TIPTON, KS – The NCK Raptors hosted the second event of Kansas NICA’s mountain bike race series for junior high and high school students Sunday, April 25th, at Palen Family Farms located east of Tipton. The visiting eastern teams arrived Saturday to pre-ride the trails, setup camp and experience the beautiful open scenery of the spectacular Blue Hills. Doug Palen and his trail crew arranged alfalfa square bales to outline parts of the course and set farm machinery throughout the race venue as well for the extra ‘farm race’ atmosphere. Coaches, parents and student athletes raved how much fun it was to race down on the farm. The teams joining the Raptors came from Topeka, Emporia, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Lawrence and Manhattan.
The junior high boys raced first at 9:30 a.m. completing two laps and for this race equaled four miles per lap, total of eight miles. Isaac Palen placed 4th, Colton Jeardoe placed 5th, Zavier Dooley in 10th and Kade Pearson in 11th. Luke Hollerich attended to cheer on his teammates.
The next wave was all of the girls races starting with the JV. Jaylyn Wiese held onto her 1st place leader points standing again this race completing three laps for twelve miles. The 6th grade girls were next up and racing for the Raptors were Norah Ellenz placing in 1st with two laps and Anastasya Schreiber coming in 4th with one lap of four miles.
The JV boy’s races followed with Aaron Hake finishing in 6th place with three laps for twelve miles total. The Raptor’s sophomore boys competing were, Chris Heise holding his leader position, Joshua Towner in a close 2nd and Darien Schreiber in 6th, all finishing two laps. Joshua had a biking mishap about 200 meters from the finish, resulting in running his bike across the finish line. The NCK Raptors held onto their second place as a team once again.
“We, as coaches, are extremely proud of how far our student athletes have grown in their biking skills this season. Their sportsmanship and true grit of mountain bike racers will carry with them even off the trails,” commented Coach Danielle Jeardoe.
The NCK Raptors travel to Emporia, KS on Sunday, May 16th for the third race of the season. For more information about the team or to volunteer for the next race, visit http://www.facebook.com/NCKRAPTORS. For more information about the Kansas League, visit http://www.kansasmtb.org.
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