As the lead pack stopped to fuel on the opening lap, the Coastal Racing crew made the choice to pit Neal on the opposite lap of the leaders, allowing the Ohio native a chance to reel in the front-runners. Neal pushed hard to pick off riders through the next few laps until he eventually made his way into the top five on the final lap.

After two-hours of hard-charging, Neal crossed the finish line in 5^th place overall. However, Neal was ultimately penalized two positions in the class for taking a line that was deemed outside the 25-foot barrier that GNCC Racing allows.

"This was one of the toughest weekends I've had in a long time," Neal said. "After crashing over the bars I soldiered on all day long to work my way up to 5th. The line I chose was an honest mistake that was unintentional on my part. But I've been riding really good here lately and the bike is working better than ever so I just need to get off the line and get better starts."

Following the penalty, Neal finished 7^th in the XC1 Pro Class and 8^th place overall for the day, where he now sits 4^th in the Overall National Championship Standings.

The College B (16-21) Class saw its largest lineup of the season as 44 riders set up for the 1 p.m. start. Coastal Racing/MSR/Maxxis/Waynesburg Yamaha's Eli Kiger rushed off the line to beat the crowd to the woods as he led the way on the opening lap.

Kiger continued to lead the first few miles of the race but his momentum soon came to a halt when he got stuck behind a bottleneck of riders blocking the trail. Kiger struggled to get through the bottleneck as several riders made their way past him for the lead battle. Kiger worked hard to reclaim his lost positions where he made his way up to 4^th by the end of lap one.

Kiger climbed into the 2^nd place position just before the halfway point and quickly set his sights on catching the leader in the final laps of the two-hour race. Despite a hard charge at the end of the race, Kiger wasn't able to catch the leader but the Pennsylvania native secured a close second-place finish.

"It was good to lead the first few miles until I came up on a bottleneck with riders everywhere. I think almost half the class got back around me there but I finally got going again and pushed all the way back to 2^nd," Kiger said.

After eight rounds of racing, Kiger has climbed his way into 4^th place in the College B Championship Standings, only four points away from the 2^nd place position.