate Green '25 finished three laps in 56th and 47th with Leo Frein '25 having the best race of his career, finishing 22nd, just a few seconds and a few spots ahead of Haynes, leading and holding off a group of riders through a particularly tricky half mile of trail before the finish line. Leo clocked two ferocious (and the team’s fastest) 26-minute “long” laps, making up for some lost time during a slow first lap when he caught got in traffic. Tate and Quinn also did a full three laps, finishing in a hard-fought 83 and 90 minutes with Tate's electronic shifting system refusing to work for two laps and somehow managing to ride solidly in only one gear. Freshmen Charlie Blau and Avery Savona finished 35th and 43rd, with Blau pulling off a 20-minute first (short) lap and both boys cruising through 31-minute (longer length) second laps despite Avery crashing (due having going too slow through sections, often more challenging than riding tricky trail at higher rates of speed). Our HS highlight of the day belongs to Eighth Grader Hannah Mackler, riding as an upgraded rider into the ninth grade category. Hannah pulled off a 22-minute short lap and then a 31-minute long lap, good for fourth place for the day and moving her surprisingly into third overall for the season, effectively capturing a Bronze Medal overall season performance for Hannah and representing the HS team on the leagues overall season podium. A skilled but newer rider, Hannah benefitted immensely from from training with her veteran HS teammates this season, and turned on some speed and skills during her final two races.

 

Overall the HS team finished 16th, with points from Hannah, Maya, Leo, and Benjamin, moving the team into 17th place out of 27 HS squads for the season. The departure of our three seniors is made up partially by a large group of enthusiastic eighth graders who will move into HS categories next year.

 

Our Sixth Graders Mac Perry and Peter Weiss had the most unusual races of the day, as they only rode a single “short” lap. Peter finished 18th in just over 25 minutes with Mac in 12th with a 33-minute lap. Mac's finish places her in the top 10 for sixth grade girls, ninth out of 16 for the season. Peter finished 19th out of 53 racers, and both of these are great results for our first-time racers.

 

Seventh Graders Elsa Absi, Brianna Castro, and Harper Hughey also had solid rides, finishing 11th, 15th and 16th. Brianna and Harper clocked in 32-minute single laps while Elsa just made the time cutoff clocking a 28- minute first lap and got to ride a full second lap, completing her total race in 68 minutes. Seventh Grader Charlie McNulty had a solid first lap but slowed in his second, finishing in 74 minutes.

 

We had seven Eighth Graders competing, with Aidan Harris and Seth Hauser both racing superb 23-minute first laps. Seth was able to stay on the gas for his longer second lap, riding it in 35 minutes and finishing 18th, with Aidan several minutes back finishing 29th. In the girls category, Eighth Graders Maggie Weiss and Adeline Miller finished seventh and 13th, with Maggie racing two laps in 55 minutes and Adeline in 71 minutes. Eight Graders Asha Guha, Suzie Zhao and Nora Maragno powered through a single lap in 35 to 38 minutes finishing together in 17th/18th/19th place.

 

Overall top-10 middle school placements went to Elsa finishing 10th and Peter finishing eighth, but the depth and perseverance of our MS squad means our HS team will have a promising future. The MS squad slowly but surely inched its way up the standings all season long, nearly breaking into the top 10 teams and finishing 11th out of 26 middle school squads.

 

We want to thank all of our awesome assistant coaches and team families for support all season-long, and a big round of applause for Transportation Manager Angie Moore and our USN Transportation Crew who helped the team manage bodies and bikes several times a week out to local trails. We would like to dedicate our season to the memory of USN Bus Driver Eric Smith, always an enthusiastic friend and fan of our team since we started in 2012. Ride on, E ... we will miss you, your smile, and your support very much.