Lees-McRae cycling wins in preparation for
Nationals.
The Lees-McRae cycling team traveled to The
University of Georgia to compete in an SECCC conference race. The
Bobcats are currently the number one ranked team in the country in
Div. II. Last week they raced in Nashville and did extremely well,
but this weekend they completely dominated the event. Last spring,
over the course of the season the team won 5 A level races. After
this weekend’s races, they have now won 5 this year with two more
weekends of racing to go. To complete the sweep of the A races
Scott Jackson won the Individual time trail and road race and Brent
Bookwalter won the Criterium. Not only did the Bobcats take first
place in the races they also dominated the top places. In the time
trial, Danny Marquardt was third, Scott Stewart fourth and Ed
Burress was fifth. In the road race, Scott Stewart was third, Ed
fifth and Brent sixth. In the Men’s B races, Lees-McRae also swept
all of the races for the weekend. In the time trial Preston
Anderson finished first, Wentworth Knipe finished second. In the
road race Preston unfortunately was caught up in an early crash, but
the rest of the B riders did a good job riding for Wentworth who won
a field sprint to take the win. The women also rode very well as
Monique Hein won the women A time trial and was just out sprinted to
finish in second place in the road race. In the women’s B race
Rebecca Conklin finished second in the time trial and then out
sprinted the field to win the road race.
Sunday morning was the criterium race. Once
again the Lees-McRae men dominated the day. Brent rode away from
the field to take first place in the men’s A race. The Bobcats also
had four riders in the opening break of five with only Peter
Fairbanks of Cumberland finding a way to hang with the team. Wes
Shirey rode extremely well to finish second, Scott Jackson finished
fourth, Danny Marquardt finished fifth and Scott Stewart finished
sixth. The rest of the team did an excellent job of controlling the
field to allow the leaders to ride away with the race. In the men’s
B race Preston and Wentworth both rode very well and the entire B
team did an excellent job of controlling the field for Wentworth to
take the win with Preston coming in second. In the women’s A race
Monique was isolated by two other teams and had to work really hard
during the race and was out sprinted at the finish, but still came
away with a strong second place finish. In the women’s B race both
Rebecca and Olivia Maurey stayed in the pack and rode very well with
Rebecca winning a filed sprint to finish in third place and Olivia
in fifth. The Bobcat cycling team now has a firm hold of the
conference lead and look to be headed to Nationals in May to try and
improve on their second place team finish from last year.
Please come out and support your local National
champions this weekend as they host their home race. Saturday
Banner road and Center lane in Banner Elk will be closed from 1 P.M.
to 6 P.M. for the criterium race. Sunday the road race will not
require any closed roads, but please come out and cheer the riders
as they race up the hill on Dobbins and Horse Bottom roads. The
start and finish of Sunday’s race will be at the city park in Banner
Elk.
