Wasilla girls win Region III title; Colony sophomore the girls' runner-up

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors may not have posted their fastest times of the season, but they did enough to post another banner on the Wasilla High School gymnasium wall.

Wasilla placed five runners in the top 11 and earned the 2010 Region III girls’ team title Saturday at the Tsalteshi Trails at Skyview High School in Soldotna.

“We didn’t have our best race, but we still won,” Wasilla head coach Gary Howell said by cell phone of his Warriors, who captured their first region team title since 2007. “We might have been a little tired, but that’s OK. We have room to grow next week.”

Wasilla and Colony, which finished third in the girls’ team standings, will now take their squads to the ASAA/First National State Championships slated for next Saturday at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.

Freshman Mariah Burroughs was the first of the five Warriors who finished in the top 11 to cross the finish line. Burroughs notched a third-place finish. But Colony sophomore Audrey Michaelson was the first Valley runner to finish the race.

Michaelson recorded a time of 19 minutes and 16 seconds to finish as the runner-up.

“She ran a fantastic race today,” Colony head coach Mark Strabel said by phone from Soldotna. “We knew she’d be up there in the mix and the way things panned out, Audrey ran awesome.”

Wasilla sophomore Jenna Ford, the 2009 Region III girls’ champ, joined her teammate, Burroughs, in the top five and finished fifth. Sophomore Mandi Ringgenberg was seventh. Junior Jessica Pahkala finished fifth and junior Morgan Dampier was 11th.

Kodiak’s Jaymi Bethea was on the girls region title.

The Warriors have spent the 2010 season running at the front of the pack, and that continued on Saturday, even though Howell thought many of his runners looked tired on the Tsalteshi Trails.

“They ran tired, but they still ran well enough to win the region title,” Howell said.

Howell said he knows his athletes are far from drained.

“The tank is not empty, if anything, there’s quite a bit to add,” Howell said.

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