Christopher Snow Photo

CHENANGO FORKS – On June 3, the Galena Growlers inaugural season came to a close after competing in their final race of the 2018 National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) at the New York State Championships, held at the Chenango Valley State Park.

The course was challenging, technical in spots but fun said Growlers head coach Rob Baker. “The competition was fierce and the race venue at the park was fantastic,” said Baker.

25 teams came to compete with hundreds of kids giving it their all for the final Mountain Bike Cross Country race of the Interscholastic season. The Growlers came in 12th at the State Championships as a team, finishing the season out in 11th in the NICA NY league overall points wise.

The Growlers brought home three pieces of hardware on the day for the race with another two pieces for overall league standings.

At the final race of the season, the Growlers had three first time racers.

For both the High and Middle School course, the start/finish line was in the Pine Grover infield.

The High School course was a four-mile loop around the southeast part of the State Park while the Middle School was on the same course of the High School but cut out about a mile of the older riders course about three-quarters of the way thru for a three-mile race course distance.

All middle school competitors rode 3 laps for fast nine-mile race, the high school freshman rode three laps of the high school course for 12 mile distance, with the sophomore and JV racers completing four laps for 16 miles. Riding the furthest distance of the day was the Varsity group, racing five laps for 20 miles.

While it rained Friday night and the course for course pre-ride on Saturday was greasy, the course dried up by Sunday, race day and was described by Baker as fantastic conditions.

After the amount of traffic on the course through the day due to the different levels of riders, it did take a beating in certain areas. That made for every lap the racers rode a new experience, continuously changing throughout the race.

“That made it fun and interesting,” said Baker.

The Growlers had 15 kids racing over the weekend. In the high school ranks, Bailey Olds finished in fifth place in the freshman girls division, picking up 510 points to go towards the team total. She also stood on the podium at the end of the race.

Stanton Baker, the lone rider of the JV boys level, placed 16th to rack up 465 points for the Growlers.

The Thompson Twins came in back-to-back during the boys freshman race, finishing 27th (Andrew) and 28th (Dan). The two combined for 723 points towards the team total at the final race of the season.

All four of the riders totaled 1698 points, placing the Galena Growlers at the 12th spot for the state race.

As far as the Growlers at the Middle School level, Daniel Scholl (eighth grade student) and Kayleigh Currie (eighth grade student) both stood on the podium at the end of their races, finishing in fifth.

Also racing for the team in the eighth grade boys race were Wyatt DuBois (12th), Nathan Bennett (15th) and Caden Moore (21st).