Owasippe Race Weekend 2026

Owasippe has been around since 1911 and some of the routes through the property are even older than the camp. You can tell when you ride there, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s tight, hand cut, old school Michigan singletrack with roots, narrow turns and sand everywhere. No machine built flow or perfectly shaped berms. You finally get moving and the trail turns for no particular reason, usually straight into another sandy section. Luckily, we LOVE sand. I’m not sure why, because it gets into every shoe, vehicle, bearing and available body cavity, but this team sees sand and apparently thinks, “Yeah, let’s race through that”.

They did replace a few of the bridges this year, so they are now level, above water and generally pointed toward the trail. The old ones were sometimes half underwater and off camber, which was objectively worse but also had a lot more character. You had to commit and find out exactly how waterproof your shoes were. Now the kids can just ride across without learning anything about themselves. Apparently the Sawtooth bridge troll followed the series to Owasippe, took one look at the new bridges and immediately left a one star review. Too level, too dry and almost no chance of eating a front wheel.

The forecast was calling for more than two inches of rain Saturday, so we thought those new bridges might actually get tested. Owasippe drains pretty well because, again…sand, but bearings and bottom brackets are much less enthusiastic about the whole situation. Then most of the storm went south and the weather people missed the course worse than someone blowing through the tape on lap one. Saturday’s elementary riders showed up prepared for a monsoon and got a pretty normal day of racing instead. From the Band photos, there were blankets, snacks, smiling kids and Alexander completely asleep under the tent. Honestly, that may have been the best pacing strategy of the weekend.

Sunday looked cool and dry for the middle and high school races. Hoodie weather for the parents and pretty great once the kids got moving. The pictures looked exactly like Owasippe should, with Coyotes strung out through the trees, hammering down sandy roads and trying to carry speed through a trail that wasn’t particularly interested in helping. The forecast had promised Waterworld and we ended up with fast racing and excellent napping weather. Owasippe’s all you can eat bearing buffet got downgraded to a continental breakfast.

I was technically OOO for this one. Coach Ryan, Coach Todd and I were up north at Marji, so I followed Owasippe by checking Band and piecing things together from photos, texts and results. Parents posted pictures and told me what happened, and I’ve chosen to believe most of it. We also had one Coyote racing up north with us. Owen’s broken arm kept him from using his Mini Marji entry, so Calvin Host stepped in, raced his first one and finished fifth overall and fourth in his category. Just a casual last minute Marji entry followed by a top five overall finish. Most kids get an unexpected opening in their weekend and play video games. Calvin went and raced Marji.

It was also really good seeing Alexander back with the team at Owasippe. He wasn’t racing yet, but he was there hanging out, supporting everyone and apparently shopping for a new bike. The John Deere has a little more horsepower, but more importantly, those tires look perfect for Owasippe sand.

The rest of the photos told a pretty familiar Coyotes story…kids smiling before the start, riders working through the woods, parents bundled up under the tent and an impressive amount of food disappearing. What they didn’t show was how much Owasippe sand made the trip home. Someone will empty a gear bag this week and accidentally create a small beach in the garage.

Apparently the team also raced just fine without three of its coaches there, which seems rude and feels like dangerous information for everyone to have. The tents went up, the kids sent it and results started rolling in from both ends of the state. I’ve checked the timing, studied the pictures and accepted several completely unbiased versions of events from Coyotes parents, so here’s how the weekend went…

All told…89 Coyotes lined up over the weekend, which is a lot of blue and yellow flying through the woods. The high school team won, middle school tied for first and elementary finished second. Four races into the series, high school and elementary are both leading, while middle school is only eight points back, which across an entire team is basically one snack break somewhere in the woods.

The varsity boys started Sunday with Tristan Hubbard in 3rd. Ray Muehlenz and Easton Roberts finished 6th and 7th, only four seconds apart, so apparently the team ride continued all the way through the finish. Cam DeJong took 11th and William Hughes finished 21st. On the varsity girls side, Reese Drajka raced to 2nd, Samantha Weaver took 5th and Ocean Trierweiler finished 10th. Eight varsity Coyotes started and all eight finished 21 miles of Owasippe, because apparently riding through that much sand once wasn’t enough.

Kellen Rottier led the JV 11–12 boys with a 3rd place finish, Henry Wert took 5th and Sam Bazuin finished 7th, putting all three in the top seven. They may have carpooled there. Sawyer Willink added a 2nd place finish for the JV 9–10 boys, Tyler Veley finished 11th, Tyler Whipple was 21st and Jakob Boer finished 29th. Harper Roberts represented the JV girls and finished 6th after two laps and 14 miles, which is still a lot of Owasippe trying to work its way into every moving part of a bicycle.

