Tam High Mountain Bike Team Wins First D1 Race Ever

Thanks to the remarkable individual efforts across the board, the Tam High Mountain bike team showed its true potential Saturday at the Five Springs Farm Roundup. With all ranch hands on deck, the team scored enough points to get over the magic 4,000 point tally, scoring a total of 4,022 points and ensuring a spot on the top of the podium for the first time in the team's D1 history! Defeating Woodcreek, Drake and all other Norcal D1 teams is a remarkable achievement.

Leading the charge were the triumvirate of Julian, Liam and Clayton, JV and Varsity powerhouses, who between the 3 scored a remarkable 1599 points.

Julian LePelch battled it out with perennial rivals Tyler Sargent of the Bruins and Dylan Fryer of Drake along with teammate Liam Howard. After two second places and one flat tire, Julian finally got his win, putting in a massive acceleration and attack on the final uphill about a mile from the finish line to cementing his amazing victory. Liam was right there with the lead pack the entire race and finished just a few seconds back off Dylan Fryer in 4th place. What makes their achievement even more noteworthy is that they are just 2 of the 5 sophomores to compete in the JV level in the entire North conference. All other competitors at D1 JV division are juniors or seniors. Team captains Felix

Slothower and Travis Allen rounded out the JV finishers for Tam coming in 25th and 26th places respectively. Ethan Frankel had a tough day in the saddle despite a strong start. Mechanical problems forced him to stop. He had another race on Sunday so opted to pull out of this race.

Clayton Puckett had another amazing race, coming in 4th in the Varsity division. He suffered a fall while in 6th place on the third lap and fell back to 8th starting the final lap and the 4th long climb of the day. Even his parents had resigned to his likely finish in that position, but Clayton fought back like a warrior and picked off one rider on the last long climb, two others on the back side descent and then a remarkable effort near the finish to overtake Jake Yackle for 4th place! Wow, what an inspired and gritty finish Clayton!

The Freshman girls delivered yet another noteworthy performance. Clodagh Mellett battled it out again with rival Sawyer Taylor of Terra Linda. Clodagh went right to the front from the opening gun and charged up the long hill determined and strong. Sawyer turned on the heat in the second lap on the 2nd hill and Clodagh gave it a valiant effort, but Sawyer was able to pull away. Clodagh continued her dominance of the upper two places on the podium, coming in 2nd place again. Kelsey Van Allen also showed her amazing consistency by securing 3rd place yet again. And rounding out the Tam squad was Josie Weisert in 9th, where she bettered her first lap time by two minutes on the second lap! She just missed coming in 8th by a split second with a spirited sprint to the finish. Mara Kauffman- Puchall finished 22nd in her race.

The Sophomore boys came in with a triple play to wow the spectators. Pearson Ames, Hobey Pollack and Zach Baum came in 2nd, 3rd and 4th, to score a massive number of points and pepper the podium with Tam blue. Pearson was the surprise of the day. He had just come off an illness over the Spring Break which, for the second time this season, compromised his fitness. One would not have expected this kind of result after such a setback, so congratulations to Pearson! Hobey had yet another very solid performance, but shy of the dominance he had shown in the two earlier races. He lost his leaders jersey by only 1 point! Zach rounded out the top 4 with an inspired finish. Rounding out the remarkable sophomore squad were Ian Pratt in 8th, Ian Smith in 12th, Everett Radcliffe 17th, Calvin Rosevear 29th, Avi Perkoff 30th and Ronan King in 37th. Congratulations to the dominant sophomore boys!

In the Freshman boys race Kaveh Pourmehr showed the consistency and grit of a true competitor, coming in 3rd again, but bridging the gap to his nearest rivals in this race. This was a breakthrough race for him as he continues to build on his impressive conditioning. He stayed in contact with his rival Drake competitors for the first lap and then managed to stay right with Logan Swett of Drake to the finish line, with only a 3 second margin separating them. Had there been a wider trail to pass, Kaveh might have been able to overtake him. Jamie suffered a setback with a stomach cramp that slowed him. He rebounded in the second lap to come in a respectable 11th place. Griffin appeared to be in the top 15, but there was a mix-up with his race plate so his results were not posted. We are trying to figure out what happened and have his results posted. Rounding out the Freshman class were Jake Weisert with an impressive 17th place, Jason Dunne in 19th, Reece Baumhauf in 23rd, Spencer Stone in 29th, Cloeman Morrow in 31st, Leo Johnson in 37th, Isaac Perl in 40th and Hiro Chemers in 47th. It was a great turnout for the Freshman squad. Well done boys!

Laguna Seca Conference Championships here we come!