Fun at the Fort
Fort Ord, CA
Berkeley High Mountain Biking completed our first race of the 2019 NorCal series, February 23, 2019.
Wave 1: All Female Categories
Racing began at 9am with all of our young women toeing the start line, many for the first time. Varsity girls went first with Isa and Marina tearing off shoulder to shoulder with some of the fastest ladies in Northern California. After 3 laps and 20 miles of hard racing Isa managed a solid 3rd place finish, the first varsity girls podium for BHS in over a decade, and Marina unfortunately had to pull out of the race.
Next off were our JV girls, with 14 BHS riders taking part of 41 riders total. Lizzie came in a outstanding 2nd place and Zeya was able to round out the podium with a great 5th place finish. Kudos to Gaby, Georgia, Marnie, and Tia for not only finishing their first MTB race, but also all finishing in the upper middle of their field.
Last but not least we had our sole Sophomore rider, Ellie, finish her first event ever. Ellie was undaunted by the challenge and said she had a great time!
Wave 2: Freshman/Sophomore Boys
Our first male categories took to the course with our Freshmen and Sophomore boys at 10:45AM. Our Sophomore boys had to race 2 laps and nearly ended up with a complete sweep of the podium with Khalil in 2nd, Benjamin in 3rd, Rowan in 4th and Lucas in 5th!
Starting 10 minutes after the Sophomore boys, our Freshmen took to the course. From the start gun to the finish line, Axel was dominant and took the first win of the day for BHS! Big shout out to Ezra, who edged out the competition in a sprint finish for 3rd place, beating Sean Martin of SRV by .5 seconds at the line. Very exciting spectating!
Wave 3: JV/Varsity Boys
The longest events of the day were also the last to start. Our Varsity boys squad fought hard over 24 miles, but were unable to close a gap formed early on. Saul, Noah, and Gabe worked together and traded places leading their chase group. By lap 4 Gabe(16th) had fallen off the back, but was determined to finish strong solo while Saul (13th) and Noah (14th) finished with less than a second separating them! Micah, our only Junior in the Varsity Squad put in a strong effort, but was not able to stave off the stiff competition finishing 22nd of 24.
Our JV field had a mix of veteran riders and first time racers. Jonas raced very tactically and sat on the wheel of the leader and saved his energy for an awe-inspiring sprint that left the rest of of the field behind! After the dust settled from Jonas’s sprint, Erik came flying through to squeeze into the top 10 with a 9th place finish. Our fastest first timer, Oliver Does, came in at a respectable 25th.
All in All:
After the dust settled and points were tallied, Berkeley High finished a strong 2nd place among D1 teams. Team scores are calculated based on the top 8 scoring riders for the team with Isa (556pts), Jonas (540pts), Lizzie (530pts), Zeya (504pts), Axel (500pts), Kahlil (490pts), Saul (483pts), and Anna (481pts) all contributing to our 4,084 total points. We were edged out of the top step by less than 80 points total, quite a small margin, by El Cerrito (4161pts). While it is bittersweet to not take the win, the competition was fierce and every single one of our riders gave it their all out on the course.
Thank you all for your hard work this season and I am looking forward to seeing where we end up by State’s!
Thank you to all of our sponsors, parents, and volunteers without your help we would be unable to provide the support that we do!