Clowning around with the cross-country girls, teacher Anne Luetkemeyer (third from left) and secondary schools principal Bill Schwan (at center, wearing a skirt) show support for the team before Saturday's invitational in Wrangell.
Exhausted, Wrangell senior JD Barratt gets helped away from the finish line after completing Saturday morning's cross-country invitational. He completed the race in 18th place among the boys, finishing with a time of 18:37.
Ten high school teams made it to Wrangell over the weekend, with over 200 students taking part in an invitational cross-country meet.
Hosted by Wrangell High School, participating runners gathered at the 40 mph sign on Ishiyama Road early Saturday, the starting point for the five-kilometer course. Intermittent rain paused for the two races, which were split between men and women.
Wrangell's route cycles twice along the paths of Muskeg Meadows Golf Course, a hilly, muddy trail which posed a challenge due to the recent rainfall. One student during the mens event even lost a shoe on the course, though he still finished despite being stocking-footed.
The earlier of the two events, the mens race had 118 entrants. Five of these were from Wrangell, and of them, senior JD Barratt finished earliest with a time of 18:37.35, in 18th place. Overall, the Wrangell boys finished in eighth place with 234 points.
In cross-country, scores are tallied by adding together points based on the placements of a team's first five runners. The team receiving the lowest overall score therefore wins.
In the Wrangell meet, Juneau-Douglas High School boys placed first with 33 points, followed by Sitka with 37 and Ketchikan with 84. Petersburg's team came in fifth place, with 122 points. Top finishers were Juneau junior Arne Ellefson-Carnes in 16:46.03, Sitka sophomore Dominic Baciocco in 16:52.85, and Sitka junior Joe Pate in 16:55.46.
In the womens event, seven teams participated, fielding 91 runners. Wrangell ran with eight students, who followed other teams overall in seventh with 181 points. First among them was sophomore Skylar Larrabee, with a time of 25:11.46 putting her in 44th overall. She was followed by freshman Mercy Mikkelson in 48th place, with a time of 25:51.38, and classmates Adriana Larrabee and Jing O'Brien in 52nd and 55th place, respectively.
Juneau-Douglas' runners placed first overall for the womens race with 30 points, followed by Thunder Mountain with 53 points and Petersburg with 55. Top finishers in Saturday's meet were Juneau-Douglas sophomore Sadie Tuckwood with a time of 18:23.50, more than a minute and a half ahead of classmate Anna Iverson in second, with 19:54.15. Behind them were three freshmen, Thunder Mountain's Hannah Deer in 20:23.26, Juneau-Douglas' Jasmin Holst in 20:46.42, and Petersburg's Maia Cowan in 20:53.44.
"I'm proud of my team," Wrangell coach Jenn Davies said afterward. Cross-country next heads to Sitka this weekend, before heading down to Ketchikan for Region V the following week.
"I just want to thank everyone for all their support," Davies added. Parents and faculty volunteered their time to put the meet together, from cutting up oranges and taking times, to hosting the visiting students and cheering them on. "It was amazing," the coach concluded.
The invitational was the largest Wrangell has hosted in the past decade, just edging out the 208 participating in 2015.
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