Congratulations to the Galena Growlers on a great 2024 season. The Growlers had four podium finishes in their final race of the season. (Submitted Photo)

COOPERSTOWN – The Galena Growlers Composite Mountain Bike team, Norwich’s local National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) New York League team, one of 18 teams, traveled over the Central Leatherstocking region to Glimmerglass State Park for their final race of the Spring 2024 season in the Hyde Park XC. The Growlers had nine kids sign up for the final race.

The race course was split distances for the middle school and high school courses. It was a great two-mile course for the middle school level and a hillier course for the high school that was 3.5 miles in length. With all the rain Saturday night, it was also greasy with slick mud and wet roots out on the course. Varsity kids raced five laps, JV kids raced four laps, freshman raced three laps, where our middle school kids all raced three laps as well.

We had one racer in 6th grade boys (Eli), three racers in 7th grade boys (Malakai, John and Carter), two girls raced in the 7th grade girls’ race (Mckenzie and Margaret), one racer in Freshman boys (Amon), and two riders in the JV Boys race (Alex and Lucas).

The team came away with four Podium finishes. 7th grader Malakai Hagenbuch of Norwich finished first in his 7th grade boys’ race, and also winning the overall season points leader position with the win. Seventh grader John Gracey made the podium for the second time on the year, claiming fifth and finished sixth on the season overall!

Seventh grader Margaret Kemnah raced to a fifth place finish, capturing third place overall for the season. Alex Kemnah raced to a second place finish in the JV Boys race and with that finish, he captured the JV boys overall leader for the season. Malakai, Alex, John and Margaret all made the podium at States. Alex, Malakai and Margaret climbed up on it twice with their season overall status.

We really rested all the kids legs this week with our crazy rainy weather. Nine riders started and nine riders finished, which is success for any coach. Taking home some hardware is just icing on the cake! The course, after some serious rain Saturday night, early Sunday morning, was wet, slick and a challenge for all the kids that pushed a pedal today. Malakai had his second straight win! He led from the start and never relinquished the lead over six miles. He rode a great race.

John finished the season in the sixth position for the 7th grade boys. For Alex, he led into the woods, but Connor from the Finger Lakes rode an amazing race and he’s a descender and the Cooperstown race suited him well. Alex placed second, a minute back of Connor, with third place 37 seconds behind him. Those four laps and 14 miles were exciting to watch. John Gracey, with his second podium of the year, had a great start and second best finish on the season.

Margaret and Mckenzie, in the 7th grade girls’ race, were out on the course first on Sunday. Talk about a greasy two mile route. Mckenzie, fighting a stomach bug before the race but still getting on the bike, crashed on lap two but toughed out her three laps riding to an eighth place finish. Mckenzie finished the season eighth overall as well.

In the 6th grade boys race, Elijah Mondics had his best finish of the year in eighth place. Eli also finished eighth overall on the season in his first year. Great job Eli!

Rounding out our middle school racers, in the 7th grade boys race, Carter Newton finished 16th in the State Championship race. Carter’s points put him in 17th on the season overall. For both Carter and Eli, this was their first year mountain biking with the Growlers. They’ve both improved tremendously this year. I can’t wait to see what happens in the years to come for them.

Amon Oliver of Norwich raced in the Freshman boys’ category and rode to an excellent 10th place finish for his three-lap race. Amon finished eighth overall out of 33 in the league for 2024. Great job Amon. Keep up the great work! Rounding out our high school racers was Lucas Scholl, JV racer, finishing his race in 32nd and ending the season in 33rd overall.

The weather wasn’t great, it rained a lot Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The course was tough, hilly and very slippery. It was a great day of Championship racing at Glimmerglass. Pre-ride Saturday was dry and once we got to Sunday, the course was completely different because of the conditions.

The Growlers might have had a small team compared with other teams from the big population centers, but with four podiums on the day and the overall season awards, we came home with a lot of hardware. Our kids with all their efforts had a great season. It’s always bittersweet seeing Race five come and our season end.

Overall, the Growlers came away with a 15th place team finish with only three out of four required high school racers on the day, scoring 1429 points overall. On the season overall, the Growlers finished in 12th place in the league.

The R.E. Brooks Construction racer of the day goes out to Alex Kemnah. The WREN Sports racer of the day goes out to Margaret Kemnah. The Preferred Mutual racer of the day goes to Mckenzie Hagenbuch. The In-Motion Designs racer of the day goes to Malakai Hagenbuch.

The POC Sports racer of the day goes to Carter Newton. The Skylla Engineering racer of the day goes to John Gracey.

The NBT Bank racer of the day goes to Lucas Scholl.

The Todd’s Electric racer of the day goes to Amon Oliver.

The Magro’s Pizza racer of the day goes out to Malakai Hagenbuch.

The Principal Design and Engineering racer of the day goes out to Margaret Kemnah.

The Hoffman Excavation racer of the day goes to Elijah Mondics.

Thank you to all our coaches that make this opportunity for the kids happen. Thank you to all our parents. Thank you to all our great team sponsors. And that you for all our fans! You all have a hand in helping these kids ride bikes and love doing it! It’s so great seeing kids in the woods enjoying what mother nature has to offer!

Each and every practice and every race takes a community! Thank you and congrats to all our kids! #morekidsonbikes #moregirlsonbikes

-Information from the Galena Growlers