During the Palmer Invitational on Sept. 6, Allie Ostrander of Kenai ran a nation's best time of 16:40 in the 5-kilometer cross-country race, clipping four seconds off her speedy time two weeks earlier. The second-fastest girl in the nation, Sarah Kettel of Michigan, is a whopping 46 seconds slower than the Alaskan. At Palmer, the fleet Ostrander, a senior, finished more than two minutes ahead of runner-up Olivia Hutchings of Soldotna. Her time was the fifth fastest of the day, beating all of the times in the Class 1-2-3A boys race and all but four of the times in the Class 4A boys race.
Ostrander is one of the greatest Alaska high school runners ever. In recent months she has:
• Become the first girl to win the overall junior Mount Marathon crown in Seward on July 4.
• At the Alaska high school track and field championships, wiped out not only the 2003 state record in the girls 1,600-meter race set by Kris Smith of West, and bettered the 1977 mile record set by Betsy Haines of East. Ostrander finished that race in 4 minutes, 49.47 seconds, taking five seconds off her previous PR (4:54.82), erasing Smith's time of 4:55.89 from the state record book.
• The previous day, Ostrander won the 3,200 in 10:13.87 to break the 1986 state record set by the legendary Kristi (Klinnert) Waythomas of Kodiak.