JDHS varsity cross-country teams in top 4, Ida Meyer wins girls’ 5K at State Preview 2024 in Anchorage

A larger consolidated cross-country varsity team saw the boys finish second and the girls fourth for Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé in the State Preview 2024 5K at Bartlett High School in Anchorage on Saturday.

Ida Meyer, a senior, won the girls’ race with a time of 19 minutes and four seconds, well ahead of Colony High School’s Ella Hopkins at 19:31. Erik Thompson, a sophomore who was a freshman star at Thunder Mountain High School last year, 16:49, was the top JDHS boys’ runner with a fourth-place finish in 16:49, 28 seconds behind the winner.

Eighteen boys’ teams with 157 total runners and 14 girls’ teams with 128 runners participated in the event.

“(Going) up north is always like a big challenge, but we have this additional challenge of having these two schools come up to do this together and trying to become a team up there,” said Zack Bursell, the JDHS boys’ coach, on Sunday. “So I think we really succeeded. There are hundreds of kids in all these races, and they run these courses on cross-country ski trails where there’s pretty relentless ups and downs. It’s difficult for us in Southeast to get used to that kind of terrain, but we really came together and I think made a big statement.”

The JDHS boys had an official team score of 111, finishing behind South Anchorage High School’s 94 and ahead of Colony High School’s 119. The JDHS girls’ score of 109 was well behind Chugiak High School’s 59, but within striking distance of Colony’s 103 and South Anchorage’s 104.

JDHS and TMHS had different coaching and training approaches — along with different types of terrain to train on — players and coaches said during a preliminary race last month as they prepared for the season ahead. Bursell said this year’s single larger team is adjusting to a unified approach well and the results of Saturday’s race indicate as much.

“For our guys especially it’s a big improvement and the consolidation helps big time,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty even mix of runners from both schools. Last year the guys were fifth place at state and now they’re second at the state preview and knocking on the door of being one of the contenders for first.”

A lot of the girls from last year’s teams graduated, making this a rebuilding year that includes a lot of freshmen, Bursell said. But the advantage of consolidation is there’s more of them to be competitive, and “we’ve got good leaders from both schools who are juniors and seniors.”

Meyer took second place in the 3,200 meters in May at the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Track and Field State Championships, behind JDHS teammate Etta Eller who has since graduated.

“She’s accustomed to racing against these fast gals from up north, but this is the first time that she’s really been the number one contender,” Bursell said of Meyer as she enters her final year of high school competition.

Thompson got off to a fast start during his freshman year when he was the top student finisher at the Sayéik Invitational last year. His fourth-place finish against statewide competition Saturday suggests he will keep building on that potential, Bursell said.

“He had a tough race at state cross-country last year,” Bursell said. “And so this time I think he came into it with a chip on his shoulder. And he ran with a lot of maturity and is starting to figure out how to take on these Anchorage runners.”

Other top-20 individual finishers for JDHS were Kaia Mangaccat in 21:10 for the girls, and Nick Iverson in 17:39 and Owen Woodruff in 17:42 for the boys.

While the varsity was in Anchorage, the JDHS junior varsity cross-country team took part in the Sitka Invitational, while about other runners on the team participated in the local Eagle Beach Cross-Country Meet at the Eagle Beach Campground. Bursell said it’s likely JDHS runners will be at multiple events during weekends throughout the coming school year due to the team’s size and intent of allowing as many as possible to compete.

“That’s kind of the general plan,” he said. “We have certain requirements for traveling like you’ve got to show up to every practice, got to do your fundraisers, got to have a good attitude, got to have your grades up. So for the athletes that were fulfilling those requirements we were like ‘OK, you hold up your end of the deal and you’ll get to travel.”

The next event for the team will be its first official home meet of the season with the Capital City Invite at Sandy Beach, with teams from 10 other Southeast Alaska schools signed up. Bursell this year’s event will probably feel a bit different since there won’t be two Juneau teams competing against each other.

