09/12/05 - Lees-McRae Cycling Team wins again in Clemson

In their second race of the year Lees-McRae came out ready to dominate once again.  On a very fast and technical course, the LMC A riders showed that they are the team to beat.  On the five mile course Scott Stewart took second place with a time of 22::38.  Wes Shirey came in third with a time of 24:02, Ed Burress in fourth with a time of 24:38, Carson Worts in fifth with a time of 24:44, Kevin Holldber in eight with a time of 25:20 and Danny Marquardt in ninth with a time of 25:28.  That left the bobcats with taking six of the top nine places.  In the Men B race once again Freshman Will Hoffarth showed that he is the dominate rider in the conference.  Will finished in first with a time of 23:54.  Also in the men B race Preston Anderson finished second with a time of 25:30, Chris Consorto in fourth with a time of 26:10, Gonzalo Escobar in seventh with a time of 27:48 and Jesse Hayes in tenth with a time of 29:02. 

In the women A race once again Monique Hein and Kristi Henne raced away from the rest of the pack with Monique finishing first with a time of 27:44 and Kristi second with a time of 28:20.   In the women’s B race Katie Getchell and Olivia Maury continued the bobcat dominance with Katie coming in first place with a time of 40:02 and Olivia came in second with a time of 42:49.  In the men C race Chris Perham won his second race of the year with a time of 29:25 and Mike Webster came in eleventh place with a time of 38:00. 

The second event of the weekend was a short track race Saturday afternoon.  Once again it was an excellent day for the bobcats.  In the men’s C race Chris Perham continued his winning ways by pulling away for the win.  In the men’s B race Will Hoffarth continued his domination of the B ranks by winning the race with Chris Consorto just behind him.  Preston Anderson finished fifth, Gonzalo Escobar eighth and Jesse Hayes ninth.  In the women’s B race Katie finished second and Olivia finished third.  Kristi and Monique once again raced away with the women’s A race with Kristi taking first and Monique second.  In her first race, Rebecca Conklin finished seventh.  The men’s race saw the team wanting a win after watching Thomas from Clemson win the time trial earlier in the morning and decided to attack the rider from Clemson from the beginning.  With a different rider attacking every lap they were able to wear down Thomas, with Scott Stewart out sprinting him for the win.  Rounding out the top eight was Danny in third, Wes in fourth, Ed in fifth, Robert in sixth, Carson in seventh and Kevin in eighth.

Sunday it was back to the Cross country course for the feature event race.  With Scott Stewart out for the race Wes and Ed battle it out with Thomas from Clemson.  Thomas held on for the victory, with Wes in second, Ed in third, Danny in fourth, Robert in sixth and Kevin in seventh.  In the B race the bobcats swept the top three places again, with Will Hoffarth in first, Chris Consorto un Second, Preston Anderson in third.   After a flat and crash Jesse Hayes was able to pull back into fifteenth place.  In the Men’s C race David Flynn, who is know mostly for his downhill skills, raced away from the field to take his first Collegiate Cross country race victory win.  Chris Perham finished in second with Mike Webster finishing in tenth.

In the Women’s race a new rider showed up from Florida.  Having raced for the first time in the collegiate season, Kristi and Monique knew would have to watch out for her.  Both Monique and Kristi started out strong, but unfortunately Monique flatted and DNF in the race.  Kristi raced away from the filed to take first place.  In the women’s B race Olivia lead out the race and was leading for most of the first lap . Olivia faded to third place by the end with Katie finishing second just ahead of her.  In five XC categories LMC won 3 races, in five TT categories LMC won 4 and in the short track event the Bobcats won four of five categories for a race total of 11 first place finishes in fifteen races.  Over all they won 30 of the 45 possible top three finishes in the race.  Once again the cycling team wants to thank our sponsors, Hammer Gel, E-Caps, Gatorade, Magic Cycles, Pro Link, Hampton Bike Shop, Cane Creek, Food Lion and Clemmons Produce.  Your support helps make a difference to our team.

This next weekends race is at Florida State.  The Bobcats will take this weekend off from conference racing to save the drive to Florida.  However many of the cyclist will still be out racing in both Mountain Bike and Road events.  Coach Doug Owen and freshman phenom, Scott Stewart will be traveling out to Mammoth Lakes California to compete in the National Championship Mountain Bike races.  Many of the bobcats will be heading down with Will Hoffarth to hobby park in Winston Salem for the Cane Creek race.  Will is currently in first place in the Cane Creek series for the senior expert men 19-29.  Many other of the cyclist will be out racing in road events.  Some of the riders will even stay home and rest up some.  The next race will be in Charlotte and hosted by the University of South Carolina September 24 and 25.