There are no weekends off for a competitive runner.
Juneau’s two cross country teams were planning on competing at the Skagway Invitational this weekend, but logistical constraints kept both teams from attending. Instead of taking time off to rest, coaches from Thunder Mountain High School and Juneau-Douglas High School seized the opportunity to prepare their runners for next weekend’s Juneau Invitational, holding a home meet between the two schools to afford both teams extra practice on the local course at Savikko Park.
“On the one hand, it’s nice to get extra practice on the home course, we’ll never turn that down,” JDHS coach Tristan Knutson-Lombardo said. “But on the other hand, a two-team meet can take away a lot of the adrenaline and race-day jitters that really push runners.”
JDHS’ Sadie Tuckwood and Arne Ellefson-Carnes finished first for girls and boys, respectively, at the Juneau Mini Meet. Tuckwood and Ellefson-Carnes have finished first for Juneau runners in every meet the teams have competed in this year. At 18 minutes, 4 seconds, Tuckwood turned in a time 24 seconds faster than her finish last week in Petersburg, at which she beat every other girls runner by more than a minute. Ellefson-Carnes’ ran 29 seconds slower at the Juneau Mini Meet, but the sophomore didn’t have to contend with Sitka, which pushed him to a sub 17-minute time at the Petersburg Invitational.
Juneau’s home course is one of the toughest in the region, according to TMHS senior captain Justin Sleppy, so the extra practice should be a big advantage for both teams as the head into next weekend.
“There are a lot of hills,” Sleppy said. “When it’s raining really hard on the course, like it was last year, you need spikes to do well. Also, there’s a point where you’re running over concrete, so obviously the spikes don’t do well, so it’s got all the elements to throw at you.”
JDHS and TMHS host an invitational next weekend at Savikko Park. The teams will use results from that meet to select their teams for the regional meet Sept. 24 at Sitka.
JUNEAU MINI MEET BOYS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
(place, name, school, time):
1 Arne Ellefson-Carnes. JD 17:27:00
2 Jonah Penrose. TM 18:05:00
3 Clem Taylor-Roth. JD 18:15:00
4 Justin Sleppy. TM 18:16:00
5 James Burger. TM 18:29:00
6 Tim McKenna. JD 18:32:00
7 Jack White. JD 18:33:00
8 Shafer Suzuki. TM 18:52:00
9 Brady Beam. TM 19:06:00
10 Jacob Babcock. TM 19:11:00
11 Shadrach Stitz. JD 19:28:00
12 Ricky Worl. TM 19:37:00
13 Kadin Doddrdge. JD 20:04:00
14 Marshall Murray-Shapland. JD 20:16:00
15 Aaron Blust. JD 20:17:00
16 Christopher Nylen. JD 20:25:00
17 William Wallace. TM 20:37:00
18 Tomas Mesa Mueller. JD 21:00:00
19 Connor Norman. TM 21:01:00
20 Caleb Deer. TM 21:10:00
21 Matthew Woodland. JD 21:22:01
22 Ian Scholl. JD 21:22:20
23 Noah Williams. JD 21:22:30
24 Finn Yerkes. JD 21:22:40
25 Donny Bischoff. JD 21:22:50
26 Jayden West. JD 21:35:00
27 Eli Douglas. TM 21:35:00
28 Riley Sikes. TM 23:42:00
29 Joel Smith. JD 23:53:00
30 Drake Mueller. JD 23:58:00
31 Ege Tezcan. JD 24:08:00
32 Erik Whisenant. TM 25:51:00
33 Cole Jensen. TM 28:20:00
34 Austin Maddox. JD 28:37:00
35 Wyatt Graber. TM 28:49:00
JUNEAU MINI MEET GIRLS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
(place, name, school, time):
1 Sadie Tuckwood. JD 18:04:00
2 Erin Wallace. TM 19:52:00
3 Ann Iverson. JD 21:08:00
4 Sally Thompson. TM 22:05:00
5 Elizabeth Ramseth. JD 22:49:01
6 Gillian Smith. JD 22:50:19
7 Eva Goering. JD 23:15:00
8 Ronnie Salter. TM 23:19:00
9 Jessie Gregg. JD 23:23:00
10 Nicole Maddix. JD 23:39:00
11 Sosan Monsef. JD 23:51:00
12 Maddie York. JD 24:12:00
13 Laurel Scheufelt. TM 24:41:00
14 Kelsey Walsh. JD 24:43:00
15 Sidra Gregoire. JD 25:07:00
16 Mari Brown. JD 25:33:00
17 Becca Dimond. JD 25:43:00
18 Gretchen Neal. JD 25:52:00
19 Meghan Penrose. TM 25:57:00
20 Leah Neyhart. JD 26:51:00
21 Sierra Lloyd. JD 27:15:00
22 Azure Briggs. TM 27:20:00
23 Rylee Larson. TM 27:34:00
24 Malia Lu Trousil. TM 28:19:00
25 Nellie Wayne. JD 28:26:00
26 Laura Walsh. TM 28:32:00
27 Haylee Murray. TM 28:33:00
28 Grace Newman. JD 30:06:00
29 McLain Sidmore. JD 30:10:00
30 Sara Steves. TM 30:13:00
• Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.
