First published in the May 26 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
The La Cañada High School mountain bike team recently finished their five-race regular season eighth overall in their first year in Division I. Five Spartans earned top-10 finishes at Lake Cachuma, led by senior Philip Klemmer’s season-best seventh place varsity finish.
Coach Bill Barker praised Klemmer’s contributions and said, “Philip’s seventh-place finish in the varsity boys’ race, against some of the nation’s best talent, is a huge accomplishment. This was his last race with LCHS and it was fitting that he get his best varsity result, he left it all out there. Philip has been with the program from the very first social ride we put on and he’ll be greatly missed.”
In junior varsity races, sophomore Stellan Klemmer placed second followed by Derick Tomasian (22nd), Lucas Dien (32nd), Ryan Tanelli (33rd) and Austin Bowman (54th), who was coming off an injury.
Freshman boys Nolan Carney and Arya Namazie finished second and third for the second time this season, followed by Sebastian Markmann (34th), Leo Krinsky (39th) and Aidan Dahya (43rd). Lilly Bingham repeated a seventh-place finish in the girls’ freshman race.
In the middle school races on Saturday, Samson Ross placed fourth and Daniel Castano was second in the boys’ 8th- and 7th-grade races. Sixth-grade finishers included Jonathan Contes (11th), Harlan Hulett (21st) and Adam Rohs (27th).
“Many of our racers had their best races of the season, perhaps peaking at just the right time,” Barker said.
Four racers return to Lake Cachuma to compete in the SoCal Championship Finals.
