October 2, 2019 at 12:26 p.m.
Mud, lower numbers slow RNC riders at Nordic Mt.
Mud, lower numbers slow RNC riders at Nordic Mt.
Down riders on both of their squads, the Rhinelander Northwoods Composite team placed a season-low third in the Division 2 standings, while the Rhinelander High School squad placed 12th in Division 1 during the third race of the Wisconsin High School Cycling League season at Nordic Mountain in Wild Rose.
The riders present on Sunday were met with an off track. Heavy rain left the trails soft, muddy and difficult to navigate.
"It was a muddy mess," coach Steve Engel said. "I guess everybody's racing in the same conditions, but it definitely can change the outcome of the race, based on mechanicals and just racing in mud. Having the right tires makes a lot of difference and, at this level, most of them aren't changing tires out just because of the conditions."
The muddy conditions caught up with Three Lakes sophomore Megan Lester, who relinquished the leader's white jersey in the girls' JV-3 division. Lester had won the first two races of the season, but a series of mechanical issues dropped her to ninth in Sunday's race.
"She had quite a few bike problems," Engel said. "The mud just gets into things and things just don't work very good sometimes. I think even the first lap (she had problems) because she normally would have been faster than that."
Lester dropped to second in the JV-3 point standings, 27 points behind Muskego's Megan Seiler, who finished second on Sunday. The good news for Lester is there is an insurance policy built into the points standings, which take a rider's best four finishes at the end of the five-race season. Provided Lester can finish well in her final two races, she can throw out Sunday's result.
"I think if she gets two more firsts, she'll be all right," Engel said. "It's going to hurt her but finishing, even though it was a slow finish, is going to be a big deal ... I think she should be OK, provided we don't have another mud bath that leads to the same problems."
RNC's two other white jersey wearers were able to retain their tops. Lakeland senior Johanna Craig was first again in the varsity girls' division, completing a 16-mile course in 1 hour, 22 minutes, 53.68 seconds, roughly 58 seconds ahead of Fall Creek's Becca Somerville. In the JV-2 class, Rhinelander sophomore Sage Flory made it 3-for-3 despite an early mishap as she was the only rider to finish the 11-mile race in under an hour at 59:36.27.
"Johanna won by a fair margin. She must not have had any problems," Engel said. "Sage crashed, got up and still beat everybody."
Between Lester's mishap and Grace Dorsey being unable to compete on Sunday, the RNC squad finished third on the day in D2 with 1,945 points. The team still holds a 164-point lead over Marquette University High School in the overall season standings. Jakob Craig finished sixth for RNC in the varsity boys' race, while Tyler Marquardt and Mason Peck were 21st and 44th, respectively, in the freshman D2 boys' race.
Rhinelander's Gwen Lowry finished fifth in the girls' JV-3 race but the Hodags suffered in the team standings with only four riders taking to the starting line on Sunday. Unlike Division 2, which factors in a team's best four scores, Division 1 takes a team's top eight scores. Because of that Rhinelander slipped from third in the second race in Wausau to 12th on Sunday and down to ninth overall in the D1 standings.
"We definitely didn't score enough kids for the Rhinelander High School team to place anywhere," Engel noted.
Layne Roeser finished 19th in the freshman D1 race for RHS while Kyle Siefert was 40th in the Division 1 JV-2 race.
RNC had only two middle school riders on Sunday. Macy Lester won her third straight race in the seventh-grade girls' division as she posted a time of 29:44.03 in the one-lap, six-mile race. She finished 52 seconds ahead of Fall Creek's Adelyn Somerville. Despite a fall, Joey Belanger rallied to finish fourth in the eighth-grade boys' race (27:16.05), roughly 40 seconds off the winner's pace.
"Joey was actually leading the race in the beginning and he slid out on a grassy, wet corner. They've got such a short race, it's hard to pass everybody once you go down, but he came out really well," Engel noted. "Macy won, which we're getting pretty used to that. She did real well."
The RNC riders return to the trailed Sunday, Oct. 13 for the fourth round of the WHSCL season at Minooka Park in Waukesha. The season finale will take place Oct. 27 in Watertown on the private trail system of the Trek Bicycle Corporation.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.