Tornados Shine at Successful Brevard College/Ride Kanuga Mountain Bike Race Weekend

Posted: Sep 07, 2021

Tornados Shine at Successful Brevard College/Ride Kanuga Mountain Bike Race Weekend

BREVARD, N.C. – Intercollegiate mountain bike racing returned for the Fall, 2021 season with a highly successful inaugural Brevard College/Ride Kanuga Mountain Bike Race Weekend on September 4-5. The Brevard College Cycling team enjoyed exceptional on-track success throughout the weekend with a total of nine race wins, 21 podium finishes and 58 top-ten results.

Brevard's success began with a first-through-fifth place sweep of the Men's A Cross Country podium at Saturday's Men's A Cross Country competition. Brevard College senior Tyler Orschel won the race by less than one second over teammate and BC junior Tyler Miranda. Just two seconds back came BC senior Tyler Clark to finish third, while Philip Ford and Owen Clark finished fourth and fifth with less than one second of separation between the two Brevard freshmen. The five riders all finished within five seconds of each other in a race that lasted nearly 75 minutes. BC senior Ryan Johnson earned a top-ten in the race as well with a seventh place result.

Orschel, Owen Clark and Tyler Clark all recently returned to the United States after racing for their home nation of Canada at the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Italy. The Men's A Cross Country competition marked the first collegiate race for Ford and Owen Clark.

Brevard added an additional podium finish in the cross country events as freshman Dylan Richardson placed third in Men's B Cross Country behind Cameron Locklear of Lees-McRae and Levi Cole of Auburn. Kyle McDonald of BC placed sixth in the Men's B distance race. In Men's C Cross Country, Brevard's Matthew Zuniga placed tenth. The event also marked the collegiate debuts for Richardson, McDonald and Zuniga.

On the women's side in cross country, sophomore Erica Leonard (5th place), sophomore Nina Machnowski (7th place) and senior Hannah Dickson (8th place) came through with top-ten finishes in Women's A Cross Country. Senior Madison Altman finished fifth in Women's B Cross Country.

Following the cross country portion of day one of the race weekend, Leonard outpaced the competition by winning the Women's A Downhill, nine seconds faster than her closest competition. Altman also earned a podium with a second-place result in the Women's C Downhill.

Brevard earned its second podium sweep of the weekend, this time sweeping the top-six positions in Men's A Downhill. Tyler Clark won the event, one second faster than BC's Simon Donnaway. Owen Clark placed third in the event to sweep the downhill podium. BC's Jack Brown, Cameron Mader and Watt Hackney finished in fourth through sixth place, while Orschel placed ninth for good measure, as the Tornados dominated the fastest downhill event of the weekend.

Bryant Bole won Men's B Downhill to add to the BC victory tally, outpacing the next fastest competitor by nearly three seconds. BC's Nathan Stone (5th place) and Finn Cullen (6th place) also earned top-ten results in Men's B Downhill.

Men's C Downhill marked the first of two race wins for Ford who took gold in the event. Zuniga added another podium for the Tornados with a third place finish, while Carter Simmons finished tenth.

Orschel continued his big weekend on Sunday with another race win in Men's A Short Track Cross Country. Tyler Clark finished second, while Owen Clark (4th place), Miranda (6th place), Ford (7th place) and Johnson (8th place) gave the Tornados a total of six top-ten's in the category. Richardson added another podium with a third place result in Men's B Short Track Cross Country with his teammates Kyle McDonald (6th place) and Caleb McCaskill (7th place) also earning top ten finishes. Zuniga added another Tornado top-ten with a fifth place result in Men's C Short Track Cross Country.

The Women's A Short Track Cross Country saw Marjie Bemis of Milligan winning the race followed by Sierra Sims of Tennessee and BC's Leonard earning yet another podium. Dickson (4th place) and Machnowski (7th place) added two more top-ten's for the Tornados in Women's A Short Track Cross Country. Altman placed fifth in Women's B Short Track Cross Country to round out the Tornado finishers in the event.

The weekend concluded with more BC success in Dual Slalom as BC's Cameron Mader won Men's A Dual Slalom with Tyler Clark finishing third. Orschel and Adam Kluge placed fourth and fifth respectively, while Donnaway, Owen Clark and Hackney placed 8-9-10 as the Tornados took seven of the top ten finishes in the category. Stone (6th place) and Cullen (10th place) earned top-ten's in Men's B Dual Slalom. Ford added his second win of the weekend in Men's C Dual Slalom as Johnson placed third. Richardson (9th place) and Zuniga (10th place) added two more top ten's to BC's tally in the category.

Leonard capped off her big weekend with a win in Women's A Dual Slalom as Dickson placed seventh in the category. The win in Women's A Dual Slalom gave Leonard a total of two wins, three podiums and four top-ten's on the weekend.

Hosted by the ten-time national champion Brevard College Cycling program, day one of the event took place at Ride Kanuga in Hendersonville, North Carolina with day two of the race weekend happening at Savannah Hill on the campus of Brevard College. Over 160 participants from over 20 college programs were represented at the event. Visiting college programs included Appalachian State, Auburn, Belmont Abbey, Clemson, ETSU, Furman, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, Lees-McRae, Milligan, Piedmont, SCAD-Savannah, South Carolina, Tennessee, Truett McConnell, Warren Wilson and Western Carolina.

The event marked the first-ever USA Cycling and SECCC (Southeast Collegiate Cycling Conference) sanctioned collegiate races at Ride Kanuga and the first races in over five years on the Brevard College campus. Due to postponements and cancellations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it also marked the first intercollegiate competition for the Brevard College Cycling program and for many of the participants since the Fall of 2019.

Ride Kanuga, located at 1249 Kanuga Lake Road in Hendersonville, North Carolina, is a brand new, top-of-the-line trail destination founded by world-champion downhill racer, Neko Mulally. With business partner and lifelong rider, investor, and entrepreneur Dave Lamond, an estimated $100,000 has gone into building the park's development so far, at no cost to Kanuga, a 1,400-acre nonprofit Episcopal retreat center. Ride Kanuga has eight downhill-specific trails with a variety of skill levels available by reservation for individuals and teams for practice and competition. For more information, go to ridekanuga.com.

The Brevard College Mountain Bike short track and dual slalom courses are located on Savannah Hill, on the backside of the BC campus next to the Gil Coan Baseball Field on Kings Creek Loop in Brevard, North Carolina. The ten-time national champion Brevard College Cycling program features varsity programs in the disciplines of Mountain Bike, Cyclocross, Road, and Gravel Racing. For the latest news and updates surrounding Brevard College Cycling, follow @brevardcycling on Instagram and 'Brevard College Cycling' on Facebook.

To follow the latest news and updates surrounding Brevard College Athletics, follow the Tornados on Twitter and Instagram @bctornados, subscribe to 'Brevard College Tornados' on YouTube, follow 'Brevard College Tornados' on SoundCloud, and 'Brevard College Athletics' on Facebook. In addition, follow 'brevardcollege' on Flickr for photos from Brevard College events.

Podium Results - Brevard College/Ride Kanuga Mountain Bike Race Weekend

Men's A Cross Country