Cycling team completes first year of competition

The Ripon Cycling team concluded their first ever competitive season this weekend at Purdue University. The team has been doing plenty of traveling the past few weekends, with their last two meets taking place in Indiana. These trips have certainly been worth the time, as the team experienced great success in their last few meets of the season, primarily through the performances of first-year cyclist Tiffany Seering and senior Bryan Nell.

This past Saturday at a Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC) meet at Purdue, Seering grabbed the first place spot, with fellow cyclist, junior Christa Kussman, coming in 5th.

Seering participated in her first race just this past summer, but has found plenty of success competing in the MWCCC.

"I wanted to stay in a sport when I transferred to Ripon," says Seering. "So I figured since the team was new, and I loved biking, that I would give it a shot. I feel like I personally did much better than I ever expected myself to do, considering I had no background to the sport."

In the men's cross country race it was Nell leading the way with a 4th place finish, while senior Jonathan Paretsky and sophomore Steven Siewert finished 20th and 25th respectively.

"I've always done cycling for fun, but had no experience mountain biking." Says Nell. "I would most definitely call this year a success. We went out and had fun as a team."

On Sunday the team competed in short track cross country races, and once again Seering and Nell finished near the top, with Seering capturing 2nd place, and Nell finishing in 3rd. Seering also received a first place finish in the dual slalom.

"I?have relatively little experience, even now at the end of the season," says Nell. "But I?just have the mindset to go out and try as hard as I?can."

On the weekend of Oct. 4 the team competed at Butler University in Indiana, with Seering again leading the way.

In the women's B division cross country mountain bike race Seering crossed the finish line nearly five minutes ahead of her closest competitor.

In the race, Kussman finished in 6th place for the women's team.

"I try not to think about winning the race," says Seering. "I try to have fun with the course. Fun and the natural high is the main objective for me."

The men's team didn't experience the same luck, as Nell and Paretsky both flatted. Nell was in 4th place when his tire suffered a puncture, but was able to grab 16th place by carrying his bike across the finish line.

In their first year the team was coached by Ric Damm, who is a certified Coach of USA Cycling and a member of the International Mountain Bicycling Association.

Damm also competes as a Category 4 road cyclist in Wisconsin Cycling Association (WCA) races, and at the Category 3 level in WCA cyclocross events. He regularly competes in Wisconsin Off Road Series races as well.

"He is a great coach," says Nell. "And an awesome guy to have around to cheer us on."

"Everything about this sport and team is amazing," says Seering. "A great coach, incredible teammates, awesome experiences and best of all it's a sport that you are always finding new hurdles to overcome, but enjoying it at the same time.