The O’Dowd mountain bike team competed in the NorCal League Six Sigma Slinger in Lower Lake, California, on April 30. The course was a challenging 5-mile loop with lots of twists, turns, hills and creek crossings. The wild flowers were in full bloom, but the racers had no time to stop and smell the roses. This was also the conference championships with season titles on the line.
The O’Dowd team was lead out by sophomores Elise Cypher and Mia Rahman who both had good races. Elise finished 12th on the day and 17th overall for the season. Mia finished 14th on the day and 13th overall for the season.
The O’Dowd freshmen were represented by Tyler Jolly and Matthew Justice. Tyler has been riding strong all season and steadily moving up the pack, but crashed on the challenging Six Sigma course and wasn’t able to finish. Matthew had another strong finish in 9th place. Tyler finished the season in 30th place with Matthew right behind in 31st.
The JV boys were represented by Caleb O’Hare ’18 who again showed he can hang with the top rides by finishing 6th on the day with a nice wheelie across the line. Caleb finished 5th overall for the season making the conference podium. In the varsity boys race Ryan Steinwert ’17 represented the Dragons well finishing in 16th on the day and 15th place overall for the season.
The O’Dowd team had its best day ever finishing in 9th place out of 25 division 2 teams. Overall for the season, the Dragons finished in 10th place – a strong showing for the new O’Dowd team.
Next for the Dragons is State Championships, which will be held on May 13th in Petaluma.
Ryan Steinwert
Mia Rahman – sophomore on course
Mia Rahman/Elise Cypher – sophomores having fun in the Pitzone area
Caleb O’Hare – JV rider crossing the finish line with style in 6th place.