New leaders in 25th annual mountain race

MAT PEAK — The 2014 Matanuska Peak Challenge saw a whole new lineup from last year in the top 10 of the men’s division of the race.

Runners braved 14 miles and more than 9,000 feet of elevation gain in the heat over two mountains this weekend, but it wasn’t the same group as usual. With regular star performers over the last two years such as Eric Strabel, Ben Marvin and Cody Priest missing from this year’s action, opportunity was afforded to “a few good men” to move onto the leader board.

John Collins won the men’s division with a time of 3 hours, 24 minutes and 47 seconds, coming in about two minutes ahead of Eagle River native Evan Hone. Hone was in the lead for most of the race until his legs cramped up on the descent of Mat Peak.

“My legs weren’t ready for that,” Hone said at the top of Lazy Mountain before his descent to the finish.

Following Hone was the state-famous running family patriarch, Lance Kopsack, who has organized the race with his brother Braun for 25 years. The brothers decided that the famed Mount Marathon race wasn’t nearly long enough to qualify as a “real” mountain run that is truly challenging, runners say, and so they invented the Challenge in 1989.

Lance was the sweeper for the race last year, and placed 11^th three years in a row before that, making this year’s finish his highest placement and his fastest time of the last five years — 3 hours, 34 minutes and 53 seconds. He won the race four times and tied with Braun once, and only opted out four times in the quarter-century-long history of the Challenge.

Alison, Jocelyn and Judy Kopsack also attended the race, acting as volunteers on top of Lazy Mountain.

Brandyn Roth, who took second place in the Hatcher Pass Marathon earlier this summer and said that his racing season this year was “all for the Mat Peak Challenge,” came in fifth for the men this weekend. Roth finished the race in a time of 3 hours, 39 minutes and 54 seconds.

“It’s just been a fun journey,” he said, happy with his race.

Although her husband was not able to race due to his knee injury sustained from the Crow Pass Crossing, Christy Marvin took first for the women and finished third overall in the Challenge. Despite her intent to make it a “training run” as she said a few days before, Marvin clocked her fastest time in the race yet at 3 hours, 31 minutes and 45 seconds. It was her third win in a row and a new women’s record from her time last year by about 20 seconds.

“I didn’t know how I would be feeling after Crow Pass,” she said. “I was waiting to hit the wall but my legs felt really good going up Lazy so that was encouraging.”

Marvin’s closest competitor this past weekend, Briana Sullivan of Chugiak, was right on her heels at the top of Lazy Mountain on the way out, but dropped back 11 minutes by the end of the race. This was her first time racing the Challenge.

“Mat Peak is one of those trails where knowing the course gives you a big advantage,” Marvin said. “I think I had the upper hand just because I’ve been on the course, so I knew where to go fast and where to take it easy and where to be prepared, like the back of Lazy.”

Marvin and Sullivan were the only women to finish in less than four hours this year.

John Nayler, one of Ben Marvin’s co-workers, was encouraged to run the Challenge after racing Crow Pass with the Marvins the week before, but got a little more than he bargained for in his debut on Mat Peak.

“It was definitely tough,” he said. “I’ve never really trained for anything quite like that.”

Nayler said he was feeling good until he had to come up Lazy again, not having realized how difficult it would be to scramble up the rocks on the back side. At that point, it was all he could do to take a few steps before stumbling into the mountain.

“Part of it was just learning. I knew I wouldn’t place highly this time around, especially because I’ve been stacking races,” he said.

Still, Nayler plans to be at it again in 2015.

“Next year I could probably do a little bit better,” he said.

Hailing from California, Nayler wasn’t always a mountain runner, but after moving to Alaska for work and having kids here, he and his family have found it hard to leave, he said, and this particular group of athletes might be part of the reason for that.

“It’s a pretty tight community, and everyone’s very helpful,” he said. “They want to get people in on this.”

For anyone who would like to race the Mat Peak Challenge or other mountain races next year, hiking up Lazy Mountain once or twice a week is a good way to get in shape, Nayler said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

2014 Matanuska Peak

Challenge

Men

1) John Collins, 3:24:47. 2) Evan Hone, 3:26:37. 3) Lance Kopsack, 3:34:53. 4) Miles Knotek, 3:37:57. 5) Brandyn Roth, 3:39:54. 6) Michael Kelly, 3:49:06. 7) Keegan Crow, 3:56:56. 8) Joe Nyholm, 4:05:40. 9) Nick Treinen, 4:08:21. 10) Dane Ketner, 4:11:12. 11) Steve Lee, 4:16:22. 12) Mike Monterusso, 4:18:18. 13) Todd Borke, 4:18:22. 14) Mark Brady, 4:20:09. 15) Steve Gilles, 4:24:17. 16) Dorian Gross, 4:28:28. 17) John Nayler, 4:30:33. 18) Sean Ulman, 4:35:09 19) Dan Virgin, 4:39:29. 20) Joseph Hunner, 4:40:20. 21) Michael Westbrook, 4:47:40. 22) Christopher Kirk, 5:02:07. 23) Will Newberry, 5:07:19. 24) Brandon Rinner, 5:08:51. 25) John Clark, 5:09:04. 26) Jonathan Kincaid, 5:12:56. 27) Marcus Quinn, 5:14:36. 28) Jessie Holmes, 5:21:23. 29) Sean Casey, 5:22:23. 30) Alex Youngmun, 5:39:52. 31) Andy Rampp, 5:41:07. 32) Wes Hoskins, 5:42:55. 33) David Retherford, 5:45:05. 34) Dane Crowley, 6:13:13. 35) Sean Meyer, 6:14:46. 36) Ed Lasselle, 6:47:02. 37) Evan Steinhauser, 7:06:38.

Women

1) Christy Marvin, 3:31:45. 2) Briana Sullivan, 3:42:37. 3) Krista Heeringe, 4:25:23. 4) Trish Kopp, 4:36:08. 5) Gyongyvér Schilling, 4:45:17. 6) Annie Connelly, 4:48:07. 7) Jane Baldwin, 4:49:53. 8) Ellyn Brown, 4:56:48. 9) Shawn McTaggart, 4:56:52. 10) Christine Bennett, 4:58:42. 11) Shani Rinner, 5:08:51. 12) Sadie Ulman, 5:10:27. 13) Kim Riggs, 5:13:24. 14) Tre-C Dumais, 5:18:50. 15) Susan Casey, 5:22:23. 16) Sheila Wilson, 5:23:55. 17) Linda Rao, 6:26:59.