RNC mountain bike teams kick off season

The Rhinelander Northwoods Composite mountain bike team started the 2023 WHSCL season on Sunday with the league’s season opener at Telemark Resort in Cable.

For scoring purpose the team was broken into two separate squads. The RNC team composed of riders from Three Lakes and other area schools was 30th out of 57 teams in Division 2. The Rhinelander High School, moving down from Division 1 to D2 this year, finished 34th.

Reigning girls’ JV-3 state champion Macy Lester of Three Lakes moved into the varsity division for this, her junior season, and took eighth in that race, covering roughly 21 miles in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 59.82 seconds. She led the RNC contingent on the day. Cody Price was 16th in the boys’ JV-3 race while Everett Smith was 49th in the freshman boys’ race. 

The RHS squad was led by sophomore Holden Schmitz, who took 10th in the JV-3 boys’ race. Emma Mankus was 20th in the JV-2 girls’ race and Michale Tredupp was 42nd in the freshman boys’ race. 

In middle school action, Henry Schmitz took fifth in the eighth-grade boys’ race. The Hodags was three riders in the sixth-grade boys’ race, led by Hans Sommer in 12th. Jacob McFarland was 20th and Emmett Tuckey finished 37th. 

The team will next compete Sept. 17 at Lowe’s Creek in Eau Claire. The series will run through the finale Oct. 22 in Waterloo.