The La Cañada High School mountain bike team finished seventh in Division 1 in its final race of the regular season at Vail Lake in Temecula.
Lucas Dien led the team as co-captain and competed in all five races. He finished 25th in the junior varsity 1 race at the finals, despite having mechanical issues.
There were 10 racers that garnered top 20 finishes, led by sophomores Arya Namazie, who took the top podium in the final race, and Nolan Carney, who placed second in the boys’ junior varsity 2 category. Namazie also earned second place in the series overall.
Junior Enzo Phillips earned third place in boys junior varsity 1 category, which marked his first trip to the podium.
Sophomore Maeve Rodriguez had a podium finish at the first race in Perris, earning fourth place in girls’ JV 1 category, and an eighth-place finish at the finals.
Junior Karl Kleineahlbrandt finished eighth in Cachuma in the boys’ junior varsity 1 race.
In the girls’ freshman category, Ella Andrews finished eighth at Vail 1, Mathilde Ayoub finished 10th at Vail 1, Marie Basset 15th at Vail 2, Hallo Ball 19th at Perris and senior Madison Ward earned 20th in the girls’ junior varsity 1 category in Perris.
Other high school finishers included sophomore Hannah Thurston (28th, finals), junior Austin Bowman (29th, finals), and sophomore Aidan Dahya (36th, finals) in the boys’ junior varsity 1 race. Samson Ross competed in the boys’ freshman category (ninth, Vail 2), and Juniors Derick Tomasian (33rd, finals) and Joey McCord (39th, Vail 2) in the junior varsity 2 race.
In the middle school races on Saturdays, Danny Castano lead the team with a fourth-place podium finish at his first race in the eighth-grade level 3 boys’ race in Perris. He was followed by Chase Szebelledy in level 2 eighth-grade boys (30th) and Johnathan Contes in level 2 seventh-grade boys (24th) in Perris.
The team had three riders in 6th-8th-grade girls’ category: Enjolie Rinde (21st, Vail 2), Alicia Monje-Noell (25th, Vail 2) and Alexa Garcia (28th, Perris).
The seventh-grade level 1 boys’ racers included Eric Basset (20th, Vail 2), Rhodes Kavet (21st, finals) and Liam Whooley (23rd, Cachuma). Shaunt Tomasian and Jason Cho were 12th and 15th, respectively, in the finals, while Alex Karapetian finished 22nd in Perris for the sixth-grade boys’ race this season.
The Championships at Cachuma Lake will be held this Sunday, May 7.
First published in the May 4 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
