Warrior girls fourth at Palmer Invite

PALMER — After watching his girls team race to an impressive fourth-place finish at the Palmer Invitational Saturday, Wasilla cross country coach Gary Howell was left shaking his head.

“We’re supposed to be tired this week,” Howell said near the finish line.

Howell said he purposely put the Warriors through a grueling series of runs designed to break the team down in preparation for the more important region and state meets later this season.

“We ran really hard this week,” he said.

Instead of having dead legs for the state’s largest cross country meet Saturday, the Wasilla girls looked fresh. Kendra Nelson paced the Warriors with a 16th-place performance in a time of 20 minutes, 49.53 seconds, two spots ahead of teammate Katie Bialka. All seven of Wasilla’s varsity runners — Nelson, Bialka, Brooke Nelson, Jessica Gross, Elle Fuller, Emily Ripley and Amanda Dau — finished in the top 66 of the 125-runner field.

Nelson said she surprised herself with the unexpected finish, the best among Mat-Su girls in the race.

“I didn’t expect to finish like that,” she said.

Nelson credited Howell for making sure she was plenty hydrated before the race, which she said helped her endurance as the race wore on.

“I drank more water than usual, and I felt a lot stronger,” Nelson said.

Howell downplayed his coaching advice, giving Nelson the credit for her strong run.

“I think the real key is she’s just really fast,” he said.

He said the real key may have been telling his team to get off to a fast start in order to minimize the effect of the extremely wet and muddy race course.

“Our team is so fit, a fast start’s not going to hurt them,” Howell said.

West Valley’s Crystal Pitney won the race in a time of 19:27.37, while West Anchorage took the overall title. Anchorage Christian’s Nychele Fischetti won the girls’ 1-2-3A title, while the Grace Christian girls claimed the team title.

A total of 47 schools from across Alaska competed in the meet, which featured more than 1,000 runners from both the 1-2-3A and 4A divisions.

Heidi Doner finished 19th for the Colony Knights, which finished ninth overall in the 18-team girls class 4A race. Palmer’s Sarah Houchen was 32nd for the 12th-place Moose.

In the girls 1-2-3A race, Susitna Valley’s Missy Scott finished 17th to lead the Rams to an eighth-place performance.

With the state’s top teams all in competition — on the same course where state will be held later this month — the Palmer Invite is considered a good indicator of how things may shake out at state. Wasilla’s Gary Howell said his team’s soild showing at the meet gives him a lot of confidence as the season nears the home stretch.

“It’s kind of exciting to me,” he said.

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