History says winning a state track title at Homer is hard, but the Mariners girls made it look easy Friday and Saturday at the Division II state track meet at Dimond High School in Anchorage.

Homer scored 107 points to top the 87 of runner-up Sitka. Also from the Kenai Peninsula, Seward was fifth with 45 and Kenai Central tied for 10th with 22.

For the boys, Sitka won with 94, while Seward was fifth with 40, Homer was sixth with 32, Kenai was seventh with 31 and Nikiski tied for 22nd with 1.

The track and field records on the Alaska School Activities Association website start in 1975. Since then, the only other Mariners team to win a state track title is the girls in 2017.

Homer head coach Bob Ostrom, who began as head coach in 2018, did say he found a state championship track trophy at the school from the 1960s.

“We really focused this year on building the team,” Ostrom said. “We pulled in a lot of kids from the different sports. A few were specialists from other sports, but we pulled together as a team and focused on that this year, and that’s really reflected in the results.”

Ostrom said the emphasis on team proved to be really important when adversity hit.

And adversity did hit in a big way at the Region III track meet the week before state.

Homer senior Gracie Miotke was set to roll into state with the top times in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, but at regions prelims, Miotke hit a hurdle in the 100 hurdles and injured a left ankle that has given her problems throughout her prep career.

The injury kept Miotke from qualifying for state in either hurdles event, though she was able to qualify in the 100 due to a pair of gutsy performances on the ankle.

“I think that’s probably one of the worst days of my life right there,” Miotke said.

Losing a top performer in a pair of events could have been disastrous for many teams hoping to compete for a state title, but not for a team with the depth of the Mariners.

Homer ended up with a top-six finisher in all 17 events except for the 100 hurdles.

Instead of the hurdles, Miotke was placed on the 400 and 800 relays, with the Mariners posting wins and school records in each. Miotke won the 100 in a school record time of 12.51 seconds, and closed the meet by anchoring the 1,600 relay to a victory and school record time.

She ended her career with eight state titles — two individual titles and six as members of a relay.

Homer’s 3,200 relay also set a school record.

“It’s kind of awesome,” Miotke said. “I really couldn’t have asked, despite the hurdles, for a better state.”

There’s no question, though, that the Mariners girls would have been even more dominant if Miotke had run the hurdles and not the 400 and 800 relays.

“It was a pretty obvious choice to make that change, but those relays were extremely good anyway,” Ostrom said. “They probably would have won here anyway, but she helped us move it to the next level and set the records.”

The meet ended in storybook fashion, with Miotke joining fellow seniors Beatrix McDonough and Brightly Thoning to run 4:07.33 in the 1,600 relay.

Miotke, McDonough and Thoning were on a team that won for a third straight year. Maddy Miotke, Gracie’s sister and a sophomore, won for the second straight year.

“This is it,” McDonough said. “I’m not running in college, so this is my perfect ending.

“And the rain is coming down. It’s like the end of a movie.”

The team had wanted the school record all year, but Thoning and McDonough said they had been struggling with the event.

“I’ve not been feeling very well this year in terms of sickness, but I had to put all of it on the line for this because I really wanted the school record with this group of girls,” said Thoning, who will run for Trinity University in San Antonio.

Despite the happy ending, Gracie Miotke, who will run at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is going to work with her coaches and other teams to make changes to state qualification rules so everything is not riding on the region meet.

“I just want to say to ASAA that we’re campaigning for state to have our best athletes here,” Miotke said. “We want to change it.”

In the 400 relay, Miotke joined with Jaelynn Kennon, Immi Im and Molly Evans for a 50.79.

Kennon started.

“My blocks were good,” she said. “I think I got everybody in the corner.”

Miotke then stretched the lead by tearing ahead of the field on the backstretch.

“I can see her face, she’s coming at me, no smile, no nothing,” said Im, the third leg. “I was like, ‘Oh, god.’”

Similarly, Im’s leg drove Evans on the anchor.

“I knew that I had to show up or show out,” Evans said. “Seeing Amy break the curve and just have a really good lead there, it gave me a lot of motivation and drive.”

