Wilder Hangs on for Golden Eagles HS Win
By Rolfe Otterness
Luke Wilder withstood intense last-lap pressure from Jack Maki to win the AA overall at the Golden Eagles hare scrambles by a scant 2 seconds. This was a tough test for man and bike as unseasonably warm temperatures topping out at about 90 degrees made completion challenging. The third rider across the line was Jacob Prebe, who trailed Maki by about 4 minutes to take the overall A class honors and finished just 7 seconds ahead of Kyle Nelson.
The AA and A class riders lined up for the start in a grass-covered field late in the day at about peak temperature. The course laid out for them was about 9 miles long and in pretty good condition despite the rainy conditions during the previous week. Jack Maki grabbed the lead off the line, with Kyle Nelson and Dan Robin dropping in behind as they slipped into the tight trails. Wilder was able to make a couple of passes on the first 22-minute lap as the front four were shuffled around a bit. When they hit the scoring chute at the completion of the lap, Maki was ahead by about 6 seconds over Wilder. Nelson was back only about another 16 seconds, with Prebe and Robin running fourth and fifth. The next lap saw the front two starting to extend a lead over their pursuit, with Maki fending off a closing Wilder by a couple of seconds. Maki put on a surge and started to pull away a bit over the next lap, but coming through a gnarly, mud-filled ditch, he caught a rock or root with his front wheel and dropped the bike. Wilder was able to capitalize on the situation and took the lead while Maki righted his bike and restarted in pursuit. The gap at the conclusion of lap three was 14 seconds in Wilder’s favor, and he managed to hold and improve that on lap four by a couple of seconds. Maki started closing in on Wilder on the next lap, and when the leader noticed that he was going to be challenged, his strategy was to push to the limit on the two sections of the trail where he knew a challenge might be successful. Wilder managed to hang on through these, although Maki just about made the pass at one point, and Wilder just closed the door on Maki at the end of the second section. From there on, he felt that if he could ride mistake free the win would be his. He said the last lap was pushing his endurance to the edge as he felt muscles ready to start cramping, but he held on for the victory by just a couple of bike lengths. Wilder credited a rigorous training schedule he had undertaken with giving him the strength to maintain the pace for the win. Maki was disappointed with the loss but certainly showed he had a strong pace by closing on the last lap. Prebe finished third overall and first A rider with a time of a little over 4 minutes off the leader. Nelson was only about 7 seconds back for fourth, while Trevor Ferstenou grabbed fifth and was about 7 and a half minutes back.
Gavin Olmscheid topped the B 0-200 class and was the overall B class rider on the 8-mile course prepared for them, coming in for the win at one hour and 39 minutes for 4 laps. Brodie O’Connor snarfed up the first-place trophy for the B 201-250 class and was second overall in the B class.
Throck Lehmann (250 C class) made 5 laps on the 5-mile layout for the C class riders. He finished in 1:02:41 for a two-minute, twenty-one-second lead over Zachary Miceli (200 C class) for the overall.
In the Minibike classes, Thaden Zengler won the 85 cc 7-15 class by two minutes over Robert Dufour. They ran on a 5-mile track. Connor Sutherland won the 65cc 7-11 class with a 1:10 edge over Zander Zengler. In the Girls 9-15 battle, Brooke Niedzielski took the win over Bella Bathke.
Results (Links to ARMCA Dist. 23 results page)
