Spotlight on Freshman Penny Mullins

CAC has a competitive mountain biker in our midst! Freshman Penny Mullins just completed her third year with the sport and loves every minute of it! 

Penny is part of a local National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) team for kids in grades 6-12. NICA is organized to provide a fun, sage and high-quality mountain biking program for students. Their program values include, fun, inclusivity, equity, respect and community.

Currently, Arkansas has over 833 student athletes making up 33 teams. Penny is part of the Capital City Cranks which consists of kids from several different schools who practice with the Catholic High, Mt. Saint Mary, and Central High School teams. The season runs from July to October with practice taking place three times per week all across Little Rock and North Little Rock.

Each year, there is a time trial and four races held across the state. This year marked Penny’s third year competing and her first time to get on the podium! She placed fourth out of twenty-four 9th grade girls in her first three races this year, earning a medal at each! While the last race of the season in late October wasn’t as kind to Penny, she did earn a medal for placing 5th overall for the year!

Penny’s dad, JB, is one of the team’s coaches and the father-daughter duo enjoy spending this time together in a sport they both love. In addition to biking, the team must also complete volunteer hours, so they do lots work with Recycle Bikes for Kids in addition to cleaning up trails.

Help us congratulate Penny on her 5th place season! If you want to learn more about the sport or NICA, Penny or her parents would love to tell you more !