In the 800 relay, the group was the same, except for Liliana Harris replacing Kennon on the leadoff leg as the group ran 1:47.21. Harris was even with the field on the first leg.

“My legs were kind of giving out, so I kind of had to yell at Gracie,” Harris said. “But it ended up being good.”

Miotke has not been a part of the 800 relay at all this season.

“There’s a little bit of pressure, but I knew going into this relay that I was going to be a good tool,” she said.

Miotke got a big lead for Homer and handed to Im.

“All I was thinking about was beat Sitka, beat Sitka, beat Sitka,” Im said. “When I handed off to Molly, (Sitka) was pretty far back.”

Evans took care of the rest.

“I’m just really proud of these girls and how hard they work and the trust in each other and the drive we have today,” Evans said. “I know the weather’s been kind of off, but I’m really proud of all of us.”

Homer’s 3,200 relay of Vera Bates, Claira Booz, McDonough and Etta Bynagle ran 10:04.19 for their victory and school record.

Bates said she was in fourth place when she handed off to Booz after the anchor leg. Booz put the Mariners in front to stay.

“We all run very similar times,” Booz said. “I think that’s why our team has such a good advantage, because other teams have maybe two fast runners, but we’re all so close.”

When Booz handed to McDonough, the goal was to increase the lead as much as possible. That’s because Bynagle would be going against Sitka’s Clare Mullin, who would sweep the 800, 1,600 and 3,200, in the final leg.

“Etta’s a really strong runner, but Clare’s terrifying,” said McDonough, who finishes with five state relay titles. “I anchored the 4 by 4 last year, and she was chasing me, and it’s the most terrifying feeling.”

Bynagle had about 100 meters on Mullin at the handoff and won by a little over 7 seconds.

“I was running so scared for both laps,” Bynagle said. “I just tried to sprint the last 200.”

The Homer girls had a bunch of other top-six performances, in addition to winning the sportsmanship award.

Evans was third in the 100 at 13.02 and third in the 200 at 27.45, Maddy Miotke was fifth in the 400 at 1:01.79 and sixth in the triple jump at 30 feet, 10 inches, Booz was fourth in the 3,200 at 12:08.88, fifth in the 1,600 at 5:33.18 and sixth in the 800 at 2:29.28, Kennon was sixth in the 300 hurdles at 50.62 and sixth in the high jump at 4—6, Dayten Van Ostrand was fifth in the discus at 90—7 and sixth in the shot put at 29—9, Reilly Sue Baker was second in the long jump at 16—5.25 and third in the triple jump at 32—1.5, and Thoning was fifth in the high jump at 4—8 and fifth in the long jump at 15—1.75.

The highlight for the Homer boys was the 3,200 relay of Jai Badajos, Caleb Bunker, Tait Ostrom and Johannes Bynagle winning at 8:25.47. All are juniors and won a state title for the first time.

Badajos got the Mariners out to a lead on the leadoff leg.

“I knew Sitka’s lead guy was really fast, so I was trying to get him in the first 100 and then hold onto it after that,” Badajos said.

Bunker then got the baton and surprised himself by keeping the lead.

“I was expecting to have to fight for the lead in the last 100, but I kept it,” Bunker said. “It was a pretty good gap.”

Ostrom was able to increase the lead a bit more.

“I was just terrified, trying to go all out,” he said.

Sitka was able to close a little bit on Bynagle’s leg, but the Mariners still won by more than 10 seconds.

“We were looking to get the school record, but we didn’t quite get it,” Bynagle said.

The four all agreed that they’re going to smash that record next year.

Bynagle also finished fourth in the 3,200 at 10:02.21, fifth in the 800 at 2:02.31 and fifth in the 1,600 at 4:39.29. Ostrom was third in the 300 hurdles at 42.99, while Badajos was sixth in the 800 at 2:03.66. The 800 relay and 1,600 relay also finished sixth for Homer.

Kenai was led by state titles from Sophie Tapley in the long jump and Gage Ivy in the triple jump.

Tapley broke a school record with her 16—11.75 mark. She got that jump on her second attempt in prelims, then scratched the rest of her jumps as she went for a really long one.

