Men's Cycling | 9/19/2019 2:31:00 PM
Rock Hill, S.C. – The SCAD Atlanta cycling team competed in the National Track Cycling Championships in Rock Hill, SC from September 12- September 14. Six riders represented the team comprising of Kenny Boots, David Vargas, Elvys Martinez, Willem Kaiser, Judah Sencenbaugh, and Sommers Creed.
Thursday morning the men's 4K team pursuit took place. SCAD Atlanta's team pursuit team of Kenny Boots, Willem Kaiser, Elvys Martinez, and David Vargas made for the strongest appearance for SCAD at track nationals on the men's side yet. The team ended up taking 6th in the event – just one step off the podium for their best ever finish.
Friday morning, Boots, Kaiser, and Vargas competed in the men's 4K individual pursuit. Sophomore Kenny Boots put himself in the lead, posting the fastest time of the day early. He was eventually overtaken, finishing on the podium in fifth place. Kaiser finished 13th in a field of 49 riders. Judah Sencenbaugh ended up sixth out of a field of 33 in the 3K women's event.
For the points races, the fields are often limited to 24 riders due to track size, so in order to move onto the finals, there were two qualifying heats for both the men and women. The first heat for the men's points race took place in the morning session and then a huge storm blew in and all events were rain delayed until 6 PM. Willem Kaiser was placed in the second heat and competed in the afternoon session. In typical Kaiser style, Willem sat and waited for the perfect opportunity to attack the field and easily earned himself enough points to move on to the finals. On the women's side, both Sencenbaugh and Creed took a page out of Kaiser's book and booked themselves into the finals also. Kaiser played a tactically smart race, finishing in eighth. In the women's finals, there was a horrific crash partway through the race and all racing was ended for the day.
The first event of the day on Saturday was the women's points finals. Olivia Ray (SCAD Savannah) and Megan Jastrab (Mlligan) set the tone by attacking and moving off the front. Sencenbaugh saw her opportunity and immediately bridged up to join the other two. Sommers Creed later broke away from the field and took her turn bridging up to the front three. The four proved too strong for the rest of the field and Sencenbaugh and Creed finished in third and fourth podium spots in the event.
The next event was the men's and women's time trial. 1k and 500 meters respectively. Both Sencenbaugh and Boots finished top 20 with solid performances.The final event for the morning session was the men's scratch qualifier. Again, Kaiser played chess with the field and easily moved on to the finals.
The Saturday evening session included the men's scratch final, the women's scratch final and the team sprint. The women's scratch race was almost a replica of the points race. Ray and Jastrab attacked off the front and Sencenbaugh again followed suit. Creed tried to join the group but the field was closing in on her. Instead of dragging the field up to the break, she sat up to keep the gap between the field and Sencenbaugh and her breakaway partners. In the end, Sencenbaugh finished third again. This allowed her to take third overall in the women's omnium for the entire national event.
Head Cycling Coach Tina Pic spoke proudly of the team's performance. "We've been building the track program and for the Bees to have five podiums in a national championship was incredible. We know what we need to do going forward and all the athletes saw the potential and value in working together for next year's events."
