Peer leaders trains at the ropes course

On Saturday morning the peer leaders joined Mr. Heil and Mr. LaVoie for a half day of low ropes challenges, initiatives and roll playing.  The focus of the day was to help the guys develop better strategies for communicating with and caring for our new boys during their first year at Woodberry.

  

III Form Fall Ropes Course Sundays

Every fall the III form students head down to the ropes course for three consecutive Sundays (9/13, 9/20 and 9/27) to take part in a team building/challenge program that is facilitated by older Woodberry students who have undergone extensive leadership and facilitation training.  These old boys guide the new boys through a variety of challenges and obstacles which are designed to be challenging and fun while also helping the boys to better bond as a form.

Reading Races Round 2

Great afternoon of racing and chili eating!  Exciting to have so many new faces out hitting the trails. Here are a few pictures and the results will follow shortly.

There has been some confusion as to when the last race is: TUESDAY OCT 6th @ 5:30pm.  

Expert/Pro (3laps):	Race 1 Time:		Race 2 Time
Charlie Ormsby			38:14:00	1st
Justin Mitchell	36:58:00	1st	38:23:00	2nd
Erik Born			43:27:00	3rd
Conor Pixton			46:49:00
Rob Iten			47:52:00
Matt Holbroon			51:36:00
Dave Tevendale	38:27:00	2nd
Chris Cunningham	41:15:00	3rd
Pat Norton	41:18:00
John Compton	42:27:00
John Fortney	43:42:00
Sport (2laps):	Race 1 Time:		Race 2 Time
Alex Krongard	29:32:00	1st	29:44:00	1st
George Williams	30:37:00	2nd	30:20:00	2nd
William Jordon	32:04:00	3rd	31:06:00	3rd
Tilden Winston			31:51:00
Garrett Vennable	33:33:00		32:20:00
Kyle Little			32:45:00
Ryan Little	34:30:00		33:54:00
KJ Pankratz	36:03:00		35:11:00
Trevor Barker	36:48:00		35:14:00
Daniel Porter	35:08:00		35:53:00
David Vu	35:11:00		35:58:00
Alex Tisch			37:05:00
Phillip Williams	38:07:00		38:43:00
Charles Moorman	39:42:00		39:37:00
Denis Houyoux	33:58:00		39:40:00
Gus Dupree	40:10:00		40:20:00
Patrick Burke			40:42:00
Max Looney			40:58:00
Jack Looney			40:58:00
Ella House			41:59:00
Reece Tilgner	39:30:00		43:17:00
Emily Phillips			44:59:00
Murray Susen			45:03:00
Robin Kay	42:27:00		46:14:00
Ethan Phillips			48:40:00
Jude Bentenhou			49:08:00
JD Diefenbach	43:14:00		50:26:00
Sydney Compton	33:11:00
Eli Shifflett	35:13:00
Mason Allen	38:27:00
U12/Beginner (1lap):	Race 1 Time:		Race 2 Time:
Clark LaVoie	21:10	1st	22:56	1st
Jack Holbrook	21:40	2nd	0:22	2nd
Zoe Norton	30:10:00	3rd
Mia Norton	31:45:00
Forest Thompson	35:11:00

Reading Races @ WFS

RESULTS FOR WFS SHORT TRACK 

Great race with some great people!!!  Next race is September 22 @ 5:30pm 

Thanks to all who came out especially John Reynolds for sweeping the course and helping some racers get their bike back up and running.

This Fall, WFS will be hosting a Tuesday night short track mountain bike race series.  This is a student run initiative to raise money and books for MESA (Madison emergency services association) a local non profit that helps out the community.  The race is FREE, but a monetary donation or children's book would be appreciated.  This is super informal and should be a lot of fun.

RACE 1: September 15th (5:30pm)
RACE 2: September 22nd (5:30pm)
RACE 3: October 3rd. (5:30pm)

No pre-registration just come to the event ready to roll by 5:30pm (with an optional social ride afterwards).

Expert/Pro (3 laps)
Single Speed (2 laps)
Sport (2 laps)
Beginner (1 lap)
U12 Junion (1 lap)

1st place at 6 hours of Shiners Revenge!

