Valley squads score top-five finishes in state running meet

Oct. 1, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman

SOLDOTNA - Colony High's boys cross country running team finished second overall at the Class 4A championship meet in Soldotna Saturday.

The Knights weren't the only team from the Valley to crack the top-five. The Wasilla girls, which won the Region III title last weekend finished fourth overall behind three nationally-ranked teams.

Wasilla senior Jimmy Sliwa was the fastest runner from the Valley Saturday, finishing eighth overall, with a time of 17 minutes, 5.4 seconds. According to Wasilla coach Gary Howell, Sliwa got boxed in a large pack of runners at the start of the race and had to work for most of the race to break free.

&#8220He really turned it on over the final quarter-mile,” Howell said. &#8220He must have passed 10 people in the last part of the race. He has a strong kick, and it helped him today.”

Leading the way for the Colony boys were top-20 finishes by Antone Zagars (12th, 17:10.9), Cody Huggins (13th, 17:12.9) and Ryan Van Gorder (14, 17:13.2). Their strongtimes helped the Knights finish as runner up to Kodiak with 92 points.

The Bears literally ran away with the title, placing three runners in the top-five, including individual champion Trevor Dunbar who finished in 16:18.8. Teammate Cory Pena finished third (16:45.7) and Lucas Fried was fourth (16:51.0). Kodiak finished with a team score of 35.

As expected the race for the team title came down to the West Valley Wolfpack, Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears and the West Anchorage Eagles. Currently the teams are ranked second, third and fourth respectively by the Hy-Tek Running West Regional Poll. The rankings held true as that was the order of finish for the girls title.

Chasing the ranked teams down was the Wasilla Warriors, who were lead by Katie Bialka's 25th place finish. Bialka's 20:31 time was also the fastest turned in by a Valley runner in the girls race.

&#8220It's not to bad to be the fourth place team,” Howell said. &#8220Especially when you finish behind three of the top ranked teams in the country.”

Other top local finishers include Jaquie Lutz of Palmer who finished 27th and Johanna Doner who was 30th.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.