Mercer Island Mountain Bike’s middle school and high school teams competed in their first Washington Student League race of the season on April 3 at the Test of Pedal race at Swan Creek Park in Tacoma.

Thirty middle school students and seven high school students represented Mercer Island. The high school team placed first out of 19 Washington state teams, while the middle school team finished fifth out of 16 teams. There were numerous top-10 finishes.

Podium finishes included:

Middle school

-Ben Kinder, 4th place in 6th grade boys

-Eloise Fruehling, 6th place in 6th grade girls

-Cole Gar-Aouy, 5th place in advanced middle school boys

-Ethan Libman, 2nd place in 7th grade boys

-Hunter Yetman, 5th place in 7th grade boys

-Eleanor Lindenmayer, 4th place in 8th grade girls

High school

-Brennan Hodgins, 5th place in junior varsity

-Taylor Libman, 2nd place in intermediate girls

-Maggie Baker, 1st place in beginner girls

-Samantha Kinder, 6th place in beginner girls

This is the second year for the middle school team and the first year for the high school team. Mercer Island Mountain Bike began with 14 riders and expanded in one year to 53 riders. The middle school and beginners race is a five-mile course. The advanced middle school and intermediate race is 10 miles, the junior varsity race is 15 miles and the varsity race is 20 miles.

For more, visit http://washingtonleague.org or https://www.facebook.com/Mercerislandmountainbike/.