Wasilla girls win title at wild region meet

PALMER — Saturday afternoon, Kenai Central freshman Allie Ostrander was wishing she hadn’t missed her Wheaties that morning. But whatever the Wasilla Warriors had for breakfast Saturday must have done the trick.

Powered by a pair of top-4 runners and four in the top 12, Wasilla worked its way to its second straight Region III title and fourth in six years during the Region III Cross-Country Running Championships at Palmer High School’s Michael Janecek Running Trails.

“This one is a lot more sweet,” Wasilla head coach Gary Howell said of the win. “The one thing though. It isn’t the end. We want to keep that ball rolling, and carry it into next week.”

It’s been an unusual season for the defending region and state championships. Last year, Wasilla coasted, winning team titles in every meet the Warriors entered. Wasilla didn’t graduate a scoring runner for the 2010 state championship team. But this year, the only win for the team, before Saturday, came in the Seward Invitational in early September.

“It was nice to finally win a meet,” Howell said. “We could have won other meets, but it would have hurt us.”

The Warriors took a different approach this season, Howell said, to preserve as much as possible for the final meets of the year.

“We changed some things. I think it paid off,” Howell said. “We were really strict this year. They were not allowed to go 100 percent until regions.”

All five of Wasilla’s scoring runners placed in the top 16, leaving the Warriors with a meet-low 43 points, nearly 40 points fewer than runner-up Kenai. Wasilla’s run to another title also included a surprise appearance by senior standout Morgan Dampier, who missed the entire regular season with an injury.

Sophomore Mariah Burroughs finished third for the Warriors, clocking a time of 18:53. Freshman Peggy Mathis, another first-year surprise in Region III, was fourth at 19:11.

“She’s turned out to be a really good teammate and runner,” Wasilla junior Jenna Ford said of Mathis.

Ford finished eighth for the Warriors at 19:52. Dampier was 12th and senior Jessica Pahkala finished 16th.

Ostrander did basically the same thing she’s done all season. The Kenai Central freshman started fast, steadily built an almost unbelievable lead and ran uncontested for basically the entire race.

Ostrander coasted to her first career region title, but despite the win, something felt different for Ostrander, who missed her own course record by about 16 seconds.

“I didn’t think I had as good of a race as I did a couple of weeks ago,” said Ostrander, who set a Janecek Trails record with her time of 17:51 at the Palmer Invitational earlier this month. “I know this sounds really funny, but every time before my race, for my breakfast I have Wheaties, you know the breakfast of champions. I didn’t have my Wheaties today and that was really hard.”

Despite missing her go-to breakfast, Ostrander still dominated, posting an 18:07. Ostrander led by 15 seconds at a half-mile, 23 seconds heading into the second mile and pushed her lead to 43 seconds going into the final mile-lap of the 5-kilometer loop.

The win was just another highlight during a phenomenal freshman year.

“I didn’t know what to expect at all,” Ostrander said about her first year of high school running. “I raced in middle school and won my races, but it’s so much different in high school, so much more competitive. I’m really happy with how the season’s gone.”

For Wasilla, Ford said it was especially good to have Dampier back.

“It was a big morale (boost),” Ford said. “She’s a big leader on our team.”

Dampier, a three-time track and field state champion who helped lead the Warriors to state titles in cross-country and track as a junior, has spent the entire season off the trail recovering from an iliotibial band injury, which leads to pain and inflammation outside of the knee. Before Saturday she had not run with the team since Aug. 17. Since, Howell said, Dampier has seen a physical therapist in Wasilla and made the community to Anchorage to seek additional therapy as she tried to rehabilitate.

Howell said Dampier’s return lifted the team.

“I think it was probably the single contributing factor to everybody’s confidence,” Howell said. “I know now much it effected our team positively.”

Dampier also ran a time of 20:12, which is actually five seconds faster than her 12th-place finish at the region meet last year. Dampier ran so hard, she collapsed in a state of exhaustion at the finish line as she edged Palmer’s Hana Bohman.

Dampier was on the grass right next to the finish line for an extended time after the race. Friends, teammates, medical personal and even rivals circled Dampier to make sure she was OK.

Dampier was up walking within 20 minutes after her finish.

“I ran until I had nothing left. I just gave it my all,” Dampier said.

There was a question whether Dampier, who being recruited by Division I track and field programs, would be ready to run at all during the fall season.

“There’s always doubt, but I knew in the end, I had to make a sacrifice for my team,” Dampier said. “I knew that I could sacrifice my body for my team. That’s what I did.”

