Hallidie Wilt didn't become a runner because of the places it might take her. She became a runner because of the places it might take her away from.

Not that she isn't a fan of Unalaska, where she has lived her whole life. She loves it there. Her parents met there and raised four daughters there.

But it's a dot on the Aleutian chain, a tiny and remote island made famous by the fishermen of Dutch Harbor. One of 28 kids in her graduating class, Wilt took every chance available to vote herself off the island by joining all the high school sports teams she could.

"I was in swimming, basketball, volleyball. It's such a small island, you do anything to get off the island," Wilt said.

She had a knack for running more than anything else, placing fifth at the Class 1-2-3A state high school cross-country championships as a senior. When she graduated and enrolled at UAA in 2007, she decided to see if she had what it takes to be a member of the school's cross-country team, even though no scholarship offer had come her way.

She turned out to be one of the Seawolves' most deadliest catches.

In the first two races of her junior season, Wilt has solidly established herself as one of the team's top runners. She was second overall in the season-opening UAA Invitational and last week placed third in the open race at the University of Washington's Sundodger Invitational. Each time, she was UAA's No. 2 finisher, behind Kenya's Ruth Jeptoo.

These days Wilt is on scholarship and part of a women's team ranked seventh nationally among NCAA Division II schools. And perhaps no one is more surprised by her emergence as a legitimate college runner than UAA coach Michael Friess.

"I suspected she had talent, but when I first saw her run, I thought I was wrong about that because she was very unfit when she came," Friess said.

But she was also very motivated. With no prodding needed, Wilt dedicated herself to daily training and showed her coach that his initial instincts about her -- that she has talent -- were correct.

"She took off," Friess said. "She wants to run and train hard."

Wilt is from a family of runners, the daughter of parents who put their kids on skis early so they'd learn to be active. Her sister Andrea qualified for the state high school championships four times for the Raiders, and often young Hallidie tagged along on training runs.

"She would go running with Andrea because Andrea didn't want to run by herself," said mother Annabelle Wilt. "Andrea would say, 'Gosh, Mom, she keeps up with me,' and it would just really shock her. And Hallidie, she would do it effortlessly."

Wilt's talent was natural, and with the help of high school coach Eric Andersen she was able to improve from 10th place at the state meet as a junior to fifth place as a senior.

But Unalaska isn't the best place for a runner to hone her skills. The weather often serves up wind, rain and fog, and the trails are a mix of beachfronts, old World War II roads and dirt roads. There are no trees, so there is nothing to provide a barrier between a runner and the elements.

"It's hard to train there," Wilt said. "There's not a lot of places to go, and there's always people driving by and they'll stop and want to talk to you."

Wilt confirms Friess's claim that she wasn't very fit when she first showed up at a UAA cross-country practice. She didn't develop great training habits in high school because she didn't really have to.

"In high school you don't take it as serious," she said. "You play around on your runs."

Once at UAA, she said, she quickly got into shape -- and she quickly fell in love with training and racing.

About midway through her freshman season, Friess named Wilt to the traveling team for the Western Washington Invitational -- her first race with the Seawolves. She finished 25th overall and was UAA's No. 3 finisher.

"I kind of proved myself," Wilt said, "and I got really excited."

She followed up her promising debut by finishing as UAA's No. 3 runner, and 14th overall, at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships; as a sophomore last season, she placed eighth at the GNAC championships and again was UAA's No. 3 runner.

Over the summer Wilt made a couple trips home to Unalaska, but a big part of her focus was training in Anchorage for the 5.6-mile race at the Mayor's Marathon. She easily won that race, posting a time of 34 minutes, 12 seconds, almost three minutes faster than anyone else. Then she stormed into her junior season at UAA with two top-three finishes in two races.

Wilt is part of a wildly diverse UAA team. Its 26 members include seven from Kenya, one from Canada, two from the Lower 48 and 16 from the many corners of Alaska -- Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Haines, Soldotna, Juneau, Anchorage, the Valley and, thanks to Wilt, Unalaska.

Wilt's unusual name comes from a famous relative, Andrew Hallidie, a great, great uncle on her father's side. He was an engineer who came to the United States from London, settled in San Francisco and is credited with designing the cable car.

The name comes with some pronunciation challenges. "Lots of people call her Holiday," her mom said, but the name is pronounced Hal-uh-dee, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

And while she doesn't boast her own Wikipedia entry like Uncle Andrew does, Wilt is making a name for herself as a top runner on one of the nation's top running teams -- and putting Unalaska on the map for something other than fishing.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.

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