“It was nice to have the competition in a way, the two Juneau schools,” he said. “And I think we’re just going to have to adjust to being one Juneau team. But that’s all right, I guess. The competition in Southeast right now is really spectacular. There are a lot of schools that are really coming on strong like Sitka, Wrangell Petersburg and a whole bunch of other strong teams sprinkled in there. And it’s so cool to have all the schools from Southeast come out to Juneau and just flood those trails.”

STATE PREVIEW 2024 5K

TEAM RESULTS

Girls

1. Chugiak 59; 2. Colony 103; 3. South Anchorage 104; 4. Juneau-Douglas 109; 5. Dimond 116; 6. Service 146; 7. Soldotna 171; 8. East 231; 9. West 240; 10. West Valley 257; 11. Eagle River 277; 12. Grace Christian 321; 13. Bethel 346; 14. Redington 454.

Boys

1. South 94; 2. Juneau-Douglas 111; 3. Colony 119; 4. Grace Christian 125; 5. Chugiak 131; 6. West 150; 7. Service 191; 8. Kodiak 206; 9. Bethel 211; 10. Dimond 239; 11. Homer 283; 12. Soldotna 374; 13. West Valley 374; 14. Eagle River 377; 15. East 400; 16. Mountain City Christian Academy 418; 17. Valdez 420; 18. Kenai Central 505.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Girls

1. Ida Meyer 19:04, Juneau-Douglas; 2. Ella Hopkins 19:31, Colony; 3. Mia Stiassny 19:42, South; 4. Rosie Conway 19:55, East; 5. Alliyah Fields 19:55, Chugiak; 6. Avrey Campbell 20:01, Dimond; 7. Ellie Stull 20:02, Dimond; 8. Hannah Bodkin 20:07, Chugiak; 9. Miyana Kam-Magruder 20:09, Service; 10. Hannah Shaha 20:12, Chugiak; 11. Ourea Busk 20:16, Unalakleet; 12. Fiona Selvik 20:24, Service; 13. Tania Boonstra 20:32, Soldotna; 14. Aubrey Virgin 20:33, Colony; 15. Alise Elliott 20:37, South; 16. Talia Smith 20:44, Service; 17. Petra Knox 20:50, Chugiak; 18. Meadow Bailly 20:54, South; 19. Miriam Armstrong 20:56, West Valley; 20. Kaia Mangaccat 21:10, Juneau-Douglas.

Boys

1. Robbie Annett 16:21, Grace Christian; 2. Katahdin Staples 16:36, East; 3. Johannes Bynagle 16:47, Homer; 4. Erik Thompson 16:49, Juneau-Douglas; 5. Colton Merriner 16:49, Grace Christian; 6. Vebjorn Flagstad 17:01, South; 7. David Penfield 17:03, Chugiak; 8. Coby Marvin 17:16, Colony; 9. Braxton Thornley 17:16, South; 10. Ned Peters 17:18, Bethel; 11. Springer Moore 17:20, Service; 12. Elias Oswald 17:25, Service; 13. Thomas Ringsmuth 17:26, Chugiak; 14. Trygve Vang-Thompson 17:26, Colony; 15. Arlo Jespersen 17:26, West; 16. Owen Harth 17:36, South; 17. Nick Iverson 17:39, Juneau-Douglas; 18. Miles Grimes 17:40, Kodiak; 19. Owen Woodruff 17:42, Juneau-Douglas; 20. Luke Shaw 17:43, Eagle River.

SITKA INVITATIONAL TEAM RESULTS

Men’s

1. Sitka 37

2. Ketchikan 43

3. Wrangell 56

4. Mt Edgecumbe 113

5. Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kale 147

6. Skagway 151

7. Hoonah 215

8. Metlakatla 232

Women’s

1. Sitka 17

2. Ketchikan 51

3. Mt Edgecumbe 88

4. Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kale 92

5. Hoonah 132

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.