Prep cross-country season opens with brutal test in Nikiski

The course at Nikiski Middle-High School is as tough as ever, but so are the Kenai Peninsula’s cross-country runners.

The prep cross-country season kicked off Monday with the Kenai/Nikiski Class Races, taking place on a course of unrelenting, steep, relatively quick up and downs.

“It’s definitely a hilly course,” Soldotna senior Tania Boonstra said. “It’s crazy.

“You kind of get lost out there because you loop around so much and have no idea where you’re at until you come out here.”

Making the course even more fun Monday was temperatures in the 60s.

“I just hope the clouds come out for the other racers,” Seward sophomore Olive Jordan said after the first race. “It’s really, really hot.”

Both Jordan and Boonstra showed their toughness by coming back from recent mishaps for race victories.

Jordan won the freshman-sophomore girls race with a 5-kilometer time of 22 minutes, 3 seconds, improving from 22:40 last season.

That came despite a rough summer. She caught pneumonia in a season-ending track meet at a rainy Kodiak and couldn’t defend her title in the junior girls Mount Marathon Race in Seward on July 4.

Just when Jordan was feeling better, she got sick again in early August and said she only felt at 60% or 70% on Monday.

“I’ve been recovering from a bunch of sickness lately, so my breathing was really bad,” she said.

Jordan was buoyed by the fact the Seward girls took two of the top four spots in the freshmen-sophomore race and four of the top six in the junior-senior race.

The Seahawks are going for a fourth straight Division II state title this season.

“It’s never been done in any sport in Seward,” she said of four straight state titles. “That’s what we’re hoping for.”

A main contender for that title will be Homer. Sophomore Etta Bynagle of the Mariners was second behind Jordan at 22:39, improving from 24:36 last season.

Homer had three of the top six in the freshmen-sophomore girls race.

Bynagle said it helped that Jordan was there to chase.

“It was brutal,” she said. “Every hill, I was like, ‘You got this. You got this. Don’t walk.’”

She said Homer’s young team will have to improve to have a shot at Seward.

“I really think Homer has a chance at state this year,” Bynagle said. “We definitely have a lot of incoming freshmen that will get better and better.”

Boonstra won at the class races for the third time, running 21:00 after 21:04 as a junior and 21:17 as a sophomore. She had the fastest time of the day.

After finishing second in the junior girls race at Mount Marathon, Boonstra had to take a week off later in July after a head injury sustained from a fall on a commercial fishing boat.

“It was pretty bad,” she said. “It was probably good to take a week off anyway. Just a little reboot.”

She said the SoHi girls were missing several key racers Monday, but she’s excited to see what the team can do at regions and state.

Boonstra also credited Seward junior Indigo Leslie with a push to a fast time.

Leslie finished 20 seconds behind.

“It’s my first cross-country race since a broken ankle, so I’m excited,” she said.

Last season, Leslie had ankle pain, but it was thought the pain was coming from tendonitis. She ran three races before an X-ray showed the ankle was broken.

“This is a hard course,” she said. “I wasn’t super sad to have missed it least year, but it was fun to be back.”

Leslie did a summer academic program at Harvard and said running in temperatures at about 100 degrees helped her Monday.

She also did a family vacation this summer and did a bunch of trail running in Chamonix, France.

Leslie said the Seahawks had several key losses from last year’s team.

“We have some shifting happening, but after today, I think we’re OK,” she said. “I’m just excited to have fun, and if we win again, that would be great.”

Soldotna sophomore Ollie Dahl defended his title in the freshmen-sophomore boys race by running 18:19, improving from 19:03 last season.

Dahl, who had the fastest boys time of the day, said he came in with a plan of attacking the downhills and laying off a bit on the uphills so he wouldn’t burn out.

The Nikiski course foiled those plans.

“I was out on the course thinking, ‘I’m going to feel so good when I’m done,’” he said. “That’s what kept me going — my breathing, and feeling like I was about to be done.”

Dahl also is optimistic about the SoHi boys team. He said several key seniors were lost last season, but he said young runners on the team have the talent to step up and replace those departed seniors.

Homer freshman Rio Waltenbaugh was the runner-up at 18:58.

Waltenbaugh won the 1,600 at the borough track meet in the spring and didn’t know what to expect Monday because he hadn’t run a 5K in a long time.

Running the second fastest boys time of the day doesn’t change the way he’s looking at the season.

“I’m really just trying to stay in shape for soccer,” he said.

Waltenbaugh said Homer’s team has a lot of promise and it helps trying to keep up with the seniors in practice.

Two of those seniors are Landon Tinsley and Jude Rozeboom.

Tinsley won the junior-senior race at 19:21 after finishing 12th in 21:07 last season, while Rozeboom was second at 19:35 after finishing 15th at 22:19 last season.

Tinsley said a good track season carried over into this race, although he didn’t race at state due to illness.

He also battled some injuries this summer, but said cross training, particularly weight lifting, got him ready for the season.

Tinsley had his eye on victory.

“But it was still harder than I thought with the hills and everything,” he said.

He said the Mariners also have an eye on victory this season.

“I think we’re planning to win state,” he said. “We just have to make sure we lock in on our competitors, mostly Grace Christian.”

Rozeboom said Nikiski is the hardest course of the season. He said that makes it tough to gauge fitness based on the race.

