In two months, the Juneau-Douglas High School cross country team will be center stage, running in their first home meet of the 2017 season. On Tuesday though, they were in the background, some wearing bicycle helmets, most in embroidered red windbreakers, staffing the fourth annual Glenn Frick Memorial Mile.
Clearing the way for the stampede of 100 runners were Maddie York and Grace Newman, who rode mountain bikes with several teammates out in front.
Jillian Smith, Sosan Monsef and Shadrack Stitz manned the bake sale table, just inside tall awning in front the Four Points Hotel by the finish line (formerly Goldbelt).
Also lending a hand was Sadie Tuckwood, Aidan Hopson and Katie McKenna, tearing off stubs from the runner’s bibs as soon as they finished, “the fastest mile in Juneau.”
The fastest runner in Juneau was the 43-year-old Alec Nevalainen. Just as the timing display at the finish line struck 4:30, chatter rose among those at the finish, “there’s someone coming!” Nevalainen, escorted by the high school runners on mountain bikes, clocked a 4 minutes, 46 seconds mile. The time was just two seconds slower than his race last year when he finished second behind Jesse Miller.
Just 30 seconds behind the Navalainen were two former high school track opponents: Kenny Fox, 20, and Jack White, 18. Fox graduated from Thunder Mountain High School in 2015 and White graduated from JDHS this spring.
The two started the race out near each other. White gained the lead for most of the race, but as they both barreled down the straightaway, Fox put on a smiling surge, eclipsing White for sixth place. Fox finished in 5:15, White in 5:16.
“It always nice to just gut it out in the end and hope you can pass some people,” Fox said.
Fox said he’s run in the event almost every year since he was 8 or 9. His extended family in Juneau includes longtime JDHS cross country coach Guy Thibodeau, who said a few words before the race on behalf of Frick.
“I knew a lot of people that knew him really well like my uncles and cousins,” Fox said.
White’s time showed he hasn’t lost his running edge coming in at seventh.
“I wasn’t looking to necessarily win it or anything,” White said of the race. “I just wanted to go out and have a good race. Even though I’m not in cross country anymore, I still like racing.”
Glenn Frick Memorial Mile Results
Alec Nevalainen 4:46
Jake Haas 5:06
Jesse Stringer 5:08
Falker 5:08
Bryan Hitchcock 5:10
Kenny Fox 5:15
Jack White 5:16
Katie Krehlik 5:29
Brown Suga 5:30
Bethany Gollin 5:36
Daniel Kruger 5:37
Aaron Morrison 5:38
Grant Werthman 5:39
Randy Peterson 5:42
Jim Ustasisewski 5:42
Connor Norman 5:51
Will Robinson 5:52
John Nagel 5:55
Daren Booton 5:57
Gus Marx 5:58
Caden Masdag 6:02
April Rezendes 6:02
Elizabeth Ramseth 6:04
Hannah Deer 6:06
Nate Schneider 6:06
Ricardo Worl 6:09
Dave Ringle 6:12
Phoebe Salowey 6:18
Nick Iverson 6:24
Emily Buck 6:25
Glideon Kemper 6:25
Becca Antonoplos 6:31
Breea Mearig 35 6:34
Thomas Willhoite 6:37
Masy Morley 6:39
Joe Salowey 6:41
Keith Dobbins 6:43
Jack Kirk 6:46
Guy Crockroft 6:47
Becky Bohrer 6:48
Nolan Anderson 6:56
Ida Meyer 7:00
Lucrecia Mervine 7:07
Jessica Rice 7:13
Coltin Motley 7:17
Grant Cerner 7:18
Alisha Falberg 7:19
Jenna Thibodeau 7:24
Katelyn Thibodeau 7:25
Jeff Gnass 7:27
Alyssa Hobbs 7:28
Ani Rice 7:29
Jonah Drezner 7:34
Joann Rieselbach 7:43
Kenzie Simonson 7:54
Christy Simonson 7:56
Tom Meyer 7:59
Sean Eagen 8:01
Eva Meyer 8:01
Rose Wilkinson 8:09
Jim Wilkinson 8:16
Collin Mcclelland 8:25
Lindsey Dobbins 8:29
Holly Salowey 8:30
Abbey Cummings 8:31
Ellen Dobbins 8:43
Nancy Jones 9:15
Griffin Dobbins 9:16
Kinley Johns 9:29
Abigail Booton 9:30
Mack Host 9:35
Randy Host 9:36
Jillian Levy 9:59
Papa Keith 9:59
Liam Beedle 10:13
Amy Klepeter 10:13
Finlay Beedle 10:14
Cheyanna Anderson 10:18
Nylan Davis 10:18
Eliza Albrecht 10:19
Greg Albrecht 10:19
Saralyn Tabachnick 10:31
Maria Leonhardt 51 10:33
Joe Leonhardt52 10:41
Daney Shell 11:06
Beth Shell 11:06
Ed Johns 11:25
Trevor Stephens 8 11:31
Rachel Stephens 32 11:31
Nic Tracy 11:34
Ryan Stephens 11:36
Libby O’Neill11:38
William O’Neill 11:57
Bill O’Neill 11:57
Emily Stephens 11:57
Eisley Mann 12:07
HJ Mann 12:08
Fred Triam 12:31
Kiana Bierley 13:06
Linda Kruger 15:27
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
A young runner begins the Glenn Frick Memorial Mile, Tuesday, July 4. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
Jack White, left, and Kenny Fox begin the Glenn Frick Memorial Mile, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
A race volunteer removes a runner’s bib stub at the finish line of the Glenn Frick Memorial Mile. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
Longtime Juneau-Douglas High School cross country running coach Guy Thibodeau speaks to runners before the Glenn Frick Memorial Mile, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (Nolin Ainsworth | Juneau Empire)
