Staff Report
Eight members of the Santa Ynez High School Mountain Bike Team in grades six through 11 participated Feb. 23-24 in their first races of 2019 at Lake Perris, with more than 1,000 middle and high school racers from throughout Southern California.
The middle school course totaled 7.5 miles for Level 1 and 2 races. Spencer Snodgrass competed in his first race ever against 66 riders in the sixth grade Level 1 category and completed his race in 49 minutes.
Wesley Dunn and Scott Serritslev competed in seventh grade Level 1, with about 45 riders in their group. Wesley finished 14th while Scott, in his first race ever, finished 6th, just one spot shy of making the podium.
Cole Correll competed in eighth grade Level 1 in the weekend’s biggest race group of 86 riders. Alex Moisan moved up to the eighth grade Level 2 this year and finished 21st.
Cole Snodgrass moved up to eighth grade Level 3 this year. On a course totaling 11.25 miles, he finished in about 52 minutes, finishing 31st of 54.
Older riders raced Sunday morning. The high school course was 5.5 miles long with about twice the climbing of the middle school course, with riders in various categories riding a different number of laps. Both of the Santa Ynez high school racers were required to complete two laps, totaling 11 miles.
Ashton Salas raced in the Junior Varsity 1 category against 10-12th grade students and finished the race in 49 minutes. Shaun Van Den Heever competed in the freshman category and finished 24th out of 69 racers.
The local mountain bike team is composed of high school and middle school students from throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. The team is part of the SoCal League and has been a competitive cross-country mountain bike team for eight years.
The team works to develop student athletes into good mountain bikers with a focus on safety, bike skills, trail etiquette, health, and team camaraderie. There is no requirement to race.
Visit the team’s Facebook page @SYHSmountainbiketeam or email symtbcoach@gmail.com for more information. For more information about interscholastic mountain biking, visit www.socaldirt.org.
