Alaska’s 2024 prep cross country season came to a close this past Saturday in Anchorage. Dozens of schools and hundreds of athletes took to Bartlett High School’s trails for the Alaska Cross Country Running State Championships over the five-kilometer (3.1 miles) racing distance.
Two Fairbanks athletes cruised to top-15 medal finishes in the loaded Division I (D1) races, and two Interior girls finished in the top five of their respective Division II and Division III races.
In a bit of a surprise, Fairbanks and Anchorage schools didn’t produce any top-three individual finishers across the three girls races.
Wasilla sophomore Hailee Giacobbe won the D1 girls title over Juneau-Douglas senior Ida Meyer by a five-second margin. She ran the fastest girls time of the day (19:04).
Lathrop sophomore Solveig Finstad delivered the best finish by any Fairbanks runner, placing eighth in a strong time of 19:48. She was the only Malemute girl in the top 50, as her team finished 10th.
West Valley finished one spot and five points ahead of Lathrop in the team standings, led by freshman Miriam Armstrong finishing 18th to become the only member of the Wolfpack to finish top 40.
Armstrong was the second freshman finisher in the D1 girls race, ahead of a few other notable Fairbanks rookies: Hayden Kumfer of the Student Wrestler Development Program (28th), Hazel Sutton of West Valley (43rd) and Olivia Collins of North Pole (44th).
Chugiak won a fourth-straight D1 girls team title in dominant fashion, tallying nearly half as many points (52-to-103) as runner-up Colony.
On the boys side, West Valley and North Pole finished last and second-to-last, respectively, of 11 teams. However, each had a strong lead runner. West Valley junior Nathan Vanderlugt placed 10th with a personal best of 17:03 in what was just his second race of the season, and North Pole junior Loch Johnson placed 16th after running 17:15.
Lathrop sophomore Brayden Bonin was the next local finisher, also breaking the 18-minute barrier (17:56) to place 42nd. East Anchorage sophomore Katahdin Staples won the D1 boys individual title in 16:30, just ahead of Erik Thompson and Nick Iverson of Juneau-Douglas, who finished runner-up in the team race behind Chugiak.
An Interior athlete, Tri-Valley junior Taylor Eddington, finished runner-up in the Division III girls race after running a season’s best mark of 20:22. Unalakleet junior Ourea Busk defended her state title over Eddington, who won in 2022.
Nenana freshmen Isabelle Jenkins and Rayne Personett placed third and sixth, respectively, as their team finished runner-up behind Petersburg, which also won the D3 boys title.
Delta Junction junior Iris Haas — the Region 6 champion — capped her first cross country season in a promising fashion. Despite running her slowest time (20:48) since her season opener, Haas placed fourth in Saturday’s Division II girls race. Her team finished fifth, one spot ahead of Monroe Catholic.
The Rams had a solid up-front presence, as seniors Ronni Bennett and Anya Simard finished 14th and 18th, respectively. They finished fifth last year without anyone in the top 20.
Sitka senior Clare Mullin won her second consecutive D2 state title, running 19:47 to defeat teammate Marina Dill, who was the runner-up. Seward narrowly beat Sitka for its third team title in a row.
Constancy was the theme in both Division II races, as Grace Christian senior Robbie Annett defended his individual boys title (running 16:14). His classmate, Colton Merriner, finished runner-up to help Grace Christian repeat as team champions.
The top D2 boys finisher from the Interior was Monroe Catholic sophomore Tristin Nicholson, who placed 18th in a season’s best 18:03 after finishing 25th at the state meet as a rookie last year.
His fellow Rams, sophomore Myles Werle and senior Asher McGlinchy, followed in 29th and 31st place, respectively. Delta Junction junior Anthony White was between them and Nicholson, placing 25th. Monroe Catholic finished eighth of eight teams.
