Palmer senior's race starts with mad dash

Sept. 2, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - The gun went up for the start of the boys 5-kilometer race at the Colony Invitational Saturday morning, and Palmer's Jake Parisien was making a mad dash toward the starting line - in the opposite direction of the race course.

&#8220Wait! Wait!” Parisien's coach, Tim Lundt screamed, frantically trying to get the attention of starter Ed Strabel.

At the last moment, a runner in the field stepped forward and asked Strabel to delay the start. Like Parisien, he'd also forgotten his racing bib, and needed time to pin it on.

The momentary delay allowed Parisien to make it to the line in time for the start and avoid a costly disqualification.

Good news for Jake - bad news for everyone else.

Parisien recovered from the embarrassing start nicely, going wire-to-wire to win the boys' race in a time of 16 minutes, 53.1 seconds - an impressive 26.8 seconds ahead of Grace Christian's Leif Karlberg.

Following the race, Parisien said he didn't realize he was

bibless until moments before the race was set to begin.

&#8220I got to the start and I was like, ‘Oh crap,'” he said.

After running more than 200 yards back and forth across the Colony Football to retrieve his bib, Parisien said he was a bit winded before the race even began.

&#8220I was kinda tired sprinting over there,” he said.

Lundt said only fate prevented his top runner from missing out on a chance to make the race start.

&#8220He was lucky,” Lundt said.

Sprinting to begin a race is actually vintage Parisien. He prefers to run from the front, and Saturday's race was no different as he grabbed the lead from the opening gun and never relented.

&#8220I wanted to go out way in front,” he said.

Parisien said he ran the Colony course Tuesday, which he said gave him an advantage Saturday.

&#8220When you know this course it's a lot easier,” he said.

Colony cross country coach Mark Doner said the layout at Colony can be difficult because of a series of hills runners face at around the 2-kilometer mark. Knowing how to set a comfortable pace, he said, can be critical to a runner's success.

&#8220The second to third kilometer has the majority of the hills,” he said.

Doner said the course can hurt runners that go out fast, though he also acknowledged that the most well-trained athletes aren't going to have trouble with any layout that's thrown at them.

&#8220When it comes down to it, the kid that's the most fit is going to win,” he said. &#8220A tough kid is going to be a tough kid on any trail.”

Wasilla's Jimmy Sliwa placed third overall in the boys' race, edging Colony's Mason Wick by four seconds. In the team competition, Parisien's win, coupled with a 6th-place finish by Kevin Smith, enabled the Moose to finish second behind Grace, three points ahead of the third-place Knights. Wasilla was sixth.

Susitna Valley's Paxson Matthews paced the 10th-place Rams, finishing in 41st overall. Chris Ashland was the top boys' finisher for Houston, finishing 52nd for the Hawks, which didn't bring enough varsity runners to qualify for the team competition.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com