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Tristian Merchant of Anchorage Christian earned All-America honors at the Nike Cross Nationals earlier this month in Portland.
Merchant, a junior at ACS, placed 13th in the boys 5-kilometer race. His time of 15 minutes, 19.5 seconds, put him 27.2 seconds behind winner Nico Young of Newbury Park, California, who won the race in a course-record 14:52.3.
A two-time champion at Alaska’s Class 3A state meet, Merchant steadily improved his position in the Dec. 7 race at Glendoveer Golf Course. He was in 44th place after 1 mile and 21st place after 2 miles.
Merchant is the second straight Alaska boy to earn All-America honors at a national cross-country race. Last year, Daniel Bausch of Chugiak placed 16th at the Footlocker national championships.
Footlocker and Nike both host national cross-country championships for high school runners. Merchant, who qualified for the Portland race by placing sixth at the Northwest region championships, was the only Alaska runner to compete in either meet this year.