WAWARSING – On Saturday, April 22, eleven members of the Galena Growlers High/Middle School Mountain Bike team traveled down to Wawarsing, NY for a race at Lippman Park, their first race of the 2018 Spring NICA NY League.

There were 24 teams that came together with over 256 kids to race across the sixth to 12th grade racing categories.

The races started out in the morning at 9:30 a.m with the freshman boys and girls attacking the high school 3.3 mile cross country course.

In the freshman boys race, the Growlers saw our two first time racers, Andrew and Daniel Thompson. Both boys finished without issues in 25th and 27th place respectively with 29 racers in the boys freshman race.

On the girls side of the freshman race, Galena Growlers Bailey Olds attacked the course as another first-time racer. Bailey was having a great race through lap one but not long into her second lap, she broke a chain. Hitting the pit zone, Bailey quickly changed out her bike and finished the race for podium finish of fifth place.

Right after the freshman boys and girls races, the middle school races hit the starting line. In the eighth grade boys race, the Growlers had three racers – the veteran Daniel Scholl was joined by first time racing teammates Nathan Bennett and Wyatt DuBois. After their three lap race, the Growlers came out with Scholl taking a podium spot at third. Bennett finished ninth and DuBois placed 14th. “Our kids did an awesome job with no mechanical issues for any of the boys,” said head coach Rob Baker. There were 20 boys in the eighth grade boys race.