West boys, Chugiak girls crush it at CIC cross-country championships

Before the boys varsity race at Saturday's Cook Inlet Conference cross-country championships, the West Eagles huddled at the starting line for a team cheer.

"Crush! Kill! Maim!"

"It means maim the course," West coach Ruth Barndt said in an effort to soften the battle cry.

Maybe, but opponents took a bruising too.

In a display of nearly total domination, the West boys ruled the day on the Bartlett High trails, from the open race to the JV race to the varsity race.

Service High runner Gus Schumacher made sure the Eagles didn't soar off with all of the big prizes — he won the 5-kilometer varsity race by a comfortable margin — but other than that the boys competition was all West, all the time.

With senior Finn Walker leading the way, West won its fourth straight CIC title. All seven varsity runners finished in the top 15, with six of them placing in the top 10.

Impressive as that was, it was nothing compared to what West's JV boys did. Those seven runners grabbed the top seven places, something seldom seen in cross country.

"That got us all really pumped up," Walker said.

Walker held off Hamish Wolfe of South at the finish line to grab second place for the Eagles, who got a fourth-place finish from Declan Dammeyer.

A little farther back, five seconds separated a pack of four West runners — Luke Jager, Foster Birnbaum, Tristan Wiese and Ethan Davis — who placed seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

The West girls had a big day too, although it was the Chugiak girls who ran off with the team trophy.

The Mustangs put their top five runners in the top 17 to claim their second straight CIC team title. Brynn Kruchoski and Adrianna Proffitt paced Chugiak by placing third and fourth, respectively.

Chugiak barely missed its goal of landing five girls in the top 15, but Kruchoski called the day a good one.

"It is a success," she said, "because we all worked hard and we all did our best."

Molly Gellert of West won the girls 5K, improving on her second-place finish from a year ago, when now-graduated Morgan Lash of South came from behind to beat her.

There was no denying Gellert this time. She built a big lead early and had cushion to spare when Service sophomore Grace Fahrney came from seemingly nowhere for a second-place finish.

"I definitely could hear her name being called behind me," Gellert said. "It helps to have someone who pushes you, because otherwise it's easy to slow down."

Gellert finished in 19 minutes, 15 seconds to beat Fahrney by eight seconds. Gellert is the defending state champion, but earning her first conference title felt good, she said.

"State is big, but this is our region, and we have a lot of really good competition in this region," she said. "It's not an easy meet."

Fahrney was the surprise of the day — she wasn't even on Service's varsity team a year ago.

"It's the best race of my life," she said.

"Last season I didn't really train. I didn't know I was good at running," Fahrney said. "This year I was determined to come in with a little more training. … I started making myself go out and run a minimum of two times a week."

Schumacher said the Service boys got a boost from Fahrney's performance.

"That was so impressive," he said. "It gave us a little bit of confidence. We know we have the potential, but when someone does that 10 minutes before (your race) it really helps."

Schumacher turned in a decisive effort, winning by 19 seconds in 15:41.

Remarkably, it was just his third race of the season. Schumacher is one of the state's top skiers, and he's taking a moderate approach to the running season because skiing is his focus.

"I don't want to race too much too early," he said.

Schumacher's big goal this school year is to qualify for the World Junior Championships in skiing. He mixes his running workouts with roller skiing and strength training as he prepares for a January ski series that will determine whether he makes the World Junior team.

Saturday's win, he said, "means my training has paid off."

Schumacher and Fahrney helped Service claim both second-place team trophies, with the girls beating West by four points and the boys edging South by seven. The Dimond girls and Chugiak boys placed fourth in the team competition.

For both the boys and girls, the CIC's top four teams and top 15 runners will move on to Saturday's state championships at Bartlett, where the West boys and the Chugiak girls will be among the teams to beat.

The seven boys who will race for West have been competing for spots on the varsity team all season. Any time someone misses a race with illness or injury, they have to compete in the open race the next weekend. If they're fast enough in the open race, they return to the varsity team the next week.

"It makes it a lot more competitive. You have to earn your spot back," said Walker, who made an appearance in at least one open race this season.
"We have about 14 guys who are super-talented."

That was obvious Saturday, when West landed eight boys in the top 11 of the open race as a prelude to the JV and varsity races. Although comparing times in separate races is always dicey, if you fold West's JV results into the boys varsity results, the JV team would have finished ahead of four varsity teams and 11 points behind fourth-place Chugiak.

Girls
Team scores

1) Chugiak 41, 2) Service 66, 3) West 70, 4) Dimond 98, 5) Eagle River 116, 6) South 118, 7) Bartlett 172.

