Colony sweeps team titles at first George Plumley Memorial Invite

PALMER — The George Plumley Memorial Cross Country meet at Palmer High on Saturday was dominated by Colony as the Valley runners assembled for what would normally have been a much larger meet. With limited participation in the meet formerly known as the Palmer Invite, Colony won both the boys and girls team titles.

“I think even though we all know it’s not a normal year there are a lot of people and teams unable to do what we’ve done already this season, so I think we need to remember how lucky we are to be able to practice and to be able to even hold races. As we move through the season of course we always would like to see other competition but we have to remember that this is hopefully just a year and we’ll be back at it again and just be feel really happy that were able to compete at all and that’s where we’re at,” said Colony co-head coach Rhonda Knopp.

Both the Palmer and Colony boys placed four runners in the top 10, but Colony dominated the leaderboard in a field of 24 runners from four schools in the Valley. Garrett Streitt won the race with a time of 16:54.5, closely followed by teammates Tobias Buchanan and Zac Cheyette two and three seconds later. Palmer was led by Fischer Adams at 17:05 and followed by Mike Reem at 17:08. Noble Gurney finished in seventh at 17:13 and Ryan Owens finished ninth with a time of 17:27 for Palmer. Wasilla was led by Landon Hayes in sixth with a time of 17:11 and Brennan Lackey finished eighth at 17:24. Colony teammates raced for 10th place, where Zachary Daniel finished in 17:30.19, just eight tenths of a second faster than Jayden Rice in 11th place. Daniel Spencer was Houston’s top finisher at 20th in a time of 19:17 and Myles Campbell finished in 22nd for Redington. Colony won the team title with a score of 23 points followed by Palmer with 35 and Wasilla with 70.

In the girls varsity race, Sophie Wright won the race by more than a minute over the second place finisher. Wright clocked a time of 19:30 to lead the Moose.

“She PR’d and she has been working so hard to do that. She’s such a fast runner that I think sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated when you’re so far ahead and she just really really performed today,” said Palmer Head Coach Stacie Stigar.

Palmer’s Monroe Swain finished seventh, Mykennan Rinella finished eighth and Elisabeth Hennemann finished ninth. Colony’s top two finishers battled for second place, where Shea Alaniva finished in 20:38.3 and teammate Mariella Belliston finished in a time of 20:38.54. Lydia Bushey finished fifth for Colony and Lucy Shea finished sixth. Redington was led by Mya Campbell with a fourth place finish in a time of 21:06 and Wasilla was led by Ashley Palaniuk in 12th place at 22:42. A total of 19 runners competed in the girls varsity race as Colony won the team title with 27 points followed by Palmer with 37 and Wasilla with 63.

“This whole season it’s been nice to be able to just get outside with the kids and have them doing some healthy sports and healthy activities. It’s worked out really well. We have a really good covid mitigation plan, everybody sticks to it pretty good and I think it’s going really, well really happy to be here today,” said Stigar.

As Mike Janacek gave the call over the loudspeaker of the first call for girls varsity runners, he welcomed the wife of the late George Plumley, who died last year. Plumley attended the Palmer Invite last fall and was a tireless volunteer in the running community. The race will be dedicated to his memory.

“The most gracious, humble and helpful volunteer that we will probably ever have,” said Knopp.

Janacek gave a brief history of Plumley’s involvement in running at Palmer High where he graduated in 1984. Plumley returned to the Valley after studying at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and helped cross-country races around the Valley.

“I want to thank you myself on behalf of his family for this recognition and honor and no matter how uncertain these times are I can say with 100% certainty that George was loyal to the Palmer blue,” said Chris Herberger.