In a battle between two NCAA track champions, Soldotna's Allie Ostrander finished a close second in the women's race at Friday's NCAA West Region cross-country championships in Seattle.
Ostrander, a Boise State sophomore who is the reigning 3,000-meter steeplechase champion, was less than two seconds behind winner Charlotte Taylor of San Francisco, the reigning 10-kilometer champion.
Ostrander and Taylor ran side by side for nearly the entire six-kilometer race at Jefferson Park Golf Course. Taylor, a senior, outkicked Ostrander on the homestretch to win with a course-record time of 19 minutes, 14.2 seconds. Ostrander was right behind in 19:16.5.
Third place went to Washington's Amy-Eloise Neale in 19:25.3.
Taylor led San Francisco to the team title. Ostrander helped Boise State to a fourth-place finish.
Ostrander, a Kenai Central graduate, missed last year's cross-country season with an injury. She finished second at the national meet as a freshman in 2015 and will be among the favorites at the Nov. 18 national championships in Louisville.
In early October, Ostrander marked her return to the sport by beating a big field to win the Greater Louisville Classic on the same course that will host the national championships. She was clipped by another runner at the start of that race and ran more than half of the race with her shoe half-on and half-off. She kicked off the shoe three kilometers into the 5K race and ran the rest of the way with just one shoe.