Lees-McRae cycling
team headed to Cumberland University to compete in the SECCC
conference finals. With a large lead in the conference, the team
needed only to show up and race safely. Saturday found the weather
cold, wet and miserable. That morning was the road race. The wind
made riding very tough. The team rode strong and came away with a
second place, Brent Bookwater, and sixth place, Taylor Tolleson,
finishes in the Men A’s, a fourth place, Kevin Holldber, and sixth
place, Carson Worts, finishes in the Men B’s, a third place, Clara
Beard, finish in the Women’s A’s and a fifth place, Katie Getchell,
finish in the Women’s B’s. Saturday afternoon was the team time
trial. With two new riders attempting the TTT the Bobcats were only
able to muster a fourth place finish. They rode safe and smart in the
cold rain.
Sunday afternoon
brought dry roads and sun shine as the teams lined up to race in the
Criterium. In the women’s B’s Katie Getchell rode into a fourth place
finish as well as grabbing a few prime points. In the Men’s B race
once again this week Danny Marquardt rode away with the race by
lapping the field in just over 20 minutes. Carson Worts rode very
smart and was able to sprint for second place. In the Women’s A race
Rebecca from Florida was once again too strong for the field, but
Clara Beard and Monique Hein were able to safely finish in third and
fifth place. The men’s A race was the highlight of the day for the
Bobcats. Brent Bookwater completely overpowered the entire field and
lapped the field three times. He even lapped the chase group
after him that included his teammate Taylor Tolleson. The chase group
was so strong that they also lapped the field once
as well. In the final sprint Taylor was able to hold onto
fourth place and Luke Winger finished in eighth. The whole team rode
smart and helped Brent out all day.
Immediately after the
races had completed the conference awards were handed out. As
expected the Team took First Place in the conference for Div II
teams. The awards did not stop there. In the season finals for the
Women B’s, rookie Katie Getchell came away with the second place
medal. In the Men B standings Danny Marquardt rode away with the
first place trophy. Based on his strong performance Carson Worts came
away with second place and to complete the sweep Gonzalo Escobar
brought home the third place medal. Even though they did not medal,
Kevin Holldber and Preston Anderson came away with fourth and fifth
place. In the women A’s group Clara finished strong enough for second
place and Monique finished third. In the men’s A group Brent
Bookwater finished second place overall and Luke Winger finished
third. To recap, the Bobcats captured the overall team title, Men A,
second and third, Men B, first, second and third, Women A, second and
third and the Women B, second place. In all, the team captured eight
of the twelve possible individual medals, as well as the team title.
May 10 the team leaves
for Nationals at the University of Kansas. The event will include a
Crit on Friday, a Road Race on Saturday and a Team Time Trail on
Sunday.
Final Conference Standings
Team First Place
Men A
Men B
Brent Bookwater
2nd Danny Marquardt 1st
Luke Winger
3rd Carson Worts 2nd
Taylor Tolleson
5th Gonzalo Escobar 3rd
Robert
Jameson 6th Kevin Holldber
4th
Stuart
Lamp 7th Preston Anderson 5th
Aram Dellalian
8th Luke Rozanski
7th
Ed Burress
9th Chris Perham 8th
Wes Shirey 10th
Jesse Hayes 15th
Chris Saxton 14th
Andy Evans 16th
Women A
Women B
Clara Beard
2nd Katie Getchell
2nd
Monique Hein
3rd
Congratulations go
out to the entire team for a great season and strong team effort.
