The UCC Obstacle Course Racing team traveled to New England for the second year in a row (and ever), to compete at the OCR World Championships and the New England Rugged Maniac. The OCRWC was held at Stratton Mountain Resort in Stratton Mountain, Vermont and the NE Rugged Maniac was held at The Wick 338 Motocross Park in Southwick, Massachusetts. The events were held September 23rd-25th, featuring rain, fog, strong winds, and cold temperatures on Friday and Saturday, and clear skies on Sunday.

At OCR Worlds the goal is to keep your completion band, and in order to do this the athlete has successfully complete 100% of all the obstacles. The athlete can retry an obstacle over and over, but the race must be completed within a certain amount of time. On Friday, September 23rd, Noah Retherford competed in the Pro wave amongst the top athletes from all around the world in the 3k with 15+ obstacles. Noah finished the race in 2:25:29, but unfortunately did not keep his completion band. He finished 10th amongst non-completion competitors in the Pro wave. On Saturday, September 24th, Noah competed in the Pro wave in the 15k with 40+ obstacles. He finished with a time of 2:58:57 (a significant time improvement from last year), and amongst the non-completion competitors in the Pro wave he was 4th. Coach Richardson also completed in the 15k race in the Age Group wave (25-29) and finished in 4:35:08 and was 10th amongst non-completion competitors. Coach Richardson was also not able to keep her completion band, but improved her time, and made it significantly further into the race before losing her band. The weather played a big part in the races, as obstacles were extra slippery and it was challenging to keep a strong grip.

At the New England Rugged Maniac on Sunday, September 25th, Noah and Coach Richardson both competed in the Elite wave and redeemed themselves from the two days before. Noah took 2nd amongst the male competitors and Coach Richardson took 1st amongst the female competitors. Both raced at the event last year, where Noah took 1st and Coach Richardson took 2nd.

The Hawks will look to compete at the OCR World Championships again next year, which will be a ltitle closer to home at Mammoth Lakes, California on October 6th-9th, 2023. Until then, their next race will be December 3rd, at the San Francisco Giants Stadium in a Spartan Stadion race.

Go Hawks!