Bright lights, big city? No problem.
Cochrane Bicycle Motocross (BMX) Club riders rode in the heat and light of BMX Alberta provincial races 7-8 in Calgary and rode out with plenty of gold for their efforts.
Katie Scott won double gold in 12-year-old novice female competition, moving closer to moving up. She’s eyeing a jump to expert-class racing and her wins Aug. 29-30 in Calgary have her on target.
“She’s close to moving up to expert, finally,” explained Cochrane BMX president Brad Christensen. “She’s getting all the golds this year and the wins. So she’s a few away from getting to expert. She should be up to expert by the end of the year. That will be good for her.”
Josh Hagel rode to gold twice in Calgary, bumping him up to 7 Intermediate from 7 Novice. Ryley Carey also scored double gold, moving him one win away from advancing to 10 Intermediate from 10 Novice.
“We have a lot of kids making some ground this year. It’s good to see.” Christensen enthused. “It was another successful weekend for a bunch or our riders. It was really good again. I can’t speak enough about how well some of these kids are doing this year.”
AJ Laurell, Brock Foster and Caleb Graham each won gold and silver in their classes as Cochrane’s younger riders are growing their skills like dandelions on the hillside.
“We had so many riders there again,” Christensen said of his club’s turnout at the two-day provincial meet in Calgary featuring 450 riders each day. “We had a big showing this weekend. In my eyes, every kid wearing those Cochrane jerseys has a gold just crossing the finish line. It’s just great seeing those kids compete at the level they’re competing at.”
Calgary: Race 7, Aug. 29; Race 8, Aug. 30
Jr Male: Taylor Otterson, 4th, 5th
6 Novice Female: Solvay Semmens, 3rd, 3rd
9 Novice Female: Sienna Foster, 4th
10 Novice Female: Mackenzie Hilton, 4th, 5th; Ella Busby, 5th, 3rd
12 Novice Female: Katie Scott, first, first
14 Novice Female: Coralee Hilton, 2nd, 2nd
17-Over Novice Female: Lisette McCracken, 5th (Race 8)
5 Intermediate Male: Dreven Hamel, 2nd, 3rd
6 Intermediate Male: Nathan Vlahakis, 1st (Race 8)
7 Novice Male: Joshua Hagel, 1st, 1st; Caleb Carey, 3rd, 2nd; Spencer Jones, 5th (Race 7); Fynn Thomson 7th (Race 8)
7 Intermediate Male: AJ Laurell, 2nd, first; Mason Pike, 3rd, 5th; Jaxson Ross, 7th, 3rd
8 Novice Male: Roman Bokros, first; Xander Hamel, 6th; Keelan Schimpf, 6th (Race 8)
9 Novice Male: Brett Fisher, 5th, 3rd
9 Intermediate Male: Brock Foster, 1st, 2nd; Sam Scott, 4th, 4th.
9 Expert Male: Caleb Graham, 1st, 2nd.
10 Novice Male: Ryley Carey, 1st, 1st; Colby Cardwell, 5th, 7th
10 Intermediate: Male, Cole Fischer, 8th (Race 8)
11 Novice Male: Reid Huff, 1st
14 Novice Male: Joel Huff, 3rd, 3rd
30-39 Novice Male: Tyler Semmens, 2nd, 1st; Doug Murphy, 5th; Kyle Thomson, 5th (Race 8); Brad Christensen, 7th (Race 8); Dallas Pike, 8th (Race 8)
