Slaughter Pen Trails | Race Recap - Ozark Cycling Adventures

2017 Arkansas NICA Race Report #3

Arkansas NICA’s third race of the 2017 was unusual in that it was on a Saturday! On October 7 over 200 6th through 12 grade Arkansas student-athletes saddled up to compete on the Slaughter Pen Trails in Bentonville, the flagship of Bentonville trails. These trails are the home practice trails for many of the local student riders. Nestled in the scenic, rolling hollows on the north side of Bentonville, the course twists up the side of a hill for big elevation gain. Its more rocky and technical than the first two race courses of the season. Eighth grade and above went up to the top trail on the hill before winding down to the lower trails for their 2.7 mile loop. 6th and 7th graders stayed on the lower trails on a 1.8 mile loop – but there was still plenty of elevation gain on their three loops!

Our third race is part of the Slaughter Pen Jam festival and Arkansas NICA partnered and coordinated with Bentonville Parks and Recreation to produce the event. The extra traffic of the vendor village and being along the Razorback Greenway added to the excitement of the race.

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Girls Wave

With rain in the forecast for the morning (which fortunately barely happened!), it was overcast and cool for the start of the girls race. Bentonville West had victories in two of the high school events – Jordan Sauls won the JV Girls race and Zoe March won the 9th Grade Girls race! Felicity Leamon from Conway composite also won her debut NICA race as a Sophomore Girl.

The 8th grade girls race was one of the most exciting events of the day! Mackenzie Chavez came through the first lap with a 7 second lead over Ryleigh Reddell but Ryleigh made up some time on the second lap to come within ⅓ of a second of Mackenzie. Both girls were tested to their limits on this course.

Carrie Pool, an experienced AMBCS racer racing her first NICA race, won the 7th grade girls division for Lincoln Junior High. She described the course as “fun and fast” and really enjoyed the rock gardens. And Audrey Brinkley is now 3 for 3 in the 6th grade girls division!

Results

6th Grade Girls
1 AUDREY BRINKLEY Lincoln Junior High School
2 CATHERINE HENRY The New School
3 KEERA TUCKER Lincoln Junior High School
4 HAILEY CODDINGTON Conway Composite
5 SARA JANE POST Arkansas Arts Academy

7th Grade Girls
1 CARRIE POOL Lincoln Junior High School
2 RYAN GRYNWALD RazorbaCX Little Rock Composite
3 KATIE CONWAY Haas Hall Academy
4 ABBY MARTIN Haas Hall Academy
5 OLIVIA CARTE West Benton County

8th Grade Girls
1 MACKENZIE CHAVEZ Poteau Public Schools
2 RYLEIGH REDDELL Lincoln Junior High School
3 EMMA JOHNSON RazorbaCX Little Rock Composite
4 DALLICE WHITE Pea Ridge High School
5 EMMA HAMBY Haas Hall Academy

9th Grade Girls
1 ZOE MARCH Bentonville West High School
2 NINA ZEILER (PTS LEADER) Bentonville High School
3 AVERY ESCAJEDA Pea Ridge High School
4 ELLA VAN HORN Fayetteville Cycling Composite
5 EMMA GINN Bentonville West High School

10th Grade Girls
1 300 FELICITY LEAMAN (PTS LEADER) Conway Composite

JV Girls
1 JORDAN SAULS Bentonville West High School
2 CATE MERTINS (PTS LEADER) Haas Hall Academy
3 KRISTINA ALEXANDER Bentonville High School
4 MEGHAN WILLOX Springdale / Har-Ber High School
5 GABRIELLE LAMPSON Rogers All Mountain Shredders

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Middle School Boys Wave
Charlie Carter had an amazing weekend – winning both the 8th grade boys division in his first NICA race win and the 13-14 of the AMBCS race on Sunday. Oscar Minick from the Rogers Rams team took third place in the 8th grade boys and said, “The course was challenging, but a lot of fun. The technical parts made it even more fun!”

The 7th grade boys race was a tight one the whole way through – with only a couple seconds separating James Jones from Conway and Colin Hull from Haas Hall. The same was true in the 6th grade boys race between Clay Hobbs and Joshua Leamon! We’ve had some exciting races on our hands, folks!

Results

6th Grade Boys
1 CLAY HOBBS Poteau Public Schools
2 JOSHUA LEAMON Conway Composite
3 WILL MERTINS Haas Hall Academy
4 MABRY VERSER Rogers All Mountain Shredders
5 JAXON BYRNE Lincoln Junior High School

7th Grade Boys
1 JAMES JONES Conway Composite
2 COLIN HULL Haas Hall Academy
3 HAYES PRUITT Conway Composite
4 TUCKER PEITZ Lincoln Junior High School
5 ANDREW CARNEY Rogers All Mountain Shredders

8th Grade Boys
1 CHARLES CARTER Lincoln Junior High School
2 NEYLAND ROBINSON Lincoln Junior High School
3 STERLING OSKAR MINICK Rogers All Mountain Shredders
4 STIHL SNYDER Poteau Public Schools
5 ANDREW FILES RazorbaCX Little Rock Composite

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High School Boys Wave
By the time the high school boys raced, the weather had turned to sunny and warm! Dakota Falcon won his second NICA race of the season and retains the leader’s jersey for the Spring Hill race in two weeks. But the real race in that category was for second – with Landon Doty just barely edging out Eli Milton.

Sophomore boys have now had three different winners for the three races. Will Peterson took the win at Slaughter Pen on his home trail. Will said, “I managed to pull off the win by putting in miles outside of practice. I rode the course every night for four laps so the two lap race would be easier. The hardest part was the sprint to the finish because I knew Garrett was right behind me and I was running out of energy.”

Bryan Pendergraft from Conway Composite took the JV boys win, but once again, the race for second was extremely tight between Grant Lampson from Rogers and Caden Parker from Conway Composite. Alex McKinstry took fourth place and retains the leaders jersey and Jadden Woody, a road cyclist riding in his first ever mountain bike race, got fifth.

Hunter Hobbs put out a great effort again and won the Varsity boys category, smiling all the way.

Results

9th Grade Boys
1 DAKOTA FALCON (PTS LEADER) Bentonville High School
2 LANDON DOTY Springdale / Har-Ber High School
3 ELI MILTON Bentonville High School
4 LUCIEN VERRONE Haas Hall Academy
5 JACKSON SPRINGMANN Bentonville High School

10th Grade Boys
1 WILL PETERSON Bentonville High School
2 GARRETT CHRISMAN (PTS LEADER) Rogers All Mountain Shredders
3 GARRETT PENDERGRAFT Conway Composite
4 JOEL BOUMA Rogers All Mountain Shredders
5 PARKER LONGLEY River Valley Marshals

JV Boys
1 BRYAN PENDERGRAFT Conway Composite
2 GRANT LAMPSON Rogers All Mountain Shredders
3 CAYDEN PARKER Conway Composite
4 ALEX MCKINSTRY (PTS LEADER) Rogers All Mountain Shredders
5 JADDEN MOOTY RazorbaCX Little Rock Composite

Varsity Boys
1 52 HUNTER HOBBS Poteau Public Schools
2 53 JACOB SMITHPETERS (PTS LEADER) Haas Hall Academy
3 51 GLENDON VANSANDT Bentco Composite
4 55 RYAN REDDELL Bentonville West High School
5 54 KADE KORTE Bentonville High School

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