Prep running: PHS senior enjoys season best

Palmer High School senior Jake Parisien started off fast and never looked back Saturday, running to a 26th-place finish at the Foot Locker Western Regional Cross Country Championships in Walnut, Calif.

“I was feeling it today,” Parisien said by phone from California Saturday afternoon.

For Parisien, who placed third in the Alaska Class 4A championships in September, the race couldn’t have gone better. Not only did he run his fastest time of the season with a time of 15 minutes, 35 seconds, he also beat the two runners — Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar and South’s Aaron Fletcher — who bested him at state.

“I’m in a lot better shape than I have been,” Parisien said.

A total of 31 Alaskans participated in the race, including a large contingent of Valley runners brought down by Wasilla head coach Gary Howell that included Parisien, Colony’s Cody Huggins and Wasilla’s Kendra Nelson, Elle Fuller, Allison Kelly, Keri Clump, Brooke Nelson and Josiah Stewart.

The 5-kilometer race, a qualifier for the Foot Locker National Championships, included some of the best athletes in the Western United States. The top boys division was won by California state high school champion German Fernandez, who last month broke the California 5-K state record.

“There was a lot of good guys in there,” Parisien said.

Howell said the course, located on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College, was hit by heavy rains on Friday and had to be significantly altered because of muddy conditions.

“They had to change the course around, make it more of a road course,” Howell said.

The flat conditions played right into Parisien’s strength. A speedster who likes to go out fast, the Palmer senior said the flat course gave him a big advantage over Dunbar, who dominated the Alaska cross country season this fall.

Still, Parisien said he didn’t expect to be the top Alaskan in the race.

“It was a big surprise,” he said.

Parisien clocked a blistering 4-minute, 32-second first mile, then made it to the two-mile mark in 9:25.

“My previous best two mile was like a 9:57,” he said.

Parisien wasn’t the only Alaskan to knock off a state champion. In the girls’ top division, West Valley’s Crystal Pitney was the top Alaskan girl in 20th place, eight seconds ahead of state class 4A champion Leah Francis of Juneau, who was 30th. The top two class 1-2-3A girls from this season also competed, with second-place J.J. Lende of Haines (64th) finishing two seconds ahead of girls 1-2-3A girls champion Nychele Fishcetti of Anchorage Christian.

Wasilla senior Kendra Nelson’s time of 20 minutes, 31 seconds was good enough for 33rd place in the senior girls’ race, which also featured a 64th-place finish by Fuller, another Warrior runner, in a time of 21:32.

Kelly, a Wasilla freshman, had a strong race, finishing 34th in the freshman race with a time of 20:54. Brooke Nelson finished in a time of 21:32 to place 57th in the sophomore girls race, while fellow Wasilla sophomore Keri Clump was 92nd in a time of 22:40.

Huggins placed 36th in the senior boys race, turning in a time of 17:13, while Stewart was 158th in 19:10.

Under Howell’s direction, the Wasilla runners have been training nonstop since the high school season began. Unfortunately for the team, the flat conditions were a bit unexpected.

“It kind of put a hampering on the nine weeks of training we’ve done,” he said.

Howell said Wasilla’s training had all been geared toward hills, but said he was still pleased with the outcome of the race.

“It went really well,” he said.

Parisien, too, has been training hard since the high school season ended. After struggling with an injury through most of the season, the Palmer runner said he finally began to hit his stride over the past few weeks while training on his own and with the Wasilla runners.

“I trained really hard for this race,” he said.

He continued to run outdoors, even after heavy snows hit the Valley earlier this winter and slowed his progress a bit.

“It got bad,” he said. “It’d run outside but on the long days it’s tough to get your speed up because you’re sliding and

stuff.”

A spell of warm, rainy weather in the weeks leading up to the race, however, allowed Parisien to finish his training regimen on a high note.

“The last week and a half it’s actually been pretty good,” he said.

The race was the last one of the season for Parisien, who still plans to run track this spring. After that, he said he’s got his eye on running in college, and is currently weighing his options.

“I’ve gotten a lot of offers so far,” he said. “I just want to see where I want to go.”

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

Foot Locker Western Region Championships

Saturday

Walnut, California

Seeded (Open) Girls — 20. Crystal Pitney, Fairbanks, 18:09; 30. Leah Francis, Juneau, 18:17; 62. JJ Lende, Haines, 19:06; 64. Nychele Fischetti, Eagle River, 19:08; 112. Ivy O’Guinn, Soldotna, 20:51

Seeded (Open) Boys — 26. Jake Parisien, Palmer, 15:38; 52. Trevor Dunbar, Kodiak, 15:57; 101. Chandler Kemp, Haines, 16:24; 120. Aaron Fletcher, Anchorage, 16:31; 156. Tyler Anderson, Anchorage, 16:50; 159. Christian Harpel, Anchorage, 16:53; 168. Mike Miller, Eagle River, 17:03; 203. Kevin Coreano, Anchorage, 18:09.

Freshman Girls — 34. Allison Kelly, Wasilla, 20:54; 38. Sarah Allen, Anchorage, 20:58

Freshman Boys — 16. Nick Fowler, Anchorage, 17:45; 18. Zack Bursell, Juneau, 17:45; 35. Jake Alward, Anchorage, 18:11

Sophomore Girls — 57. Brooke Nelson, Wasilla, 21:32; 92. Keri Clump, Wasilla, 22:40

Junior Girls — 53. Kristen King, Eagle River, 20:33; 70. Ka Cunningham, Eagle River, 21:22

Junior Boys — 57. Cody Phelps, Anchorage, 17:56

Senior Girls — 9. Katie Krehlik, Juneau, 19:25; 22. Abby Reed, Kodiak, 20:05; 23. Mychaela Bailey, Anchorage, 20:08; 33. Kendra Nelson, Wasilla, 20:31; 64. Elle Fuller, Wasilla, 21:32

Senior Boys — 36. Cody Huggins, Wasilla (Colony HS), 17:13; 46. Will Estes, Anchorage, 17:22; 134. Anthony Crook, Anchorage, 18:48 158. Josiah Stewart, Wasilla, 19