Crimson Bears sweep Region V running championships
- Klas Stolpe
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
JDHS tops DI field, Sitka sweeps DII, Wrangell sweeps DIII
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears cross country team swept the Division I team and individual titles at the Region V Championships Saturday on Sitka’s Totem Park, and Sitka and Wrangell followed suit in DII and DIII.
“I am happy with the progression of these guys, figuring out all of their strategies to race well and particularly under pressure,” JDHS co-head coach Zack Bursell said of the Crimson Bears boys and girls teams. “I think they executed really well, just doing everything right, doing the fundamentals. That's all it was and it worked out today. They did their job, and we’re looking forward to state and to get it done there.”
JDHS juniors Erik Thompson and Kaia Mangaccat won the boys and girls, respectively, DI I individual titles, with Thompson crossing in 16 minutes and 55 seconds and Mangaccat in 19:58.
“My strategy today was there's this one guy named Carter Phillips (Ketchikan) and he usually will start races pretty hard and stuff,” Thompson said. “So my goal was kind of just to stick with him the whole race and then as the race kind of progressed, just take advantage of that and kind of just passing through him as he's running out of energy…He actually stayed in the front for about at least half of the race, maybe a little more, but then he just started getting tired out a little bit and then me, Logan Feldman, and Zach Boss kind of took advantage of that situation, and we ended up taking the podium...It was a really cool feeling, actually, especially just having Logan Feldman kind of breathing down my neck. I feel like that's going to be a reoccurring thing as we go to State. I'm actually really excited to race him again at state this year. It was also nice to see Zach Boss up there kind of just taking that podium spot. I think he really came through for us today. I think we're going to have a really strong state team.”
Mangaccat jumped out to the lead at the start.
“My strategy was to not think about time or place and just focus on myself and try my best and try to smile at people,” Mangaccat said. “I was leading the whole way. Sometimes I like get worried if I hear people behind me, like cheering for the people behind me, but I try to just focus on myself if possible.”
The JDHS boys outscored Ketchikan 20 to 37, and the girls topped Kayhi 18 to 45. The winning team and top 10 individuals qualify for next Saturday’s ASAA State championships in Palmer.
JDHS junior Logan Fellman placed second for the boys in 16:59 and classmate Zach Bos third at 17:16 before Kayhi senior Carter Phillips broke up the Crimson Bears shuffle with a 17:23.
“The course was pretty flat itself,” Bos said. “There's like kind of one slippery hill that you go down in the first K and then back up in the last K. My race plan was trying to keep up with Ketchikan's lead runner, but he went out fast, so I let him go out and then reeled him in…I really only saw Erik and Logan for the first two K, and then after that they started picking it up and doing their own thing, but I could see Logan going around turns. It was fairly encouraging being like, OK, they're still going so I can pick it up a little bit.”
JDHS sophomore Sigrid Eller placed second for the girls in 20:18 before Kayhi junior Ryan Elerding crossed in 20:38.
“I was going out in front of this Ketchikan girl, and I was also focusing on Kaia who was in front of me the whole time,” Eller said. “It was really good because I was closer to her than I had been, so it was really nice to just like see her and know she was there in front of me, something I could like chase…I’m excited to run with my teammates again at state because it was kind of our first time all running together. We've been a little separated, but it's exciting knowing that I'm closer to Kaia. We're going to run better together again. I’m just really excited for state and next year. There's a lot to look forward to, so I'm excited.”
Rounding out the DI boys qualifying for state were fifth place KTN jr. Henry Vail at 17:29; 6. JDHS jr. Angus Andrews 17:52; 7. KTN jr. Noah Robbins 17:57; 8. JDHS so. Carson Kautz 17:59; 9. JDHS sr. Elias Schane 18:00 and 10. KTN so. Ezra Roskam 18:10. Following were KTN jr. Richard Evision in 18:22; KTN sr. Scott Johnson 18:23; JDHS jr. Austin Huang 19:18 and KTN so. Maxton Glover 19:25.
Rounding out the DI girls qualifying for state were fourth place JDHS so. Nevah Lupro 21:07; 5. JDHS sr. Della Mearig 21:10; 6. JDHS fr. Maya Mothershead 21:17; 7. JDHS sr. Siena Farr 21:29; 8. JDHS sr. Lua Mangaccat 22:08; 9. KTN jr. Sarah Kleeman 22:45 and 10. KTN jr. Madelyn Gass 22:58. Following were KTN fr. Chloe Beach in 24:42; KTN jr. Piper Caskey 25:31; KTN jr. Lillian Fernandez 26:36 and KTN sr. Lauren Tucker 27:52.