The Advanced Middle School boys created a small blue and yellow traffic jam at the front. Cruz Control™ was fully engaged as Cruz Woodbury won the race, Max Clemo finished 3rd and Ryland Modzeleski took 4th, giving the Coyotes three of the first four spots. Michael Eicher finished 7th, Easton Johnson 8th, James Broughton 19th and Gunnar Larson 24th. Hadley Ruch and Lola Clemo kept it going in Advanced Middle School girls, finishing 3rd and 4th only 10.8 seconds apart. Apparently personal space is not recognized once the timing mat is involved.

David Terrell took 3rd in Novice 10–12 boys, while Declan Vandewarker won Novice ninth grade boys and Leo Stoddard finished 9th. Emily Eckert added another win in Novice middle school girls, with Fiona O’Byrne finishing 7th. That is two category wins in one paragraph, which feels efficient.

Alida Ward got faster every lap in Intermediate middle school girls, closing with her quickest lap and finishing 20th. Apparently nobody told her laps are supposed to get harder. Anneke Willink followed in 21st and bounced back from a tough second lap with a much faster final one. In Intermediate seventh and eighth grade boys, Michael Count took 3rd and Ethan Kirsch finished 5th, only four seconds behind him. Wyatt Kirsch added an 8th place finish, Brayden Bender was 16th, Dylan Grenier 21st, Jack Witte 24th and Caleb Rottman 31st. Seven Coyotes entered that race, so there was a pretty good chance every sandy corner already had one in it.

Camden Host finished 2nd in Intermediate sixth grade boys and Simon Stoddard completed all three laps in 19th. The Novice seventh and eighth grade boys put William Scholz 3rd, Evan Schwartz 4th, Caleb Heinz 8th and Reed Pettinga 11th. Christopher Scholz rounded out the middle school races with 6th in Novice sixth grade boys. That closed out a middle school effort that tied for the team win and moved the Coyotes within eight points of the series lead. Basically one good race, one bad sandwich decision or one bridge troll incident could move that entire standings table.

Then we get to elementary, where the bikes get smaller but the racing somehow gets more chaotic. The Advanced Elementary boys put all three Coyotes inside the top seven. Ryder Pankey led them in 4th, Sawyer Weaver was right behind him in 5th and Raylan Hansma finished 7th. Alta Woodbury added a 2nd place finish in Advanced Elementary girls.

Ivan Rookus led the fifth grade boys in 4th, with Hunter Heinz 8th and Coleman Erb 9th to put three Coyotes in the top ten. Gavin Ebeling finished 16th, Miles Eicher was 17th and Emmett Katerberg completed two full sandy laps in 26th. In the fifth grade girls race, Elizabeth Schwartz took 5th and Rainey Broughton finished 10th. All eight riders finished, and most of the Owasippe course probably came home with them.

The fourth grade boys had Jeremiah Fisher 5th, William Bernatche 6th and Bennett Baker 7th, all separated by less than 27 seconds. Bradley Stiles added a 9th place finish, while Caleb Grenier finished 23rd and Henry Stoddard crossed in 26th. The fourth grade girls nearly turned the entire front of the race blue and yellow…Aspen Trierweiler was 2nd, Gracelyn Host 3rd and Lucy Clemo 4th. Winnie Richardson and Adalyn Sytsma finished 8th and 9th just 0.024 seconds apart. Nine miles of racing and the timing system still had to squint at the line. Ruth Hales completed the group in 13th.

Titus Broughton took 2nd in the third grade boys race, with Wyatt Johnson only 0.867 seconds behind him in 3rd. Jack Baker finished 8th and Zion Woodbury was 14th. Less than a second between Titus and Wyatt after 4.5 miles, so apparently third graders have already mastered making the adults stare nervously at the timing screen.

In second grade boys, Lucas Sytsma led the Coyotes in 4th, Ashton Naum finished 6th, Everett Hooker was 11th, Abe Hales 12th, Owen Heinz 13th and Rory Katerberg 14th. Six Coyotes in one second grade race feels less like a category and more like a small invasion. For the second and third grade girls, Emalyn Fisher finished 8th, Jorie Hales was 13th, Emily Schwartz took 17th and Amada Holton finished 22nd.

Then our youngest riders got the full 4.5 mile Owasippe experience. Ryan Baker finished in 24:13, Daniel Baker in 31:06, Benedict Stoddard in 39:19 and Allan Holton in 42:49 for the PreK first grade boys, while Alaia Naum completed the girls race in 34:59. Four and a half miles of sand at that age is no joke. Plenty of adults complain when the parking spot is farther away than that.

That’s all 89 of them. High school won, middle school tied for first and elementary took second. Four races in, high school and elementary still lead the series, middle school is eight points back and the garage floors of West Michigan are now mostly sand.

Full results below the gallery!

Full Results: