By Sharon Grey
Special to The Outlook
The La Cañada High School mountain bike team returned to action at Vail Lake in Temecula.
Dane Grey won his second event and leads all freshmen with two races remaining. Philip Klemmer placed 13th and qualified for the SoCal High School Cycling League State Championship in May.
Klemmer had placed 18th and 21st in previous competitions and needed a top-15 finish to qualify for state.
“The coaches have been reminding me, so I knew going in what I needed to do,” Klemmer said. “Early on in lap one I was in 19th, but on the climbs in lap two, I was able to make up ground. I’m looking forward to racing at state.”
Co-head coach Bill Sauro wasn’t surprised and said, “Philip got a late start training with us due to soccer, but he’s been getting faster each week. This was only his third race, so he’s got a lot of potential”.
In the junior varsity boy’s race, Luke Rushing finished 22nd followed by Sheldon Watanabe (36th) and Gordy Cucullu (42nd).
Connor Weightman led the 7th-grade boys’ division by placing 28th, followed by Paulos Cucullu (38th).
In the girls’ division, Jenna Ku finished 21st, followed by Savannah Sauro (28th), Elisa Booth (31st) and Ria Mandal (32nd).
“The courses get more difficult as the season progresses, so we’ll use the next month to build endurance and improve our technical riding skills”, Sauro said.
The team’s next race is in Keyesville on the weekend of April 27.
