QUEENSBURY – Racing in their third race of the season, the Galena Growlers High/Middle School Composite Mountain Bike Team traveled to Queensbury, NY to race at the town’s Gurney Lane Bike Park for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) Adirondack Cross Country race.

The town park was filled to the brim 6-12 grade kids out on their mountain bikes, on a race course that started and finished in park’s main infield. The rolling start quickly disappeared into the park’s flowing single track.

The all-day rain on Saturday caused the course’s pre-race to be cancelled, but the course was in pristine condition for the competitors on Sunday.

Race day started out with the freshman boys followed by the freshman girls.

In the freshman boys race, the Growlers had the Thompson Twins (Dan and Andrew) who tackled and conquered the three-lap race without mishap. Dan completed the race, coming in at 24th with Andrew coming in right after at 25th place. The two combined their scores for 708 team points.

“Both Dan and Andrew had a great race, working hard over the three-lap race course,” said head coach Rob Baker. “You can sure tell they are identical twins out there as they finished within three seconds of each other.”

The next race on the track was the freshman girls race, where the Growlers had Bailey Olds hit the course. Olds rode the course with a strong pace, cruising to a sixth place finish. Her finish added another 456 team points to the Growlers total.

Shortly following the two freshman races, the Middle School races were up on the course. The Growlers had three eighth grade boys – Dan Scholl, Nathan Bennett and Wyatt DuBois. All three boys completed the flowing single track middle school course without any miscues for a clean race. Scholl finished the course in second place for the group, while teammates Bennett and DuBois came in at fifth and 11th.

“Racing on a course like Gurney’s, the goal was podiums and two of the three came home with race hardware,” said Baker.

Since the last race, the Growlers have had Sherburne-Earlville’s Carson Lounsbury and Emilee Bennett join the team. Gurney was Lounsbury and Emilee Bennett first ever mountain bike race.

Lounsbury finished the race in 15th place overall while Bennett ended up in seventh. Baker said the two really enjoyed it as they learned a lot and are looking forward to the next race. “[Emilee] will only improve as she rides and gets stronger,” said Baker.