The ETSU Cycling Club finished fourth in the nation at the Collegiate Mt. Bike Nationals at the Angel Fire Ski Resort near Taos, N. M., recently.
The other schools in the top five were Union College in first, followed by the Air Force Academy and then Warren Wilson College with Western State College in fifth.
The Slalom team of Mark Billingsby, Steven May, Terry Hinton and Matt Smith stacked up first, fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in qualifying for first-round byes.
Three of the four racers advanced to the round of eight and Billingsby emerged as one of the finalists in dual competition.
In the championship, however, Billingsby fell to Western State College’s Kain Leonard in a very close race.
On the women’s side, it was Candice Sanders taking third in a four-person woman’s field.
In the next round, the ETSU club faced 30 miles of racing ahead of them featuring 18 miles of climbing while gaining roughly 9,000 feet of elevation.
After a grueling three laps, the ETSU team of Levi Olsen, Matt Smith, Terry Hinton and Alan Shockley was sorted out with Olsen coming out as the top performer in 24th place with the others not far back. The three placed 27th, 31st and 36th, respectively.
Shockley was the top prospect for a strong finish but the combination of sickness and a flat tire held him to his 36th place. Sanders started the cross-country race in the women’s field but pulled out after one lap when an injury from earlier in the season flared up.
In the final day of competition it was all about going down hill with speed.
The top half of the course was extremely technical with many physically demanding rock drops and boulder gardens.
The bottom half of the course was composed of fire roads, ski slopes, a few technical sections and was finished with the bottom of the slalom course.
Terry Hinton finished a strong third just two seconds behind Chris Rebula from Lehigh University and Leonard who had the fastest time on the mountain at 6:37:18.
The rest of the team finished with Shockley in sixth, Billingsby 11th and Abraham McIntyre in 14th.

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