Wasilla High athlete second in Mount Marathon boys race

The junior boys winner was no surprise, while the junior girls winner was a complete surprise, Friday at the Mount Marathon Race in Seward.

After finishing second to Palmer’s Coby Marvin the past two years, Anchorage’s Vebjorn Flagstad, an incoming senior at South High, cruised to victory when Marvin aged up to the men’s race.

In the junior girls race, Calista Zuber, 14, of Anchorage took down a stacked field. The incoming South freshman said she hadn’t gotten into the race in two or three years of trying. Zuber’s mother successfully petitioned to get her daughter in, and Calista won with the very last bib number of all the racers.

Flagstad, 17, took 27 minutes, 31 seconds, to get halfway up and down the mountain course overlooking Seward. That was much slower than the 25:52 Flagstad put up in pursuit of Marvin last year, but still more than enough to top the 28:15 of Blaze Rubeo, 15, of Wasilla.

With the temperatures in the 50s and the course set up to be fast, Flagstad said it was hard to pace without Marvin there.

“My only goal last year was just hanging with Coby, and he’s just fast,” said Flagstad, who won in his final junior appearance. “I knew it was going to be a hard time to beat.

“I’m just happy with the win.”

Flagstad’s father, Trond, is a two-time men’s champion. Vebjorn added this win to a state skimeister title and a sophomore and a 3,200-meter crown at this spring’s Division I state track meet.

“This is up there,” said Flagstad, when asked where this victory ranks. “It’s so unique. It’s just an Alaskan race.”

The top Kenai Peninsula finisher was Seward’s Luke Elhard, 15. Elhard was 18th in 32:01. Last year, Elhard hit personal bests by finishing 13th in 31:17, but he said an injured ankle slowed him down this year.

“It’s amazing to see all these people here,” Elhard said of the crowds that swarmed the streets of Seward. “I’m glad to see that Seward is a good town and that people like to come here and race.”

The girls race had three former champions eligible to race, but last year’s champ, Olive Jordan, 15, of Seward did not start due to illness.

That still left 2023 champ Tania Boonstra, 17, of Kenai and 2022 champ Rosie Conway, 17, of Anchorage.

Also, Eagle River’s Hannah Bodkin, 17, had led at halfway last year, while Wren Spangler, 13, of Palmer was ready to progress to the top after finishing third in 2023 and second in 2024.

“You’ve got to look out for everyone, because you know there’s always going to be someone fast,” Boonstra said.

Boonstra said she got off to a good start and avoided a traffic jam going up the cliffs. She then was able to pull away from everyone except Zuber.

Zuber tracked Boonstra to the turnaround pole then passed her for good shortly after the downhill began.

Although she said this was her first race with a downhill like that, Zuber said practice with her father paid off.

“This is the biggest race I’ve won,” she said. “I won all of my middle school cross-country races.”

Zuber finished at 32:14, taking a minute out of Boonstra on the downhill. That’s the fastest junior girls winning time since Molly Gellert ran 31:55 in 2016.

Boonstra finished at 33:10, a 30-second personal record. She said the race felt good after taking spring track season off to rest her legs and have fun with family.