Wasilla High girls score 3-peat

SOLDOTNA — Heading into the region meet, Wasilla head coach Gary Howell said he’d love to see five Warriors finish in the top 10 of the girls’ race.

Wasilla may have missed that goal, but the Warriors placed three runners in the top five. And that was more than enough to help Wasilla grab its third straight region title during the Region III Championships cross-country race at Tsalteshi Trails in Soldotna Saturday afternoon.

“Three in the top five is really good. I’m definitely happy to get the three-peat. It’s surreal that it’s going to be my last one,” said Howell, who is stepping down as the head coach of the Wasilla cross-country program following the 2012 season.

Mariah Burroughs, Peggy Mathis and Jenna Ford finished third, fourth and fifth respectively to lead Wasilla to its third straight region title and fifth in seven years.

Burroughs clocked a time of 19 minutes and 9 seconds to finish third. Mathis crossed the finish line at 19:47, while Ford finished at the 19:59 mark.

“All three ran really good races,” Howell said. “They were really strong.”

Riley Burroughs (12th), Mandi Ringgenberg (15th) and Alysha Devine (20th) also finished in the top 20 for Wasilla.

Colony senior Audrey Michaelson used her runner-up finish to lead the Colony Knights to a second-place finish in the team standings. Wasilla and Colony are two of the three Region III teams that automatically qualify for next week’s state championships at Bartlett High School. Soldotna finished third and is also headed to state.

Michaelson, who finished as the Region III runner-up for the second straight year, clocked a time of 19:05. Colony head coach Mark Strabel said the Knights were careful about how Michaelson raced Saturday.

“She ran a really conservative race. We didn’t want her to go out to hard,” Strabel said by cellphone from Soldotna Saturday.

Kenai sophomore Allie Ostrander won the girls region title in decisive fashion for the second straight year, using a time of 18:10 to win on Saturday.

Makenzie Thompson also posted a top-10 finish for the Knights, placing seventh with a time of 20:02. Bailey Meier was 14th for Colony, and Samantha Victor finished 22nd.

Wasilla finished with a meet-low 39 total points to win the girls’ title. Colony was second at 70, just ahead of Soldotna’s 73.

Colony, led by Brandon Schafer’s big third-place finish, also was second in the boys’ team standings, and the Knights will send both its boys and girls teams to state.

“I’m happy with what we were aiming for. Our main goal was to go to state. Now we want to race even faster at state,” said Strabel, who was named the Region III Coach of the Year.

Schafer, who spent a chunk of the race running in fifth, used a late burst to grab his third-place finish. Schafer clocked a time of 17:02.54, just ahead of Kodiak’s Julian McCarthy (17:02.85). Palmer’s Chris Osiensky and Sean Hermann finished fifth and sixth respectively.

“He just out-kicked Chris and Julian right there at the end,” Strabel said of Schafer. “The course suited him very well.”

Boaz Sessom, who won the Mat-Su Borough Championships title last week, was eighth. Strabel was also impressed with Darien Sinnett’s 10th-place finish.

“Darien, he was our sleeper, and he really came through,” Strabel said.

Lyon Kopsack (14th), Lane Reed (15th), Kamber Lucas (17th) and Ben Atkinson (20th) all finished in the top 20 for Colony.

Brenden Lee finished 11th for Wasilla and will represent the Warrior boys at the state meet.

Kodiak won the boys title with 32 points. Colony was second at 50, well ahead of third-place Kenai’s 72.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com, follow him @matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.

Girls team scores:

1. Wasilla 39, 2. Colony 70, 3. Soldotna 73, 4. Kodiak 76, 5. Kenai 102, 6. Palmer 153.

Girls individual results:

1. A. Ostrander, Ken 18:10.32; 2. A. Michaelson, Col 19:05; 3. M. Burroughs, Was 19:09; 4. Peggy Mathis, Was 19:47; 5. J. Ford, Was 19:59; 6. H. Steffensen, Ken 20:02.27; 7. M. Thompson, Col 20:02.67; 8. D. McCormick, Sol 20:17; 9. O. Hutchings, Sol 20:18; 10. L. Cawthorn, Kod 20:33; 11. A. Horn, Kod 20:34; 12. R. Burroughs, Was 20:40. 13. Z. Bigley, Kod 20:45; 14. B. Meier, Col 20:48; 15. M. Ringgenberg, Was 21:09; 16. R. Thomas, Sol 21:15; 17. S. Contreras, Pal 21:19; 18. M. Barnett, Kod 21:22; 19. E. Werner, Sol 21:22; 20. A. Devine, Was 21:22; 21. S. Fox, Sol 21:33; 22. S. Victor, Col 21:39; 23. H. Pothast, Sol 21:48; 24. S. Ng, Kod 21:53; 25. T. Haan, Col 22:05; 26. J. Kopsack, Col 22:13; 27. T. Spaic, Col 22:18; 28. T. Bolyard, Kod 22:30; 29. S. Armstrong, Kod 22:38; 30. C. Stroh, Ken 22:59; 31. A. Bergholtz, Ken 23:00; 32. M. Osiensky, Pal 23:05; 33. M. Southwick, Pal 23:11; 34. B. Schindler, Ken 23:24; 35. A. Qualls, Pal 23:25; 36. M. Lundin, Pal 23:33; 37. D. Ingersoll, Was 24:04; 38. D. Cummings, Pal 24:20; 39. A. Reilly, Ken 24:28; 40. M. Saltzetti, Ken 25:32.

Boys team scores:

1. Kodiak 32, 2. Colony 50, 3. Kenai 72, 4. Palmer 85, 5. Wasilla 112.

Boys individual results:

1. L. Thomet, Kod 16:30; 2. C. Christiansen, Kod 16:36; 3. B. Schafer, Col 17:02.54; 4. J. McCarthy, Kod 17:02.85; 5. C. Osiensky, Pal 17:07; 6. S. Hermann, Pal 17:16; 7. J. Theisen, Ken 17:16; 8. B. Sessom, Col 17:23; 9. C. Hannah, Kod 17:23; 10. D. Sinnett, Col 17:24; 11. B. Lee, Was 17:25; 12. F. Michaud, Ken 17:27; 13. J. Theisen, Ken 17:31; 14. L. Kopsack, Col 17:43; 15. L. Reed, Col 17:47; 16. E. Fields, Kod 17:51; 17. K. Lucas, Col 17:52; 18. N. Mole, Ken 18:00; 19. J. Gentz, Pal 18:12; 20. B. Atkinson, Col 18:14; 21. K. Frick, Was 18:15; 22. T. Cooper, ken 18:15; 23. D. Evereitt, Ken 18:17; 24. J. LeVan, Kod 18:23; 25. R. Steiner, Was 18:25; 26. A. Swedberg, Sol 18:30; 27. B. Carricaburu, Was 18:41; 28. B. Mahan, Pal 18:43; 29. R. Kavalok, Pal 18:45; 30. S. Carpenter, Was 18:51; 31. C. Pulver, Was 18:51; 32. T. Marshall, Was 18:52; 33. C. Jensen, Pal 19:09; 34. I. Bingham, Pal 19:14; 35. Q. Fuller, Ken 19:26; 36. C. Diehl, Sol 20:15.