Galena Growlers Compete At Glimmerglass
Published: June 12th, 2023

Drew Brooks earns a podium finish in second place for the Varsity Boys. (Submitted Photo)

COOPERSTOWN – On Sunday, June 4, the Galena Growlers Composite Middle/High School mountain bike team traveled over to Glimmerglass State Park in Cooperstown for the Hyde Bay Cross Country mountain bike race. This was the fourth of five NICA New York League mountain bike races for the 2023 spring season.

From Head Coach Rob Baker, “Race 4 was a blast – a great venue with great weather and a course that was tailored to trails like we ride a lot. A plus was that it was another race that was close!” “The Growlers brought home just one podium on the day, experienced two DNFs, and overall ended up in eighth place out of 20 total teams. The course was a challenging one, with a challenging climb that turned in to a technical descent with lots of turns and twists. It was a great day of racing for the 218 kids from the 20 competing NICA teams!”

The Growlers had a total of 12 kids racing the Glimmerglass trails, where 10 of the 12 racers finished. Drew Brooks grabbed another podium finish, which was his third straight, with a hard fought second place. He raced five laps on the 3.25 mile course that had an immediate up hill start for the Varsity boys.

The middle school course was a short 2.1 miles. In the Middle school race, Amon Oliver had a great race finishing in 11th place. Sixth grader John Gracey had a great race finishing ninth with teammate Malakai Hagenbuch finishing in 16th after having a 10-minute penalty for a bike swap since his bike had shifting issues.

In the sixth grade girls race, Margaret Kemnah had a great race finishing in sixth place and just missed reaching the podium. McKenzie Hagenbuch had a great start to her race but crashed on the second lap, ending with a did not finish (DNF).

In the JV girls race, Emma Brooks finished in eighth place.

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“Emma’s been consistent in every race and the team can always count of Emma to ride strong and finish well,” Baker said. “She’s consistently the team’s second points scorer. Emma’s vying for a podium finish in the series overall for the season due to her consistency.”

Drew Brooks (#100) took the podium with a second place finish after the completion of a grueling five-lap 16-mile race. The field in the Varsity Boys division is top notch and it’s a very long race. Drew was in sixth after lap one, then on lap two took the lead, with the top two riders, Drew and Syracuse’s Kaleb Tascano, pulling away from the rest of the field. Drew led the next three laps, but on lap five, Tascano pulled away and was 18 seconds faster for the win.

“ It was a tremendous race and Drew was really the first challenger to Kaleb all season,” Baker said. “The climbing of the course favored Drew as he’s a great hill climber. He’s also a great descender too and those factors gave for a great race between the top two riders. Next week’s course up in Old Forge should prove to another great one with the same favorable characteristics.”

The Growlers finished the race in eighth place with the team’s four leading scorers totalling 1836 points. Drew Brooks scored 565 points, Emma Brooks had 481 points, Braedon Baker earned 380 points as Charlie Sheldon finished with 410 points.

The Growlers remain in a solid seventh place overall with 7495 points accumulated on the season heading into our final race, which are the State Championships.

“Quite a few of our Growler kids are vying for a season overall podium finish at the State Championships so it’ll come down to Sunday. For the season overall, the point go best of four out of five races, so there’s lots of jostling in the standings due to the one throw away score,” Baker said. “ Plus, if you’ve competed in all five of the NICA Spring races, there’s a bonus of 25 points. With the State Championships, the prize of more points are on the line for individual points too. Let’s go Growlers!”

The NICA NY State Championships will be held at McCauley Mountain Ski Resort at Old Forge this upcoming weekend on June 11.

“This Wild-Fire smoke is affecting our last week of preparations, as we can’t get out there to hammer out the miles I was planning. But, as they say, “The hay is in the barn” so we’ll see what happens on Sunday up in the Adirondacks,” Baker said. “I know all the kids are looking forward to riding the awesome trails up in Old Forge and looking forward to the 10 Year of NICA in New York celebration Saturday night! We’ve been in NICA for 7 of those 10 years!”

Once the season is over, we’ll be holding some weekly rides up on the West Hill Quarry trails that’s open to everyone – and we’d love to get more people out riding the Quarry trails! We do trail maintenance regularly and would love all the help we could get. The GROWLERS truly appreciate all the community support here in the Norwich area! If you have a child interested in mountain biking, and want to know more about the Galena Growlers contact Head Coach Rob Baker at GalenaGrowlers@gmail.com.

-Information from the Galena Growlers

Hyde Bay Race Four Results

Middle School

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Sixth grade Boys –

Malakai Hagenbuch (#5006) had bike technical (shifting) issues: finished in 16th place

John Gracey (#5013) finished in ninth place

Sixth grade Girls-

Margaret Kemnah (#6013) in 6th place.

McKenzie Hagenbuch (#6009) DNF with a crash.

Eighth grade Boys – Amon Oliver (#1007) in 11th place

High School