An already hectic schedule of fall high-school sports has gotten just a little more crammed in recent years.

While still in its relative infancy, the SDSSAA MTB (Mountain Bike) Championships attracted almost 60 riders to Kivi Park last Thursday, capping off a season that also included races in Naughton as well as on Manitoulin Island.

One of just three girls at the event, 13 year-old Emma Mourre (grade nine at Lo-Ellen) is an accomplished multi-sport athlete who competes with the Walden MTB Wolfpak team.

Stands to reason then that her time of 31:00 trailed only six of the novice boys competitors in the field of 24 athletes.

"Mountain biking is right up my alley," said the younger of two children in the family, a familiar face around hockey rinks and ski venues of any kind - nordic or alpine.

"I have a lot of friends that do it, my mom really likes it, so I always have support doing it wherever I want," Mourre added. "I think I have of leg strength with me."

While the Kivi trails are certainly navigable, the member of the Sudbury U15 A Lady Wolves is not shy about her druthers to be racing on her home course in Walden.

"I really like that course," she said. "There's not too much climbing, so it doesn't tire you out too much - but there's still some technical stuff."

"Here (Kivi), you go up a lot and come back down."

The second place finisher in the novice boys bracket (behind only Julian Luoma of Lo-Ellen), Eden Abols is also more than a little familiar with both local MTB sites, though his preference comes once they are covered with the white stuff.

"Mountain bike is my third sport," said the 14 year-old freshman at Lockerby Composite. "First is nordic ski and then running. I do workouts all year round for skiing, but running can be incorporated into the workouts and biking is the off-season sport for skiing, which is perfect."

After placing third in Walden, Abols bumped up one placement in the finals, the lessons learned two weeks earlier remaining with the young rider.

"I had a good start (in Walden), but I used a bit too much energy at the start and wasn't able to hold off the other two (Luoma and Samuele Marquis from Sacré-Coeur)," noted Abols. "I like the longer style races because I can maintain the speed."

Following is a breakdown of the top five in each of the boys events as well as complete results for the girls:

Novice Boys
1st - Julian Luoma (LEP) - 25:30
2nd - Eden Abols (LCS) - 26:43
3rd - James Ford (LEP) - 26:58
4th - Samuele Marquis (ESC) - 27:20
5th - Nikolas Caissie (BAC) - 29:30

Junior Boys
1st - Charlie Caissie (BAC) - 24:55
2nd - Gord Farrell (LCS) - 25:30
3rd - Joshua Rioux (STC) - 26:49
4th - Carson Jewitt (LEP) - 26:54
5th - Tomas Corsi (LCS) - 28:13

Senior Boys
1st - Alexandre Mailloux (ESMC) - 34:04
2nd - Dane Gibeault (LEP) - 38:38
3rd - Bradley Slaght (MSS) - 39:10
4th - Raphael Belzile (ESMC) - 39:47
5th - Evan Maksymchuk (LIV) - 45:14

Cyclists - Female
NG - Emma Mourre (LCS) - 31:00
SG - Misaki Diavoltsis (LCS) - 51:25
SG - Georgia Roy (MSS) - 67:00

(* novice and juniors = 2 laps; seniors = 3 laps)