Prep running: Palmer Invite getting bigger

Aug. 26, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

PALMER - One of the biggest cross country meets of the season is getting a little bigger.

The field of the Palmer Invitational, scheduled to run Sept. 8 on the Michael Janecek Running Trails at Palmer High School, has grown from 22 to 38 teams in the last week. Palmer activities director Jeff Thiede said Friday, the total number could still hit 40.

Participation in the Palmer Invite, an event PHS has hosted for more than 30 years, got a rapid boost after Dimond High School was forced to cancel it's annual cross-country meet, the Lynx/Adidas Invitational.

The Anchorage meet is held annually at Kincaid Park, but do to ongoing construction at Kincaid, the municipality of Anchorage decided not to let Dimond host the event.

&#8220Even though we were issued permits for the facility the Municipality proceeded with construction and cannot honor the permit,” Dimond High activities principal Kevin Theonnes said in an e-mail sent to participating schools on Aug. 22.

Both meets were scheduled for the same day, Sept. 8.

Quite a bit of controversy was created when Dimond introduced it's own invitational in 2004. Before the Anchorage event, the Palmer Invite had occupied the same weekend on the Alaska prep cross country calendar for nearly three decades. It was long recognized as one of the premiere events in the state during the regular season. But Dimond decided to host its own event on the same day as the Palmer Invite.

The decision forced a split in the Alaska cross country running community. A handful of programs, included a few state powers, broke verbal commitments with Palmer High to forgo the Palmer Invite in favor of the meet hosted by Dimond.

Now three years later, many of the programs that have moved to competing in the Dimond meet every year are coming back to Palmer.

&#8220Instead of continuing the battle, we'll invite anyone,” Thiede said.

Since the cancellation of the Dimond meet, 16 teams have been added to the Palmer Invite field. Like Palmer Invite's of the past, the meet will once again encompass programs from across the state.

Eight Anchorage programs - including Dimond - as well as teams from Fairbanks and the Kenai Peninsula will compete. The field also includes several programs from off the continued road system, such as Bethel, Dillingham, Nome-Beltz, Galena and Unalaska.

Thiede said schools have until Aug. 29 to ask to be included within the 2007 field.

The Palmer Invitational also includes middle school races. Those races start at 9 a.m., and preceded an open race - where all runners are eligible to compete - and junior varsity races. The varsity races - both small-schools and large-schools divisions - start at 1:15 p.m.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.