Warriors try to tame Bears, finish second to Kodiak

PALMER — Gary Howell thought his team had a chance, thought his Wasilla squad could be the ones who finally knock the Kodiak Bears off their cross country running throne.

Howell’s Warriors pushed the Bears, but Kodiak didn’t budge.

Kodiak placed four runners in the top nine, a group led by individual winner Dylan Anthony, and won its eighth straight region team title at the Region III Championships at the Crevasse Moraine Trails outside of Palmer on Saturday.

“They’re a juggernaut, man,” Howell said after learning his team finished as the runner-up, just four points behind the Bears.

Wasilla sophomore Michael Johnston finished third and led a trio of Warriors in the top six. WHS seniors Drew Ford and Alden Lee finished fifth and sixth respectively.

“We made them work though,” Howell said. “That’s the first time anyone has made those guys work in a while.”

Palmer senior Wylie Mangelsdorf finished second overall, and helped the Moose post a third-place finish in the team standings. Colony was fourth,

Mangelsdorf, who is back on the trail after missing a week due to illness earlier this month, said the 2009 championships proved to be one of the “weirdest” races of his career.

“It was just different,” Mangelsdorf said. “The whole race I was not feeling tired at all, but I was feeling like I was going really slow.”

Mangelsdorf recovered from an early spill on the muddy Crevasse Moraine course to post a runner-up time of 16 minutes and 50.6 seconds.

“I took one wrong step and slipped sideways,” Mangelsdorf said.

Anthony, who won his first region title with a time of 16:16, led Mangelsdorf by just three seconds as the top runners made the turn into the second lap. But by the beginning of the third lap, Anthony had stretched that three-second lead to double digits.

With Anthony steadily increasing his lead, Mangelsdorf said he opted for a conservative strategy for the latter portion of the race.

“I was going fast to stay with him and he started pulling ahead,” Mangelsdorf said. “I didn’t want to stay with him and just crash terribly.”

With Anthony and Mangelsdorf out front, Johnston, Ford and Lee steadily moved along in their own pack.

“We tried to stay with each other,” Johnston said. “We were trying to help each other out.”

That proved to work, as the Warriors showed significant improvement from the 2008 region meet.

Johnston notched third, after finishing 29th last year.

“I had a feeling he’d run a top five,” Howell said of Johnston.

Ford, meanwhile, improved from 23rd last year to fifth in regions this season.

“He had a great race,” Howell said of Ford. “He’s been really big for us this year.”

Lee, a junior varsity runner last year, finished sixth.

Noah Ripley (10th) and Josh Pahkala (15th) also finished in the top-15 for the Warriors.

“I thought we’d get four in the top-15, I didn’t think we’d get five,” Howell said.

Piers LaFrance (12th), Chris Osiensky (16th) and Jacob Whipple (19th) posted top-20 finishes to help the Moose finish third in the team standings.

Dylan Crawford (11th), Alex Reimer (17th) and Schyler Knopp (20th) finished in the top-20 to lead Colony to a fourth-place finish in the team standings.

Wasilla, Palmer and Colony earned three of the region’s four spots in the upcoming state championships.

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

Region III Championships

Saturday, Crevasse Moraine

Region III-4A boys’ team scores:

1. Kodiak 35, 2. Wasilla 39, 3. Palmer 76, 4. Colony 93, 5. Homer 170, 6. Soldotna 180, 7. Kenai 182, 8. Skyview 196. 9. Houston 235.

Region III- 4A boys

individual results:

1. D. Anthony, Kod 16:16.9; 2. W. Mangelsdorf, Pal 16:50.6; 3. M. Johnston, Was 17:29.0; 4. C. Davidson, Kod 17:30.4; 5. D. Ford, Was 17:30.8; 6. A. Lee, Was 17:31.6; 7. T. Seims, Hom 17:40.1; 8. J. Salus, Kod 17:44.8; 9. J. Fogle, Kod 17:45.7; 10. N. Ripley, Was 17:46.1; 11. D. Crawford, Col 17:50.1; 12. P. LaFrance, Pal 17:56.8; 13. C. Nymeyer, Kod 17:58.1; 14. C. Christiansen, Kod 17:59.8; 15. J. Pahkala, Was 18:02.0; 16. C. Osiensky, Pal 18:02.5; 17. A. Reimer, Col 18:03.4; 18. J. Christensen, Was 18:04.8; 19. J. Whipple, Pal 18:06.2; 20. S. Knopp, Col 18:12.8; 21. K. Thompson, Was 18:13.6; 22. B. Wangberg, Col 18:19.3; 23. T. Enloe, Col 18:19.6; 24. M. Gilbert, Kod 18:21.9; 25. E. Clay, Sol 18:22.8; 26. B. Holt, Sky 18:23.1; 27. W. Peltier, Pal 18:34.4; 28. M. Minturn, Pal 18:45.3; 29. J. Day, Pal 18:51.1; 30. J. Warner, Hou 18:52.6; 31. S. Harju, Sky 18:57.4; 32. J. Watkins, Ken 19:00.0; 33. A. Mole, Ken 19:07.5; 34. D. Jensen, Sol 19:07.8; 35. L. Patrick, Sol 19:09.1; 36. C. McCarron, Hom 19:12.1; 37. J. Misner, Ken 19:27.2; 38. E. Atchley, Ken 19:28.7; 39. I. Harbison, Sol 19:29.7; 40. G. McCarthy, Hom 19:33.7; 41. B. Sparks, Sky 19:34.0; 42. A. Springer, Ken 19:35.9; 43. D. Adickes, Hom 19:41.1; 44. K. Rowe, Hom 19:42.4; 45. A. Meyerhofer, Col 19:47.1; 46. D. Drake, Hou 19:55.6; 47. R. Sanders, Sol 19:56.3; 48. N. Perry, Sky 20:33.0; 49. J. Ritchey, Hou 20:36.7; 50. K. Cooper, Sky 20:37.1; 51. J. Marsh, Sky 20:42.7; 52. B. Vadla, Sol 20:43.1; 53. L. Danielson, Sky 20:54.3; 54. A. Reese, Hou 21:25.4; 55. D. Faulkner, Hom 21:28.1; 56. G. Elder, Hou 23:08.9.

Region III-1-2-3A boys

team scores:

1. Grace Christian 17, 2. Seward 52, 3. Anchorage Christian 75, 4. Valdez 99, Cordova 147.

Region III-1-2-3A boys

individual results:

1. J. Kirk, Gra 16:13.6; 2. A. Arnold, Gra 17:21.4; 3. J. Weber, Gra 17:35.1; 4. B. Chase, Sew 17:36.4; 5. J. Klein, Gra 17:43.9; 6. J. Dillon, Gra 17:49.8; 7. G. Keeney, Val 17:50.8; 8. Matt Baker, ACS 17:57.0; 9. A. Gillespie, Sew 17:59.0; 10. L. Charters, ACS 18:08.3; 11. C. Davis, Gra 18:20.4; 12. M. Knotek, Sew 18:25.6; 13. S. Strickland, Nik 18:34.1; 14. S. Pfulger, Sew 18:37.6; 15. J. Marshall, Sew 18:41.2; 16. A. Buchanan, Sew 18:41.2; 17. M. Finn, ACS 18:41.7; 18. J. Edwards, Gra 18:45.8; 19. J. Edwards, gra 18:45.8; 20. J. Atherton, Sew 19:02.8.