5K

1. Molly Gellert, West, 19:15; 2. Grace Fahrney, Service, 19:23; 3. Brynn Kruchoski, Chugiak, 19:30; 4. Adrianna Proffitt, Chugiak, 19:37; 5. Maggie Meeds, South, 19:45; 6. Emma Nelson, Chugiak, 19:46; 7. Kylie Judd, Dimond, 19:56; 8. Magdalen York, West, 19:56; 9. Helen Wilson, Eagle River, 19:57; 10. Aubrey LeClair, West, 20:00; 11. Emma Sees, Chugiak, 20:11; 12. Ruth Cvancara, Dimond, 20:14; 13. Nichole Blake, Service, 20:36; 14. Caitlin Gohr, Service, 20:37; 15. Peyton Young, Eagle River, 20:37; 16. Madeline Maurer, Service, 20:41; 17. KayLee Manwaring, Chugiak, 20:45; 18. Myah Smith, Eagle River, 20:53 19. Leola Atkinson, Bartlett, 21:02; 20. Allison Shafer, Dimond, 21:04; 21. Clare Howard, Service, 21:09; 22. Calee Stark, Dimond, 21:14; 23. Jania Tumey, West, 21:15 24. Bryn Waite, Service, 21:16; 25. Hannah Brown, South, 21:17; 26. Lindsey Western, South, 21:18; 27. Elena Eberhardt, South, 21:20; 28. Lauren Corkran, West, 21:21; 29. Carolynn Pype, Bartlett, 21:27; 30. Gwendolyn Mueller, Chugiak, 21:31; 31. Mimi Allen, West, 21:37; 32. Emma Blei, Chugiak, 21:47; 33. Shawna Lindsay, Bartlett, 21:47 34. Hillary Tschappat-La, Service, 21:48; 35. Emma Korosei, South, 21:51; 36. Analisa Cederberg, Eagle River, 21:59 37. Ariana Foy, Dimond, 21:59; 38. Kate Paskievitch, Eagle River, 22:00; 39. Elizabeth Mans, West, 22:04; 40. Sanne Cassee, South, 22:04; 41. Tamara Brabson, Eagle River, 22:06; 42. Mary Reinbold, Dimond, 22:11; 43. Roxanna Reynolds, South, 22:23; 44. Shelby Lindsay, Bartlett, 22:53; 45. Ashlyn Johnson, East Anchorage 45 23:14 46. Ashley Walsh, Eagle River, 23:14; 47. Jordan Ebert, East, 23:22; 48. Madison Childers, Dimond, 23:29; 49. Taylor Sperry, Bartlett, 23:30; 50. Brynn Morse, East, 23:49; 51. Brianna Levy, East, 25:07; 52. Grace Lilly, Bartlett, 25:55.

Boys

Team scores

1) West 30, 2) Service 62, 3) South 69, 4) Chugiak 122, 5) Eagle River 137, 6) Dimond 161, 7) East 180; 8) Bartlett 205.

5K
1. Gus Schumacher, Service, 15:41; 2. Finn Walker, West, 16:00; 3. Hamish Wolfe, South, 16:01; 4. Declan Dammeyer, West, 16:13; 5. Santiago Prosser, South, 16:14 6. Sebastian Szweda Mitte, Service, 16:20; 7. Luke Jager, West, 16:27; 8. Foster Birnbaum, West, 16:29; 9) Tristan Wiese, West, 16:31; 10. Ethan Davis, West, 16:32; 11. Nick Carl, Eagle River, 16:38; 12. Isaac Larson, Bartlett, 16:42; 13. Max Hartke, Chugiak, 16:44; 14. Zephan Ozturgut, East, 16:46; 15. Everett Cason, West, 16:48; 16. Logan Borger, South 16:53; 17. Wyatt Dodge, Service, 16:57; 18. Davin Turney, Service, 16:58; 19. Charlie Latimer, Chugiak, 16:59; 20. Brennan Baumgartner, Service, 17:02; 21. Carter Gladwill, Eagle River, 17:04; 22. Talon Stanley, South, 17:11; 23. Mason Keffalos, South, 17:13; 24. Niko Latva-Kiskol, Dimond, 17:16; 25. Miles Dennis, Chugiak, 17:17; 26. Cameron Sheldon, Dimond, 17:21; 27. Luke Meiwes, South, 17:24; 28. Michael Maddox, Eagle River, 17:25; 29. Faisal Ibrahim, East, 17:31; 30. Thomi McCormick, Chugiak, 17:31; 31. Dakota Rygh, Service, 17:35; 32. Lyle Chamberlain, South, 17:40; 33. Dallin Gardiner, Dimond, 17:40; 34. Thane Barta, Eagle River, 17:45; 35. Liam Baez-Terry, Chugiak, 17:53; 36. Jacob Kosinski, Chugiak, 17:54; 37. George Cvancara, Dimond, 17:55; 38. Alex Schuerch, East, 17:55; 39. Jacob Belanger, Service, 17:59; 40. Max Beiergrohsle, Chugiak, 18:07; 41. Kaden Denton, Dimond, 18:11; 42. Ryan Reid, Bartlett, 18:13; 43. Torsten Renner, Eagle River, 18:16; 44. Declan Reid, Bartlett, 18:17; 45. Jack Divelbiss, Dimond, 18:17; 46. Joe Divelbiss, Dimond, 18:19; 47. Joshua Johnson, Eagle River, 18:25; 48. William Salter, Eagle River, 18:27; 49. Joseph Curry, East, 18:31; 50. Jaylon Miller, East, 18:40; 51. Beck Haywood, East, 18:58; 52. Kellen Tyrrell, East, 20:03; 53. Andrew Bath, Bartlett, 20:32; 54. Cameron Westlake, Bartlett, 21:16.