Valley athletes ready for the state meet

PALMER — Mark Doner has a fairly simple philosophy when it comes to setting goals for his cross country runners at Colony High School.

“The goal is to finish the season running faster than you’ve ever run,” the longtime CHS running coach said on Thursday. “I hope and dream we can do that on Saturday.”

Doner hopes the Knights can use the momentum created by winning the girls team title in last week’s Region III Championships and post a strong finish in the ASAA/First National Bank Cross Country Running Championships, slated for Saturday at noon on the Michael Janecek Running Trails at Palmer High School.

Six of Colony’s seven runners broke the 21-minute mark and placed in the top 20 to lead the Knights to the region title.

Freshman Alyssa Hutchins cross the finish line at the 20-minute, 9-second mark to lead the Knights with a fifth-place finish. Teammate Sydney Stewart was just two seconds behind and finished sixth.

Maria Wick (10th, 20:22), Abby Jahn (12th, 20:29), Heidi Doner (13th, 20:32.5) and Caitlin Skvorc (17th, 20:48.3).

Freshman Taylor Stewart also posted a strong run, finishing 29th with a time of 22:02.

Just like the Knights have done throughout the year, the Colony runners were extremely close in the standings.

Hutchins and Sydney Stewart were separated by just two seconds, Jahn and Doner were separated by three seconds, and Colony’s first six runners crossed the finish line within a 39-second span.

Mark Doner said he feels his athletes don’t necessarily run in a pack because they absolutely want to.

“We don’t press the pack running thing,” he said. “The kids are just so close in ability level.”

Doner said he believes his runners have the ability to all set personal records this weekend.

“That’s what we want to do, set P.R.’s,” Doner said. “I think we’ve got a mix of some fairly mature runners getting in better shape and young runners who don’t know how fast they can run.”

Doner said there is certainly a good possibility —assuming Mother Nature cooperates —that the Janecek Trails could provide faster times than that of

the Tsalteshi Trails in Soldotna, the site of the Region III meet.

This is the second time this year that the Knights have followed a meet at the Tsalteshi Trails with one at Palmer. The Knights ran in the Skyview Invite on the Tsalteshi Trails early in the season, and followed with the Palmer Invitational.

As Doner compared results from the two meets, he saw a drastic improvement.

Hutchins, Jahn and Sydney Stewart were among runners who had a time at the Palmer Invite which was more than 30 seconds faster than the time at the Skyview Invite.

“The times were coming off pretty fast, but the kids were getting into racing shape,” Doner said.

But Doner also stressed that anything can happen at the state meet.

“The weird thing is, a lot of times at the state meet, the times aren’t as fast,” Doner said.

Regardless, Doner feels his Knights can contend for a high spot in the team standings.

Doner said West Anchorage, West Valley and Lathrop are among the teams to watch at the meet.

“I’ve got to expect West Anchorage to be the favorite, but I don’t see them as being as unbeatable as Kodiak is on the boys’ side,” Doner said.

Colony’s chief rival, Wasilla, will also be running for a high finish in the team standings.

Like the Knights, the Wasilla runners have been known to sport similar times.

Sophomore Kendra Miner led Wasilla with a ninth-place finish and time of 20:21. She was one of five Warriors to break the 21-minute mark, and each of those five cross the finish line during a 31-second span.

Each of Wasilla’s seven runners finished in the top 25 of the region meet.

Alison Kelley (14th, 20:36), Rachel Kennedy (15th, 20:40), Brooke Nelson (18th, 20:48) and Katie Bialka (19th, 20:52) finished in the top 20.

Emily Ripley (21st, 21:10) and Rachel Hoffman (25th, 21:31) also posted strong finishes for the Warriors.

In the girls’ 1-2-3A race, Susitna Valley Bailey Stevenson could be in the running for a state title.

The young Ram runner finished second in the Region II Championships last week at Susitna Valley High with a time of 19:45.

Only two runners at the 1-2-3A level posted better times than Stevenson did during region championship weekend.

Kenny Lake freshman Kailey Wilson beat Stevenson in the Region II final, recording a time of 19:17.

Seward junior Allison Barwell was slightly faster, winning the Region III-3A race with a time of 19:42.

While there are a few teams in the running for the girls’ team title, two-time defending state champion Kodiak is a heavy favorite in the boys’ standings.

Colony finished as runner-up to the Bears in the region meet by placing a pair of runners in the top-7 and five in the top-16.

Steven Sinnett led the Knights with a sixth-place finish, scoring a time of 17:07. Tanner Enloe was just a second behind Sinnett and finished seventh.

Dylan Crawford (10th, 17:16), Jeff Ford (15th, 17:34) and Schyler Knopp (16th, 17:36) finished in the top-20.

Blake Wangberg (26th, 18:00) and Alex Reimer (27th, 18:01) also had strong runs.

Palmer’s Wylie Mangelsdorf is the only other Valley runner to earn a spot in the state meet. Mangelsdorf qualified with a fourth-place finish in the Region III Championships.

Only five other runners posted better times than Manglesdorf’s finish of 16:30 during 4A region meets across the state.

Three of those don Kodiak jerseys.

The Su Valley Rams finished second in the Region II Championships to earn a spot in the state meet.

Bill Kelley (5th, 18:32), Tyler Figley (14th, 19:49), Skyler Hamler (15th, 20:01), Mike Stevenson (17th, 20:25), Brandon Parry (19th, 20:35) and Lee Bloczynski (33rd, 25:40) will run for the Rams in the state meet.

The meet starts with the 1-2-3A girls race at noon, the girls 4A race starts at 12:45 p.m., the boys 1-2-3A race is slated for 1:30 p.m. and the boys 4A race will follow at 2:15.

Event coincides with state meet

Organizers of the state cross country running championships will host a social event at the Palmer Train Depot today from 4-6 p.m., and the public is welcomed to attend.

According to race organizer Michael Janecek, the schools that host state championship events agree to provide some kind of social event that helps define the culture of their community.

This focus this year is the colonists. The TBA theater group from Anchorage will perform folk songs relative to that generation. There will also be guest speakers on hand to talk about the colonists and the history of the community.

And to continue a tradition, Janecek said event organizers will be serving home grown baked potatoes.

The event is scheduled to accommodate fans who wish to also attend the playoff football game that is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Palmer High School.

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