“I think we just continue our own individual progression, getting better every single race, learning lessons every time,” Bursell said. “We just keep it simple. I think a lot of it was people believing in themselves and pushing through those barriers. There were a lot PRs today, so people just pushing past their own personal limits and knowing that they can do it when it hurts.”
For Thompson, returning from injury, the trip to state means he has a chance to improve his second-place finish from last year, just as he improved last season’s second-place region finish with a title this year.
“I’m feeling probably like 90% right now,” Thompson said. “Definitely not 100 after not running for a while, but it definitely is great to finally kind of get back out on the trails and be able to compete in a race like this and just getting to run with all the friends. That kind of made up to this point... I'm kind of just thinking that the state course is going to be probably more difficult than this one. At least for me personally, I'm not going to worry about my time, but more so my placing, just because I haven't been running for a while I may not have my best PR of all time and I really just need to focus on my placing.”
Sitka senior Francis Myers won the DII boys title in 17:45 and Wolves freshman Lola Hitchcock the DII girls title in 21:27.
The Sitka boys put all seven of their runners across the line before rival Mt. Edgecumbe scored a point and the Wolves girls put six across.
Sitka outscored Mt. Edgecumbe 15 to 50 to take the boys team standing and 15 to 48 for the girls. The top team and top 10 individuals qualify for state.
DII boys: 1. Myers 17:45; 2. SIT fr. Owen Mork 17:56; 3. SIT jr. Derek Wilson 18:01; 4. SIT so. Andrew Mullin 18:41; 5. SIT sr. Justin Hames 18:44; 6. SIT sr. Calder Prussian 18:45; 7. SIT so. Silas Todd 19:02; 8. MEHS sr. Donald Olson 19:25; 9. MEHS sr. Jonah Ivanoff-Gray 19:29.19; 10. MEHS fr. Taan Moll 19:29.25 /// 11. MEHS jr. Kaden Kulukhon 19:33; 12. MEHS sr. Kolby Clark-Pruitt 19:48; 13. MEHS sr. Gordon Lie 20:26; 14. MEHS jr. Logan Weter 21:23.
DII girls: 1. Hitchcock 21:27; 2. SIT sr. Natalie Hall 21:29; 3. SIT sr. Marina Marley 22:15; 4. SIT fr. Grace Hall 22:32; 5. SIT fr. Opal Carter 22:34; 6. SIT sr. Jadelynn Kubik 22:39; 7. MEHS sr. Johanna Horch-Mattson 22:57; 8. MEHS so. MaryKay Evon 24:05; 9. SIT fr. Taylor McCarty 24:07; 10. MEHS fr. Audrina Dull 24:39 /// 11. MEHS fr. Camille Huntington 24:47; 12. MEHS fr. Emry Ward 25:33; 13. MEHS jr. Ilana Kalke 25:43; 14. MEHS sr. Breana Nelson 26:39.
Wrangell senior Boomchain Loucks and freshman Jenna Meissner swept the DIII titles. Loucks hit the fastest boys time across the three divisions with a 16:16 as he crossed before Craig junior rival Aulis Nelson in 16:27 and Petersburg senior Gaje Ventress in 17:33.
Meissner ran the third fastest girls time across the three divisions with a 20:21.04 and needed every hundredth of a second as Petersburg sophomore Arielle Tucker crossed side-by-side in 20:21.80.
The Wolves from the Stikine River area won the boys team crown with 12 points with Petersburg second at 14 and Skagway earning the final spot to state with 35. The girls won with eight points, Petersburg 13 and Craig grabbed the final state team invite with 33. The top 15 individual finishers also head to state.
DIII boys team finishes: WRG 12, PSG 14, SKG 35, CRG 43, Hoonah 73, Haines 73, Klawock 113, Metlakatla 114.
DIII girls team finishes: WRG 8, PSG 13, CRG 33, Kake 43, HNH 62, SKG 68, HNS 68, KLW 86.