“The last couple track meets, I wasn’t jumping quite as far, and I was kind of in my own head about it,” Tapley said. “So it felt really good to get that big jump right in prelims.”

The various oddities of the Dimond track definitely has detractors, but you won’t hear that from Tapley. Her previous PR was at the Dimond track earlier this season.

“We definitely had a good feeling about this pit,” Tapley said.

Tapley also was sixth in the 100 at 13.21. The Kenai girls 400 relay was third at 54.12, while Selah Coots was fourth in the triple jump at 31—5.5.

Ivy won the triple jump at 40—1.5. The winning jump came in the third attempt of prelims.

“I figured, since I had the 200 soon, I’m just going to try and send it on my last jump and probably hope to scratch finals,” Ivy said. “I just sent it and jumped 40—1.”

Ivy is only a sophomore and said his big goal now is to try and get the school record, which is in the 45-foot range. Ivy said the weather was poor Friday, so he didn’t approach his PR of 42—11.5.

Ivy also was sixth in the 200 at 24.41 and anchored the 400 relay to fourth in 46.25. Also for the Kenai boys, Delen Byrd was second in the 110 hurdles at 17.06, Aidan Jackman was fourth in the 200 at 23.77, and Jason Johnson was sixth in the long jump at 18—3.75.

Seward’s wins came from Ronan Bickling in the 100 and Olin Liljemark in the high jump, with the boys also winning the sportsmanship award.

Bickling, a senior, also won the 100 at state last year, as well as being a member of the winning 400 relay. His 11.27 in the 100 on Saturday reset his school record, and he also leaves with the school record in the 200.

He said we would have liked to run 11.1, but was happy with decreasing his PR by almost .10 seconds.

Oddly, this was just the second meet Bickling won all season, because he faced Soldotna’s Tyce Escott every other week.

“I hadn’t won a single race until regions because I’d been racing Tyce every week,” said Bickling, who will run for Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho. “I’m super grateful to Tyce because he’s been able to push me every week, and I have someone to chase and hopefully make me better.”

Bickling also would have liked to win the 200, but he was third at 23.40. Bickling said he stumbled at the start of the race and didn’t run a good corner.

Liljemark finished an undefeated season by winning the high jump at 5—10. Also, Seward’s Luke Elhard was fourth at 5—8 and Van Shank was fifth at 5—8. Shank was fifth in the triple jump at 39—2, while the boys 1,600 relay was fourth at 3:39.50.

After starting the season with a PR of 5—10, Liljemark got all the way to 6—1 before nasty conditions brought his mark down Friday.

“I’m really stoked,” Liljemark said. “It’s just been a big dream of mine since freshman year to get a plaque on the wall at Seward High School.”

Speaking of getting on a Seward wall, the high jump school record is 6—6.

“I did PR by 5 inches this year, and I would like to do that again next year,” Liljemark said. “It’ll be a hard thing, but I’ll have to lock in.”

For the Seward girls, the 1,600 relay was third in 4:20.27 and the 3,200 relay was third in 10:23.46.

Maddie Haas was second in the 100 hurdles at 16.17 and third in the 300 hurdles at 49.07. Also, Olive Jordan was third in the 1,600 at 5:27.41 and fourth in the 400 at 1:01.31, while Katie Van Buskirk was sixth in the 1,600 at 5:35.88 and Indigo Leslie was sixth in the 3,200 at 12:11.08.

For Nikiski, Ryder Maguire had the top performance of the day by running the 800 in 2:04.93 to finish seventh.

In the unified state track meet, Homer’s Van Ostrand was first in the shot put partner at 28—10.5, while Homer’s Zoe Black was fifth in the shot put unified finals at 9—8.75.

Black also was fifth in the long jump unified at 4—1.75, while Isabella Clarke was seventh in long jump partner at 11—2.

For Kenai, Tapley was first in the long jump partner at 14—.75, while Pepper Noel was fourth in long jump unified at 5—0.

In 100 meters partner, Kenai’s Elliot Stockton was second at 14.17, while Noel was fifth in 100 meters unified at 24.17.