Dampier was not the only runner to fall during the race. In a scary scene, Kenai Central’s Bailey Beeson collapsed and passed out at the 3-K mark of the race. Beeson, who has an unknown heart condition and also passed out during the state championships last year, was taken by ambulance to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Kenai Central coach D’Anna Gibson told the Peninsula Clarion Beeson was coherent and doing better by Saturday evening.

Beeson was in a top-5 position when her race ended.

“I’m just really hoping she’s OK,” Colony junior Audrey Michaelson said. “I could tell something was bothering her. She’s incredible. I just hope she’s OK.”

Michaelson finished as the region runner-up for the second consecutive season. All things considered, she said she’s happy with her finish and time of 18:41.

“That was my goal. It’s hard to set goals when the competition’s so stiff,” Michaelson said. “Everybody is so tough. It’s so unpredictable, you never know what’s going to happen.”

While the run for No. 1 was uncontested, the race for spots 2 through 5 was a highlight of the championships.

During the first lap on the three-lap loop, Burroughs held in second, holding a slight edge over Mathis. Michaelson, Beeson and Soldotna’s Bree Mucha were locked in a pack.

Michaelson said at the end of the second lap she was able to pass Beeson and Mathis, and about 800 meters into the third lap she was able to catch Burroughs.

“I just decided to push ahead and go for her and try to break away,” Michaelson said.

Michaelson was one of a pair of Knights to place in the top 15 and qualify for next week’s state championships at Bartlett High School. Makenzie Thompson was 11th.

Wasilla, runner-up Kenai, Kodiak and Palmer were the four teams to qualify for the state meet. The Moose edged rival Colony by only three points.

Ellen Jorgenson led the Moose with an eight-place finish. Bohman finished 13th and Heidi Hanna was 20th.

Mucha will represent Soldotna in the state meet, thanks to her fifth-place finish. Hope Steffensen (sixth) and Taylor Ostrander (14th) also placed in the top-15 for runner-up Kenai.

Region III Cross-Country Running Championships

Saturday, Michael Janecek Running Trails

Region III-4A girls team standings:

1. Wasilla 43; 2. Kenai 82; 3. Kodiak 84; 4. Palmer 103; 5. Colony 106; 6. Soldotna 133; 7. Homer 162; 8. Skyview 215.

Region III-4A girls individual results:

1. A. Ostrander, Ken 18:07; 2. A. Michaelson, Col 18:41; 3. M. Burroughs, Was 18:53; 4. P. Mathis, Was 19:11; 5. B. Mucha, Sol 19:27; 6. H. Steffensen, Ken 19:39; 7. A. Horn, Kod 19:44; 8. J. Ford, Was 19:52; 9. E. Jordenson, Pal 20:00; 10. D. McCormick, Sol 20:05; 11. M. Thompson, Col 20:08; 12. M. Dampier, Was 20:12; 13. H. Bohman, Pal 20:13; 14. T. Ostrander, Ken 20:16; 15. L. Cawthorn, Kod 20:24; 16. J. Pahkala, Was 20:28; 17. N. Schmitter-Schrier, Ken 20:34; 18. M. Ringgenberg, Was 20:47; 19. M. Wilkins, Kod 20:51; 20. H. Hanna, Pal 20:59; 21. S. Ng, Kod 21:06; 22. M. Barnett, Kod 21:20; 23. T. Bolyard, Kod 21:25; 24. M. Osiensky, Pal 21:26; 25. R. Burroughs, Was 21:37; 26. H. Hutchinson, Sky 21:40; 27. C. Soistman, Hom 21:41; 28. P. Jantzi, Hom 21:47; 29. T. Haan, Col 21:51; 30. J. Kopsack, Col 22:02; 31. K. Millsten, Kod 22:06; 32. R. Seneff, Hom 22:13; 33. S. Fox, Sol 22:18; 34. B. Meier, Col 22:32; 35. A. Miller, Hom 22:44; 36. R. Diotte, Col 22:44; 37. M. Southwick, Pal 23:00; 38. M. Merkes, Sol 23:01; 39. C. Winter, Sky 23:01; 40. V. Mostolier, Hom 23:06; 41. W. Nagel, Col 23:10; 42. A. Woodings, Pal 23:29; 43. M. Peters, Hom 23:31; 44. C. Kiefer, Ken 23:49; 45. M. Tuner, Hom 23:54; 46. B. Schindler, Ken 23:40; 47. J. Bramante, Sol 25:46; 48. M. Valenzuela, Sol 26:19; 49. K. Fischer, Sky 27:18; 50. S. Holben, Sky 28:15; 51. A. Farrington, Sky 28:57.