By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After foul weather rendered travel nearly impossible, Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe cross country runners competed in an unexpected Region V race in Sitka, Monday at totem park. The regional event had been scheduled to take place Saturday in Ketchikan, but gale force winds lashed Southeast and curtailed travel plans, forcing the local teams to run on their home course.
By Monday, the storm had passed and athletes ran under clear skies on a crisp October afternoon.
The course consisted of three laps of the main totem loop, with the back loop closed due to bear activity.
Sitka High Lady Wolves junior Anna Prussian won the girls race by a single second, with freshman Clare Mullin at her shoulder for the entire race.
“Lap one felt really good,” Prussian said at the finish line. “Clare and I were shoulder to shoulder practically the entire race and that was great, just pushing each other. Now and then one of us would hold back and the other would shoot forward, and then the other one would try to stick on her shoulder. That was really great, I couldn’t have run that without Clare.”
Prussian finished in 19:11, with Mullin in second place at 19:12.
Cross country races usually take place on weekends, and Prussian said racing after a day at school was a strange experience.
“It’s really weird having our region race right after school, that was a bit strange,” she said. “So it was hard to get in the mode and be like, ‘I’m racing for regions, I have states in like five days.’ But in the race I really had no strategy going into it. I went into it not trying to think about the race itself.”
Coach Shasta Smith was happy with how her team performed.
“These ladies (Prussian and Mullin), 19:11 and 19:12 are really fast, really, really fast. So I’m super excited about those. Silas (Demmert) breaking 17 minutes, going 16:58 on this course is huge,” the coach said.
After dealing with an injury for much of the season, Tawny Smith was back for the regional meet.
“It was super nice to have my last race on the home course. I’m just very happy and feel fortunate that I was able to make this race work. It felt good ... I haven’t done a workout once this season, so kind of remembering how to run fast is kind of bizarre,” Smith said.
She took third place in 22:13.
Like Prussian, she noted that it was odd to run a cross country race after a day of school.
“I was sitting with my teammates (Monday) in math, and we were working through calculus problems and we were like, ‘Wow, we have regionals in a few hours and here we are sitting in class doing work.’ That was kind of funny,” she said.
The team tried to fly to Ketchikan Friday to join other teams from across Southeast for the regional tournament on Saturday, but the Friday afternoon flight was canceled due to high winds, and on Saturday the plane couldn’t land in Ketchikan, Smith said.
“We show up to the airport (on Friday), we check all our bags, immediately we sit down and a TSA agent walks over to my mom and is like, ‘Hey, so the flight is canceled,’” she said.
The team returned to the airport on Saturday for a second try.
“We get on the plane, it was a little delayed,” Smith said. “Super bumpy flying into Ketchikan. We get super close to the runway and suddenly we just pull straight up… we circle around and try again. Same thing, we pull straight up.”
The Wolves flew back to Sitka without touching down in Ketchikan.
Like the girls on the team, Annan Weiland found that racing after a day of classes was strange.
“I don’t know if it’s a combination that this race is mid-day, after school, and my mind is already on other stuff and I wasn’t truly able to focus on it,” Weiland said.
He took second place in 17:35, and now is getting ready to travel to the state meet in Anchorage this coming Saturday.
“It’s going to be snowy – I’m not sure if I’m excited or a little worried. I don’t know what it’s going to be like, it’s going to cold, snowy… and there’s supposed to be a whole bunch of hills,”
“I’m super excited to go, I’m fortunate to go to state,” he said.
Coach Smith hopes her athletes will put forward their best effort.
“If they run how they can, we’ll see how the cards fall. You never know what’s going on up there… All I ever want from my athletes is for them to give their very best effort and be proud of how hard they tried. That’s it. And they know that, so they know that they’re never going to let me down if they try,” she said.
The Mt. Edgecumbe Braves also are looking ahead. Junior Jelsey Gologergen, from Nome, told the Sentinel she’s a bit anxious about heading to the state meet next week.
“Kind of nervous, because this is only my second year with cross country, so this will be my first time going to state. I’m nervous and excited at the same time,” she said.
Gologergen took seventh place in the girls race in 25:03. The top finisher for the Lady Braves was Mia Anderson. For Edgecumbe boys, Jake Friske led the pack in 19:15, taking eighth place.
Gologergen said she thinks she could have run a faster time on Monday.
“In the first time we ran here, our first home meet I got a 24:55, so I got slower this time,” she said.
She’s already looking forward to the next cross country season.
“I feel like everyone did a lot better towards the end, I don’t know, they were just having some fun, we were all having some fun, and I feel like everyone enjoyed it. And we all got new PRs. So that’s a good thing. I’m excited for next year,” she said.
Connor Journey, an MEHS junior from St. Mary’s, said he ran his fastest time of the season.
“Not as fast as my freshman year… but at least I PRed for this year though,” he said.
He finished in 20:19.
“I could have done better, but it was a fun run and it felt good… A lot of improvement over the course of time,” Journey said.
The Edgecumbe team, unlike the Wolves, made it to Ketchikan before the storm blew in on Friday, but without Sitka present, the Braves couldn’t run for time.
“We had a really bumpy flight on Friday morning… We were freezing and soaking wet (after a practice run) and then we got word that Sitka, they tried, but they weren’t able to get to Ketchikan,” MEHS coach Josh Arnold said after the race.
Despite the challenges of coordinating the regional race, Arnold was happy with his team.
“The kids ran really well. They worked hard all season, they ran really well. I had several runners that ran PRs today. That’s all I can ask of them,” he said.
With several dozen onlookers assembled to cheer the runners on the course, Arnold noted that Sitka as a community is quite supportive.
“The folks that showed up to cheer the kids on, of course both the Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe high schools, it’s just an honor and a privilege to be a coach in Sitka for runners,” Arnold said. “This town embraces these athletes and we really appreciate it.”
The state cross country championship will take place on Saturday in Anchorage.
Boys Race Results
1 Silas Demmert 16:58 SHS
2 Annan Weiland 17:35 SHS
3 Hank Maxwell 17:59 SHS
4 Asa Dow 18:05 SHS
5 Trey Demmert 18:37 SHS
6 Connor Hitchcock 18:45 SHS
7 Colton Ewers 18:48 SHS
8 Jacob Friske 19:15 MEHS
9 Landon Varga 19:38 MEHS
10 Jaden Andrews 20:09 MEHS
11 Conner Journey 20:19 MEHS
12 Jerett Brown 21:28 MEHS
13 Elston Dock 22:19 MEHS
14 Holden Fontenot 23:09 MEHS
Girls Race Results
1 Anna Prussian 19:11 SHS
2 Claire Mullen 19:12 SHS
3 Tawny Smith 22:13 SHS
4 Mia Anderson 22:20 MEHS
5 Addie Poulson 23:21 SHS
6 Maitlin Young 24:31 SHS
7 Jelsey Gologergen 25:03 MEHS
8 Aries Bioff 25:46 MEHS
9 Sarah Nancuk Jones 26:48 MEHS
10 Sarah Bahnke 27:14 MEHS
11 Hailey Moses 28:45 MEHS
12 Ashley Rexford 30:52 MEHS
