The 2010 Mountain bike season kicked off at Eastern Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN.  The team had a full day on Saturday racing short track (stxc) first, then downhill (dh) and finally four cross (4X), at around 5pm.  The Owls were lead by Elisa Otter's 4th place omnium finish and Linden Blaisus' 10th place finish in the stxc and 19th place finish on the 4x.

The team has only one returning female this year in Otter. She placed 4th in all her events securing her 4th place spot in the omnium.  When you're an Otter, consistency is the name of the game.   She is the sole female "A" racer this weekend but will soon be flanked by two new riders as they dominated the women's B race.  Eva Wilson, Melanie Kemp and Chloe Stuber raced women's B omnium this weekend (omnium means they raced all the events xc, stxc, dh, and 4x) and dominated!  Did I already say that!  Eva placed 1st in stxc, and xc and Melanie was right behind her placing 2nd in both events.  Chloe rounded out the top five in fifth place in both xc and stxc!  On the gravity side of things Nicole Kendle placed 3rd in dh, right behind Eva, and 8th in 4x.

On the men's side of the race, we of course have lindy hopper Linden Blaisus at the top of the placing with a 10th is stxc, and a 19th in 4x!  That's an xc dork placing in the top 20 in a gravity event!  You don't see that often folks!  Usually xc dorks are flipped over on their backs while the gravity guys are bunny hopping over his injured corpse on the course.  Aaron Peet had a nice showing taking 26th in the short track event and somehow we still don't know what happened to Josh Hubing-Cooper's race result from short track..?  However his brother Moses Hubing-Cooper did find a place in the downhill race 18th, right on the heels of Mike Tynan who placed 17th in downhill and 22nd in 4x.  Well folks those are the highlights of this weekend.  We are off to sunny Florida State University this weekend! Hope that hurricane decides to stay off shore through the weekend or we might just be snorkeling are way through the course.