Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Oct. 29, 2024 – The Jonesboro Composite High School Boys Mountain Biking Team, the Ridge Riders, won the Arkansas NICA State Championship this weekend at Centennial Park in Fayetteville.
The Ridge Riders are made up of student athletes from several local school districts and home-school districts.
“The Ridge Riders bested 33 other teams from all over the state and one from Oklahoma to win the title,” said Craig Rickert, executive director of the Jonesboro Advertising and Promotion Commission.
The team is just over five years old, and according to Ridge Ridger coach James Meredith, is “growing every year.”
“Our goal is to get more kids on bikes and having fun,” Meredith said. “It’s more than just competing. It’s about friendship, community and giving each team member something to be a part of that is not like other traditional sports. Everyone has the same opportunity to compete and grow as individuals and teammates.”
The team’s award is partially dependent on the team’s community service hours. Half of the score comes from competition result, while the other half comes from the number of community service hours.
“We have been competing all year for the regional awards and the hard work that each team member has put forward all year is how we got here,” he said. “This weekend we went to Fayetteville competing against some of the best high-school mountain bikers in the state and we competed extremely well, scoring enough points to give us this state total.”
In addition, the Ridge Riders girls’ team second place win in the Plains Regional Championship earlier in the season. Meredith also noted their middle school teams and girls high school team performed very well too, but they lacked the numbers of athletes for those teams to score high enough to be competitive.
For more information visit the Ridge Riders on Facebook page or click here.
