Sami Hansen, Preston Bagley, and Jamie Marshall (from left) celebrate after competing at the state competition last Saturday. Courtesy photo
The event marked the newly formed GCHS mountain biking team’s final competition of the season.
Sami Hansen, another GCHS freshman, rode with the team for the first time this season, placing sixth in the Freshman Division I race.
In the Sophomore Division II race, Grand’s only sophomore, Jamie Marshall, turned in one of his best races of the season, placing ninth overall.
Riders were also ranked based on a cumulative tally of their performances at every race of the 2012 season. Hansen had not ridden in enough races to make the tally, but Marshall ranked eighth in the sophomore division and Bagley, as a result of four consecutive first-place wins, ranked first in the freshman division.
Head coach Christa Green said she is thrilled about the team’s performance.
“I think we did much better than expected,” she said, “especially since we only fielded three riders at any of the races. I think we did really well for such a small team. We gave a really good showing, especially considering that this was only our first year.”
Green said she hopes to build on that success to make the team even better in the next season.
“We’re hoping the team will grow. We have riders coming up from the middle school, but we’re always looking for riders already at the high school, too.”
Green added that the team will be putting on a number of events to help expand awareness that the high school now has a mountain biking team and to train new riders. She said she is optimistic for the next season.
“We’re putting on some bike clinics to help train new riders, and we’re going to be hosting series races next year,” Green said. “We’re looking forward to a great upcoming season, and we’ll just go out and ride and keep having fun like we did this year.”