Like Tinsley, he said state is the goal.

“I think we have a good chance at state,” he said. “We just have to make sure we keep going strong.”

The top finishers for Kenai Central were freshman Sofia Tews in seventh in the freshmen-sophomore girls race and junior Ruby Davis in seventh in the junior-senior boys race.

Kenai Central coach Anna Widman said she’s encouraged by the high number of runners on the team, particularly the young boys. The Kardinals had 10 in the freshmen-sophomore boys race.

Kenai/Nikiski Class Races

Monday, Aug. 18

At Nikiski Middle-High School

5 kilometers

Freshman-sophomore girls

1. Olive Jordan, Sew, 22 minutes, 3 seconds; 2. Etta Bynagle, Hom, 22:29; 3. Ariela Garvey, Hom, 22:59; 4. Tirzah Brueckner, Sew, 23:49; 5. Morgan Harness, Hom, 24:08; 6. Abigail Ostrom, Hom, 26:17; 7. Sofia Tews, Ken, 26:18; 8. Eva Abel, Sol, 27:02; 9. Breckin Sulley, Sol, 27:25; 10. Kylie Smith, Sol, 27:38; 11. Emma Seavey, Sew, 27:42; 12. Madeline Ries, Sol, 28:40; 13. Nadia Whitaker, Unalaska, 29:28; 14. Amy Moyer, Unalaska, 29:29; 15. Shelby Huffer, Sol, 29:51; 16. Evelyn White, Sol, 35:03; 17. Reagan Steen, Hom, 35:32.

Freshman-sophomore boys

1. Ollie Dahl, Sol, 18:19; 2. Rio Waltenbaugh, Hom, 18:58; 3. Charlie Rustand, Hom, 19:26; 4. Paul Wertanen, Sol, 19:35; 5. Luke Elhard, Sew, 19:39; 6. Deklan Nettleton, Un, 20:12; 7. John Holt, Sol, 20:39; 8. Brock Cooper, Ken, 20:58; 9. Micah Bunker, Hom, 21:07; 10. Banyan Joachim, Sol, 21:21; 11. Corbin Crisp, Ken, 21:43; 12. Charles Moore, Sol, 21:56; 13. Elijah Williams, Hom 22:25; 14. Caleb Abel, Sol, 22:35; 15. Daniel Christ, Hom, 22:45; 16. Jonah Castillo, Una, 23:01; 17. Carter Wertanen, Sol, 23:45; 18. Liam Wilshusen, Ken, 23:52; 19. Rubis Gervais, Hom, 24:05; 20. Charles Roberts, Ken, 24:39; 21. Bennett Colton, Ken, 24:50; 22. Luke Karpik, Ken, 25:08; 23. Corbin Grimm, Ken, 25:16; 24. Chase Antrim, Sew, 27:37; 25. Landon Beck, Sew, 30:41.

26. Andrew Warfle, Ken, 31:29; 27. Gabriel Davis, Ken, 32:55; 28. Dezmond McCaughey, Ken, 33:20.

Junior-senior girls

1. Tania Boonstra, Sol, 21:00; 2. Indigo Leslie, Sew, 21:20; 3. Juniper Ingalls, Sew, 22:42; 4. Claira Booz, Hom, 23:07; 5. Lucy Bamford, Sew, 23:37; 6. Selah Brueckner, Sew, 23:53; 7. Ruby Davis, Ken, 24:48; 8. Teresa Fallon, Ken, 24:56; 9. Shiloh Zichko, Sol, 25:08; 10. Katie DeBardelaben, Sol, 25:33; 11. Kylie Dickson, Sol, 26:09; 12. Delanie Wagers, Sol, 26:43; 13. Campbell Kincaid, Sol, 27:36; 14. Cassidy Hardyman, Hom, 28:23; 15. Emily Anger, Sew, 28:41; 16. Deserette Quebrar, Una, 30:17; 17. Aislyn Downum, Sol, 31:33; 18. Beatrice Bagley, Una, 31:34; 19. Naomi Zichko, Sol, 31:35; 20. Caroline Karpik, Ken, 32:25; 21. Kylie Saltzgiver, Sol, 34:29; 22. Rachel Lewis, Sol, 36:01; 23. Amara Ransom, 37:02; 24. Shayla Smith, 37:31; 25. Afton Roberts, Ken, 44:14.

Junior-senior boys

1. Landon Tinsley, Hom, 19:21; 2. Jude Rozeboom, Hom, 19:35; 3. Sampson Antrim, Sew, 20:01; 4. Paxton Roach, Sol, 20:25; 5. Franklin Dumo, Una, 20:35; 6. JJ Abel, Sol, 21:01; 7. Owen Bell, Sol, 21:23; 8. Simeon Holt, Sol, 21:32; 9. Frank Antrim, Sew, 21:56; 10. Levi Strong, Ken, 22:56; 11. Luca Fitzpatrick, Hom, 23:21; 12. Braze Cassidy, Sol, 23:29; 13. Daniel Herrera, Sew, 23:31; 14. Freddie Cecena, Una, 23:43; 15. Briggs Cheeseman, Sol, 25:03; 16. Jax Nash, Sol, 25:09; 17. Nathan Vink, Ken, 31:09.