Wrangell senior Kayla Rooney pushes herself to the limit as she qualifies for the Alaska state cross-country finals during the Region V tournament in Juneau.
The Wrangell Wolves cross-country team excelled at the Region V tournament in Juneau on Saturday, Sept. 22, sending three runners to the state finals set for this weekend in Anchorage.
In the boys’ race, senior Jacob Marshall took 3rd place with a final time of 18:17 – his best time ever – on what is reputed to be the hardest course in the region. Bryce Gerald followed up with a 9th place finish in 18:37 and was the only freshman among the top-20 runners at the event.
In the girls’ portion of the race, senior Kayla Rooney reached her goal of becoming a four-year state tournament competitor by placing 15th with a time of 23:46. Only the top-15 runners in each race make it to the state tournament.
After all was said and done, Marshall said he was happy, though he wishes he had taken part in cross-country earlier in his high school career.
“I feel great and it’s a wonderful feeling to make it to state in my first year,” he said. “I wish I could have done it longer and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The course was just a big mind game for me, though the second and third laps were most challenging.”
Gerald found the course a bit more difficult than Marshall – but credits head coach Monty Buness with keeping him going.
“It feels amazing now that it’s over, but the course was the toughest I have seen so far and was hard to run,” Gerald said. “Every time I ran by coach though, he motivated me to run - that is how I did it.”
Rooney, who edged in just under the wire with her 15th place finish said she is looking to excel at the state tournament this coming weekend.
“I’m so happy,” she said with a smile. “I pushed pretty hard at the end to get to that spot, and I remember coach Buness told me to ‘go get it’ in the home stretch. I made it and now I’m in. I am looking forward to having a good race in Anchorage and I plan to be better than last year.”
In 2011, Rooney finished the state tournament in 14th place with a time of 22:30.1.
For his part, Buness said it was his job to motivate and encourage as much as possible in Juneau.
“Every time they would pass me by, I would try hard to motivate them,” Buness said. “There were a lot of hills on the course and I would position myself at places around where I thought they needed motivation. They did all the work and I just cheered them on.”
In other boys’ results, Chester Armstrong finished in 38th place with a time of 20:07, while Blaine Wilson came in 44th with a final time of 20:46.
Asia Prus ended the day just off the pace for a state berth in 16th place, finishing in 23:56. Andrea Gillen took 37th place in 27:35, while Molly Prysunka took 45th place with a time of 29:46. Hannah Armstrong rounded out the Wrangell Wolves runners in 48th place in 31:22.
The state tournament will be held Saturday, Sept. 29 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.
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