This past Sunday, Justin Mitchell, a Woodberry Student, teamed up with his friend, Ben Casella, to race the Male Duo Category at the well known endurance event, 6 Hours of Shiner's Revenge. Both Justin and Ben are Category 1 racers, and decided to race the Open Category rather than the Junior Category. Ben took the start, putting their team in the lead from the start, and the 2 racers switched every other lap to follow. They began to slowly turn up the intensity over the course of the race. On the second-to-last lap, Ben passed a Solo Category racer, who placed 17th as a Pro at Endurance Mountain Bike Nationals. Going into the last lap, Ben and Justin had built up a 43 minute lap average on the 8.5 mile, hilly course. Justin had exactly 43 minutes to complete the last lap, and he took the opportunity and went. The Solo Pro Racer quit after the 7th lap. Justin dug deep, and finished this 8th, final lap in just under 41 minutes - turning the fastest lap of the day, of any racer. Justin and Ben, as a team, won the team event overall up in the adult category. It's important to note that there was no time comparison for their win, because they were the only people all day to manage 8 laps in the allotted 6 hours.

Wyant's reflection from his WFS summer expedition trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School

NOLS Expedition  - June 2015

               

Day 5 Journal Entry:

Today we started off at around 10,000 ft, I cooked cheesy biscuits from scratch, which tasted very good. We hiked today through waste deep snow for about .7 miles. As we worked our way around a snowy ridge, I gained a whole lot of energy. I had a bright idea to try and run through the snow eventually cutting up my knees. As we started up the hill to move through the saddle, a girl in our group had a panic attack, she believed she could not finish out the day. The leader made the decision we should camp where we stopped for the night. The camp spot sucked, we ended up setting our tent on top a pile of snow. Our guy leader took the guys and me to this rocky peak, which was around 11,000 ft. It was amazing. Tonight we set our tents on a pile of snow. Luckily the skies are clear and allowed me to borrow a hammock and set it up so I would not have to sleep on the ground. The hike today to the top of this peak produced the most amazing views I have seen all trip. At the top I was struggling to suck in air, as this was the first time I had hiked anything so high.

               At the start of the NOLS trip, I did not have high hopes about the kids that were going to be with me on this adventure. I expected to be challenged physically with our daily hikes, but I learned so much more than physical endurance. I learned to get along with different people and overcome challenges.  Each day we woke up early, and at the end of every day the only thing I had in my mind to do was sleep, knowing that I went to bed with a sense of accomplishment.

               The first couple days of hiking was tough on my back, as my back was not used to 70 lbs. of extra weight. The other people had their challenges too. Once we started to hike I started to learn more about our differences and similarities and really liked the kids. Each day would start anywhere from 6:00 am to around 12:00 pm depending on the distance we would have to hike. During the first week our group was trekking through waste deep snow, not knowing which foot would fall through the snow would keep us on our toes. The role of cooking meals fell on me due to the mastery of cooking I demonstrated during the first couple of days. This became one of the ways I contributed to the group. The course seemingly got harder as we began to grow more accustomed to our surroundings, allowing us to push further over steep saddles. Our hardest day was definitely when we hiked up over a saddle with about a 1,000ft increase in elevation from our camp the night before.

               Once camp was set up after a day of hiking, we would have a large amount of free time if we did not have a first aid class later in the day. If I wasn’t out fly-fishing during my free time, I was in the tent getting away from the swarm of flies. Along with challenging hikes, I was looking forward to the amazing views, ones that most only see on national geographic. All of my expectations were easily fulfilled as this trip showed me how small I really am to the rest of the world. I finally realized how simple something could be, and have such a great outcome. This trip was a real eye opener to the beauty of the backcountry, which I had never fully experienced.

               We were challenged as a group to get to know each other and work through our differences.  We were able to help push each other on tough hikes allowing for more free time at the campsite. After each day all of us would record the day in our journals.

Day 23 Journal Entry:

Today we woke up at 6:30 and summited Pyramid Peak, which is around 12,300 ft, by far one of the coolest things I have ever done and seen. We got to the top at around 10:00. Spending time at the top was very rattling as the wind was very powerful. Once we got to the bottom we had our first day of ISGT, which stands for Independent group travel. Our hike was very short and easy, only about 3 miles, our group moved very well and efficiently without our leaders.  The camp spot tonight was sweet. It was in the middle of this wide-open field above a crystal blue lake with jagged peaks all around. I caught my first brown trout ever, 19 inches, on the edge of the huge lake.

              

This is our group about half way up the saddle.

               I learned a lot about people on this trip.  I learned how to try and get along regardless of circumstances and different opinions. But I really learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am good at working with people, and have a knack for cooking. I also learned about perseverance.

               I am really thankful for the opportunity I was given to go on this NOLS trip.