Take notice, Alaska prep runners: there\u2019s a new sheriff in town.<\/p>\n
Juneau-Douglas High School freshman Sadie Tuckwood beat the field Saturday to place first overall at the 2016 Alaska Cross Country Championships, sending the message to female runners across the state that she\u2019s a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just really proud and it feels good to beat everyone,\u201d Tuckwood said.<\/p>\n
Tuckwood clocked in at 18 minutes, 16 seconds, the fastest time ever logged by a freshman at the state meet and the fastest anyone not named Allie Ostrander has run since race officials began compiling times in 2002. (Ostrander, of Kenai fame, currently ranks as the best collegiate runner in the entire U.S. Tuckwood\u2019s 18:16 beat Ostrander\u2019s freshman finish by 30 seconds.)<\/p>\n
\u201cSadie is starting to put herself in her own category,\u201d JDHS coach Tristan Knutson-Lombardo said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the top performances this state has ever seen as a runner and it\u2019s all the more exciting to know that we have three more years of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuckwood had to start fast to earn positioning before the Bartlett High School course narrowed from a field to a tree-lined trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to keep the same pace the whole race but I had to start out faster,\u201d Tuckwood said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to get stuck behind in the trees and then have to catch the people up front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartlett\u2019s notoriously hilly course is considered one of the toughest in the state, yet Tuckwood completed her 5K only four seconds slower than the region-winning time she logged Sept. 24 on Sitka\u2019s relatively flat course. She beat her closest competitor, West Valley\u2019s Kendall Kramer, by 13 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really that nervous because I had raced against a few of these girls before,\u201d said Tuckwood, who is a recent transplant to Juneau from Dillingham.<\/p>\n
Following Tuckwood for Juneau runners was Thunder Mountain\u2019s Erin Wallace (19:17), who placed fifth at the meet. The junior logged her best finish to date by working on her pacing and psychology (she placed 23rd as a freshman and 22nd as a sophomore).<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran differently than last year. Instead of coming out at the start and booking it, I took it easy,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cGoing up these hills and coming down I was flying, in a good position and feeling strong, thinking positive thoughts. \u2026 I really surprised myself this year and hopefully next year I can work harder, get better and maybe finish top four or top three.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe keeps improving. Her confidence is going up and it translates in her times,\u201d Falcons coach Scott May said.<\/p>\n
Tuckwood wasn\u2019t alone in making a splash for JDHS\u2019 next generation. Fellow freshman Anna Iverson placed 11th overall for the Crimson Bears. Iverson has consistently been finishing third in Region V meets this year behind Tuckwood and Wallace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really tried to push myself on this course,\u201d Iverson said. \u201cI\u2019m already looking forward to next year to try and improve more and do the whole thing over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau\u2019s top boys finisher was sophomore Arne Ellefson-Carnes, who finished 15th at 16:37. Ellefson-Carnes went out fast, at one point holding fourth place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a pack of about ten people in front of me and I was just trying to stick with them,\u201d Ellefson-Carnes said. \u201cI just knew you had to get out fast, so that\u2019s what I did. I just got better position than last year, when it felt like I was walking at the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JDHS girls finished eighth in team totals while the boys finished 10th.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Other Southeast Conference finishers:<\/p>\n
Boys \u2014<\/p>\n
44. Taylor-Roth, Clem – JDHS 17:26<\/p>\n
51. Coss, John – Ketch. 17:41<\/p>\n
57. Stephens, Leif – Ketch. 17:53<\/p>\n
60. Sleppy, Justin – TMHS 17:56<\/p>\n
70. Burger, James – TMHS 18:16<\/p>\n
72. Stitz, Shadrach – JDHS 18:25<\/p>\n
76. White, John – JDHS 18:31<\/p>\n
77. McKenna, Tim – JDHS 18:32<\/p>\n
80. Doddridge, Kadin – JDHS 19:31<\/p>\n
81. Allmendinger, Paul – Ketch. 19:53<\/p>\n
82. Blust, Aaron – JDHS 20:26<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Girls \u2014<\/p>\n
56. Thompson, Sally – TMHS 21:35<\/p>\n
66. De Mello, Desiree – Ketch. 22:13<\/p>\n
67. Goering, Eva – JDHS 22:16<\/p>\n
68. Knight, Elizabeth – Ketch 22:16<\/p>\n
71. Monsef, Sosan – JDHS 22:23<\/p>\n
73. Seley, Tori – Ketch. 22:48<\/p>\n
77. Greg, Jessie – JDHS 23:10<\/p>\n
81. York, Maddie – JDHS 23:38<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1,2,3A Girls<\/p>\n
Glenallen\u2019s Briahna Gerlach made history by becoming only the second-small school athlete to win the state championship for the fourth year in a row. Gerlach finished at 18:44, a full 32 seconds faster than runner-up Megan Pitzman, from Homer.<\/p>\n
Gerlach\u2019s 2016 time is the second-fastest she\u2019s run in a state championship, trailing only her freshman mark of 18:34. Both are the two fastest small-school times recorded at a state championship meet since the Alaska Scholastic Activities Association began compiling times in 2002.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the top five for the girls were Ruby Linquist, Seward (19:24); Allison VanPelt, Houston (19:31) and Grace Gannon, Grace Christian (19:39).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1, 2, 3A Boys<\/p>\n
Homer beat Sitka\u2019s defending state champion boys, scoring 45 points to Sitka\u2019s 63. Anchorage Christian took third overall with 78 points. Region V champion David Wilcox placed seventh overall, Colin Baciocco ninth and Joe Pate 14th.<\/p>\n
Galena\u2019s Jacob Moos took individual first place with a time of 15:55, another state championship meet record.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the top five were for the boys were: Hunter Kratz, Seward (15:57); Blake Bennett, Anchorage Christian (16:02); Trent Fritzel, Grace Christian (16:21) and Zach Hamberger, Cordova (16:38).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Take notice, Alaska prep runners: there\u2019s a new sheriff in town. Juneau-Douglas High School freshman Sadie Tuckwood beat the field Saturday to place first overall at the 2016 Alaska Cross Country Championships, sending the message to female runners across the state that she\u2019s a force to be reckoned with. \u201cI am just really proud and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":34419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-34418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34418"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}