The Galena Growlers had five podium finishers on the day for their second race of the season. From left to right: Coach Ron Brooks, John Gracey, Malakai Hagenbuch, McKenzie Hagenbuch, Margaret Kemnah and Alex Kemnah, Coach Rob Baker. (Submitted Photo)

VERNON –  On Sunday, the Galena Growlers Composite High/Middle School Mountain Bike Team traveled an hour north to the “Trails At Tilden Hill” in Vernon,NY for the second race of the Spring NICA NY Series – “Race The Farm XC”. The Growlers took 11 racers up to the farm and at the end of the mud fest, five riders came home with some hardware on the day.

First – it poured allSaturday night! What did this mean? Mud, There were two courses up at Tilden, a 3.4 mile high school course and a 3 mile middle school course. The League, for safety reasons, changed it to just one course, the three mile middle school course for everyone. The start of the course was also changed to take out a sketchy downhill decent on to a wood bridge. There would have been a ton of crashes there and everyone was glad that was taken out. As such, with the muddy conditions, there were still a lot of kids saying hello to the mud on the day.

The day started with the Middle school girls. Our two 7th grade girls had a great start – going in to the woods we were looking good with McKenzie in third and Margaret in fourth. Two seconds later, McKenzie went down and we were then third (Margaret) and seventh (McKenzie). It was a two lap race and Margaret Kemnah raced her heart out to a muddy second place finish. Kenzie battled back to fourth place.

Both podiumed. This was Margaret’s first ever podium. She was on a new bike – apparently, she loves the new ride and the mud!! Great job to both our Middle School girls! On the season standings, Margaret is fifth place overall with 924 points and McKenzie is in sixth place with 930 points.

Our lone high school girl racer was our JV rider, Mia Currie. This was Mia’s first race on the season. Mia had a great muddy ride until she had a mechanical around the 2.5 mile mark. She pushed her bike around the start/finish line getting credit for lap one and this put her at 12th place (454 points), good for second highest points for our HS team four-person scoring. Great job Mia! Mia on the season sits in 15th with having only one race out of the two thus far in the season.

For the boys, we had four middle school boys racing. Elijah Mondics, 6th grade, rode to a strong 13th place finish. The Growlers had three 7th grade racers. Both Malakai Hagenbuch and John Gracey rode to make the podium. Malakai finished in third place and John placed fourth. Carter Newton finished in 18th. Malakai is now the overall 7th grade boys leader while John sits in sixth place and Carter in 15th.

As the day progressed, the course just became worse and worse – the mud got deeper and deeper. The last set of races were the High School boys and it was pure slop out on the course. The Growlers had four high school boys racing.

Freshman Amon Oliver finished in 13th place in the Freshman Boys race. Alex Dennis, Sophomore boys, DNF, and in the JV Boys race, Lucas School rode to a 33rd place finish and Alex Kemnah podiumed, placing third overall. The JV boys were to race four laps. However, due to conditions, the race turned into a two-lap race. After the first lap, Alex was sitting fifth, one second behind fourth and a minute behind third place. Alex soon passed fourth place, and rode hard thru the mud, eventually catching and passing the third place rider, riding on to a 23 second margin to hold his third place finish. Alex Kemnah sits in third place overall for the JV boys, Amon Oliver stands at ninth place, and Lucas sits in 40th (only one race).

It was an adventurous day of racing – a day that none of these kids will forget.

These conditions make a race like today one of survival. You go from a light bike to one that weighs 20 pounds more, a bike that shifts perfectly between the 10-12 gears to a bike that becomes a single speed. Lots of kids hit the mud! Almost all were covered head to toe! All the Growlers should be proud today – I know the parents and coaches are.

The high school racers, as a team, finished the day in 10th place, out of 18 teams. The scorers for the HS team, using the BBBG scoring format, were Alex Kemnah (521 points), Mia Currie (454 points), Amon Oliver (408 points) and Lucas Scholl (360 points). On the season, the Growlers, after two races, sit in 12th place overall.

-Information from the Galena Growlers