2-minute drill: Willoughby selected to World Championship team, Rox secure playoff spot

USA Cycling announced its team for the 2022 UCI BMX Racing World Championships on July 30 and 31 in Nantes, France. Out of the 22 athletes selected, St. Cloud native Alise Willoughby was on that list.

Willoughby will be one of five women on the Elite Women's team for this upcoming championship. She reached the Elite Women's final at last year's World Championships and the hope is reach another final at the end of this month.

The St. Cloud native has won two World Championships — one in 2017 at Rock Hill, South Carolina, and the other in 2019 at Zolder, Belgium. She also holds a silver medal from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and also competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

More:Olympian BMX cyclist Alise Willoughby is from St. Cloud. So is an important part of her bike.

St. Cloud Rox secure playoff spot with first-half championship

The St. Cloud Rox started off the season on a hot streak and that's continued through the first half of the season. Due to that success, the Rox won its fourth-straight half championship on June 29 to secure a spot in the playoffs at the end of the summer.

The win came in Bismarck, North Dakota, as the Rox shut out Bismarck 7-0. The Rox won the second half of the season in 2019, then after the pod season in 2020 and both halves of the season in 2021.

St. Cloud currently sits at 25-8 this season, as of Tuesday afternoon, and are four and a half games ahead of the Willmar Stingers in the Great Plains West division.

The second half of the season for the Rox starts at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at home against Willmar. St. Cloud will have another month and a half of regular season games before the playoffs start in the middle of August.

More:St. Cloud Rox baseball team starts season on hot streak with best record in division

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: 2-minute drill: Willoughby selected to BMX World Championship team