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One race remains in 2019 season

LIBERTY – The Galena Growlers traveled down to Liberty on Saturday, June 1 for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) race number four of the five race series. The race itself took place on the morning of June 2 with some excitement in store for the Growlers’ riders.

A total of 14 riders, eight high school and six middle school kids, made the trip down to represent the local mountain bike team. To kick things off on Saturday, there was the well-organized event – the Girls’ Riding Together (GRiT) ride. The all-girls social ride drew a great number of girls from every team in order to get #MoreGirlsOnBikes.

Following Saturday’s scheduled events, the rain rolled in and made Sunday’s race greasy and full of muddy spots on the course. “This made for some exciting racing throughout the field,” said Rob Baker, the Galena Growlers head coach.

Competition was strong throughout the field because it was the fourth race, the last before the state ride and teams were working on their position in the overall standings.

In the morning races, the freshman boys and girls went out on a two lap race on the near five-mile long high school course. Then rolling off the line were all the middle school races to take on the approximately two-mile long course for three laps.

The Growlers came away with five riders making the podium – the top five racers to place.

“It was a great day of racing in the hills of the Catskills,” said Baker. “Everyone that made the trip finished their race with no major mechanicals or crashes on the day – which is always a great day.”

The Growlers’ high school team finished the day in 13th place with 1900 points from the four top scores of Daniel Scholl, Bailey Olds, Wyatt DuBois and Stanton Baker. For the season overall, the team currently sits in 10th place overall out of 20 scoring teams in the New York League.

Individually, the Galena Growlers’ Scholl is looking to take back the leader jersey as he currently sits in the second place for the state in the freshman boys’ category. The point spread between the leader and Scholl is only 18 points and it will come down to the final lap of the State Championship race, held Sunday, June 9.

“For the season overall, it’s the riders’ best four-out-of-five races, so there’s a throw-away race points-wise.” said Baker. “This is going to make the State Championship race very exciting. Scholl wants it and is out there really putting in the hard work to make it happen.”

Dubois also stood on the podium after the race, placing fifth for Sunday’s ride to aid in his current standings of fifth.

The NICA New York Sophomore Girls’ Championship has been clinched by the Growlers’ Olds. With another first place finish at the Liberty race, her second of the season, Olds added 500 points to her score and built such a commanding lead as the points leader that no one will be able to catch up to her – despite the final race on the schedule remaining.

As far as the middle school riders, seventh-grader Vida Hendrickson of Maine-Endwell came away with a fourth place finish and now moves into the fifth spot for the overall standings this season.

The final Growlers’ rider to take a spot on the podium was Collin Behrmann. The seventh-grader on the boys’ team snagged fourth place for the race, helping the team score 1799 points and finish seventh for the event.

Evan Heath and Grayson Boyer used their points from the race to combine with Behrmann and Hendrickson. With the points gained by these four, the Growlers’ middle school team sits in sixth place overall out of 22 scoring teams.

The Growlers will complete their 2019 season at the Windham Mountain Ski Resort in Windham, for the New York NICA State Championships on Sunday, June 9 at 9 a.m.

Saturday, a special GRiT ride with a professional woman mountain biker and course pre-ride will kick of the weekend’s full-slate of events.

The weather forecast looks like it is going to be a great weekend for race. The resort is just 82 miles away, so make the drive to cheer on the Galena Growlers race through the Catskills.