MTB Team Concludes the 2018 season in Sewanee

Steve Smail
The NICA State Championships were held Sunday, November 11th on the SAS campus trails
The Mountain Bike team concluded its 2018 season with the NICA State Championship race on the challenging trails of the SAS campus in Sewanee on Sunday, November 11th. We threaded a weather needle, with the challenging 4.5 mile lap course drying out just enough to be fun, and the 28 degrees everyone woke up to quickly changed to warm sunshine in the 40s by mid-morning. Luckily the team had a full week of cold and dark practices after the time change to prepare a little bit for the conditions.

The middle school girls had a tough start in the coldest part of the day, with the 8th graders knowing they'd have to take on a full 2 laps. Eleanor Shepard and Jamie List both had solid starts and Eleanor came through at 31:30 for her first lap with Jamie at 35:02. The second lap was surpassingly hard because at that point the girls were ready to shed all their warm layers, to the point that Eleanor ended up dumping water on her head to cool off in the “feed zone” mid-race. They slowed a bit with 35 and 40-minute 2nd laps, finishing back to back. Simultaneously in that race wave, 7th grader Maya Guha had a very quick start for her 1-lap race, finishing with a fantastic 43 minute lap. Well done to these middle school girls in Sewanee and all season long. Compared to last year on the exact same course in similar conditions, Eleanor improved her lap time by nearly 5 minutes, with Jamie improving by a stunning 12 minutes. We can't wait for these girls and 7th grader Leah Joseph to carry the torch forward into 2019. We're also thrilled that Maya was the recipient of the first ever NICA GRiT Kindness Award!

Only 2 of our middle school boys were able to make this race, 7th grader Benjamin Kampine and 6th grader Tate Green, both racing at SAS for the first time. Tate really worked hard over the past few weeks to improve his endurance and it paid off, finishing his 1-lap race under the 30 minute barrier at 29:57, a superb effort that's testament to Tate's shredding skills and gaining race experience through this season. Benjamin Kampine was out of the gate really fast, but then suffered not one, but two broken chains midway through his first lap. When he didn't come though the start/finish area for his 2nd lap, we knew something was up, and a few minutes later we got confirmation of his drivetrain issues. Nevertheless, Benjamin knew he just needed to keep moving forward, smartly getting assistance for his 2nd mechanical (which is a 5:00 minute penalty, a smart move in this case), but he finished his first and only lap for the day, taking over an hour, but still placing and gaining points for the day. Great work by both of these guys for big efforts in very different circumstances. We hope to get Jack Wellons and Christopher Haynes out next year to this fun course. Tate finished 15th out of more than 40 6th graders for the season.

In the HS racing waves, freshman Isaac Gorden continued his race career with consistent 30 minute laps for the 2 lap race finishing 30th in a field of nearly 50 9th graders. Sophomore Alexander Haynes put in speedy 27 minute laps, finishing 24th out of 42 10th graders. Both of these new riders are a huge benefit to the team, with Alexander finishing 19th out of 50 for his first race season. In the crowded and contested JV race, senior Arvin Jansen along with juniors Campbell Luschen, Raleigh Parr and Cameron Stenhouse tackled 3 full laps in what was now almost perfect racing temperatures. In his final high school mountain bike race, Arvin Jansen pulled nearly 3 identical lap times of 21 minutes, finishing 6th, less than 3 minutes off the leader, a great finish for an accomplished road cyclist that is not so thrilled about rocky and rooty trails! Campbell Luschen finished 18th with 24 minute laps, with Raleigh Parr and Cam Stenhouse in 35th and 42nd. In this huge JV field of more than 70 riders, our 4 JV racers have worked really hard for their consistent results. For the season, Arvin finished 7th overall, with Campbell 15th, Raleigh 29th and Cameron 36th. Yoshi D’Souza also raced this season, along with Gavin Gordon, who could not make this race.

See the full season results here in multiple formats: https://my3.raceresult.com/112248/#0_1A5CC3

Overall, our HS team finished 12th out of 20 team in the team points category, missing out on 25% of possible points since scoring requires both genders to score points and at the moment we only have middle school girls racing. We had several podium finishes along with some exciting racing, a new venue, and several new riders who’ve joined the team, along with huge improvements by our returning cyclists. We look forward to getting back on the trails in August for our 2019 season. Thanks for your support the past few months!
Back

More USN News

List of 3 news stories.

Archive
USN Mission: 
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.