Battle for team titles expected

WASILLA — For the last several years, the race for the Region III Championships team titles has been fairly predictable.

The Wasilla girls have won three straight regions championships. Kodiak has kept a stranglehold on the boys’ crown in recent years.

But things should be a bit different when teams hit the running trails in Seward Saturday afternoon for the 2013 championships. On the girls’ side, Wasilla is in the running for the four-peat. But Soldotna, which won the Palmer Invitational earlier this year, is expected to battle Wasilla for the girls’ title.

“We’ve known that all season,” Wasilla head coach Leslie Varys said Thursday. “We never thought anything was going to be easy.”

Wasilla, the three-time defending 4A state champions, graduated three point scorers following the 2012 season. The Warriors were also hit by injuries this year and were without senior Mariah Burroughs and junior Peggy Mathis for significant chunks of the 2013 season. But the Warriors are finally healthy.

“They seem to be doing really well, even with all the weather we’re having,” Varys said. “We’ve been telling them all season to take care of themselves.”

Freshman Alex Mathis has led the Warriors throughout the 2013 season, finishing in the top 3 of every race she’s entered this season. Only two runners, Kenai junior Allie Ostrander and Glennallen freshman Briahna Gerlach, have beat Mathis this season. Ostrander is the defending region and state champion.

Junior Riley Burroughs has also stepped up for the Warriors, especially during the absence of Mariah Burroughs and Peggy Mathis, and has notched three straight top-10 finishes.

A win for the Warriors this weekend would create a unique accomplishment for Mariah Burroughs, who has been a part of a region championship team during each of her years at WHS.

“This would be her four-peat,” Varys said. “We talked about that today. We were really trying to inspire everyone.”

Varys said Wasilla is expecting a tough battle with the Stars in the race for the team title. Soldotna finished two points ahead of Wasilla in the standings after the Frank Dieckgraff Invitational in Seward earlier this month. According to athletic.net, an online database that includes all of the results from the 2013 regular season, if Region III teams were ranked according to their athletes best times of the year, Soldotna and Wasilla would finish tied in the team standings with 42 total points.

“It’s good to have competition like that,” Varys said. “Soldotna is a tight group. All of their top 5 runners are really tight as far as times are concerned.”

Athletes from the top 3 teams in the region earn automatic berth to the state championships. Led by its pair of freshmen, Colony will also competing for a top-3 spot in the region. Freshmen Elisabeth Bowker and Cathelyne Powers have helped power the Knights this season, running to a combined six top-11 finishes in 5-kilometer races.

Palmer is led by freshman Ruby Woodings, who currently boasts the 12th-best mark in Region III.

Kodiak has the potential to sweep the top 2 individual spots in the 4A boys’ championship race, but is in danger of breaking its string of Region III titles. Kenai Central and Colony are also in the hunt for the crown.

Colony’s senior trio of Brandon Schafer, Lyon Kopsack and Boaz Sessom have consistently finished in the top 10 this year, and are currently ranked fifth, sixth and seventh in terms of top times in the region this season. Schafer, who finished sixth in the Palmer Invitational, said after that meet the Knights are hungry to make some noise in Region III this year.

“We’re working hard, doing the best we can. I’m very grateful for how things are going,” he said. “We got together over the summer and trained as hard as we could without injuring ourselves. I’m pretty excited to see where we stack up at the end of the season.”

The boys’ 4A race is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. Saturday, and the girls’ race will follow at 2:45 p.m.