DIII boys: 1. Loucks 16:16; 2. A. Nelson 16:27; 3. Ventress 17:33; 4. WRG jr. Jackson Carney 17:46; 5. PSG sr. Nathan Kerr 17:55; 6. PSG sr. Alex Holmgrain 17:57; 7. WRG sr. Ian Nelson 18:06; 8. SKG so. Logan Rupprecht 18:15; 9. WRG sr. Jackson Powers 18:53; 10. PSG fr. Joseph Hofstetter 18:54; 11. PSG fr. Camden Johnson 18:58; 12. WRG fr. Ryder Ritchie 19:01; 13. SKG sr. Brenden Moncibaiz 19:04; 14. SKG so. Arthur Aribam 19:14; 15. PSG jr. Ben Kandoll 19:20 /// 16. CRG fr. Nolan Fithian 19:29; 17. WRG sr. ben Houser 19:37; 18. SKG so. Dane Ames 19:48; 19. PSG jr. Waylon Jones 19:53; 20. HNS jr. Brody Ferrin 20:09; 21. HNS fr. Yeshey Galindo-George 20:11; 22. SKG jr. Luca Tronrud 20:20; 23. HNH sr. Dietrich Lewis 20:25; 24. HNH fr. Tank Tyler 20:43; 25. CRG fr. Allen Trimmer 20:44; 26. KAK so. Tyler Davis 20:47; 27. HNH sr. Gerred Garrison 21:00; 28. SKG so. Zane Coughran 21:03; 29. WRG so. Lucas Stearns 21:11; 30. CRG fr. Hayden Fithian 21:12; 31. KAK fr. Erik Davis 21:15; 32. SKG sr. Camden Lawson 21:20; 33. CRG fr. Jack Conatser 21:21; 34. HNS fr. Spencer Baumgartner 21:36; 35. MET sr. Robert Ridley 21:46; 36. KLW sr. David Friday 21:50; 37. KLW jr. Paul Lingley 21:51; 38. CRG sr. Joshua Bennett 22:14; 39. Hydaburg so. D’artagnan Peele-Guthrie 22:28; 40. CRG fr. Alex Trimmer 22:39; 41. HNH jr. Lawrence Howland 22:44; 42. HNS fr. Kaeden Ganey 22:48; 43. HYD sr. Tyrone Carleson 23:41; 44. MET sr. Bryce Olin 23:59; 45. MET jr. Kalin Hudson 24:04; 46. MET jr. Xavier Olsen 24:13; 47. HNH so. Riley Neal 24:19; 48. KLW jr. Raymond Fairbanks 24:49; 49. HNH so. James Erickson 25:23; 50. MET so. Same Charles 2542; 51. MET fr. Benjamin Ridley 29:00; 52. KLW fr. Russell Peele 29:38: 53. MET sr. Vincent Milligrock 30:18.
DIII girls: 1. Meissner 20:21.04; 2. Tucker 20:21.80; 3. WRG jr. Bella Ritchie 20:57; 4. WRG jr. Alana Harrison 21:25; 5. PSG jr. Maria Toth 21:48; 6. PSG so. Cadence Flint 22:12; 7. PSG sr. Gabrielle Whitacre 22:16; 8. CRG fr. Jayla Edenshaw 22:32; 9. KAK so. Aurora Davis 22:48; 10. CRG sr. Chelsea Thompson 23:07; 11. HNH jr. Easton Ross 23:15; 12. HNS fr. Sophia Hedden 23:16; 13. PSG so. Zia Hulebak 23:39; 14. KAK jr. Maria Chang 24:35; 15. CRG sr. Sabrina Nelson 24:37 /// 16. WRG sr. Kalee Herman 24:54; 17. CRG fr. Saranne Stonecipher 25:18; CRG jr. Ashlynn Smith 25:43; 19. SKG so. Mackenzie Mixon 25:54; 20. KAK sr. Lydia Chang 26:00; 21. KLW sr. Keira Sanderson 26:09; 22. SKG so. Aurora Woods 26:12; 23. CRG jr. Madison Conatser 26:27; 24. HNS so. Anna Bell 27:16; 25. HNH so. Harlee Brown 27:34; 26. MET jr. Mackenzie Williams 27:41; 27. HNH sr. Chloe Lane 27:57; 28. SKG jr. Mina Yee 27:59; 29. CRG fr. Alli Demmert 28:32; 30. MET fr. Elizabeth Olsen 29:16; 31. SKG fr. Ella Rauscher 29:33; 32. SKG so. Lila Lawson 30:07; 33. KLW so. Olivia Kato 30:30; 34. HNS fr. Alivia Martin 31:46; 35. SKG fr. Millie Bass 35:08; 36. KLW so. Alyssa Jeffrey 36:26.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
