![\"JDHS](\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/32932904_web1_Track-JUE-230607-pics_3.jpeg\")
<\/a>JDHS junior Wilder Dillingham, running for team North\/Southeast, competes in a relay at the Brian Young Invitational on Saturday in Kodiak. (Photo Courtesy Brandi Adams)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
“It feels pretty amazing,” Davis said of breaking former Haines runner and coach Chandler Kemp’s record. “It was a lot of fun running for him and chasing down his high school marks. It was a really fun race. It felt fast. They went out hard and just tried to hang on that second lap. It was cool that everybody was racing for fun but also racing for fast marks.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tDavis also noted he was excited to be joining former North\/Southeast BYI champion and 2022 JDHS graduate James Connally at Eastern Oregon University this fall, running track and cross country. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tNorth\/Southeast athlete Bella Connally, a Floyd Dryden Middle School seventh grader and James Connally’s sister, impressed all in attendance by placing second in the 100 meters in a PR 13.32. ASAA 100 meter state champion Olyvia Mamae, a senior from East Anchorage running for Cook Inlet Conference, won the race in her season best time of 12.72.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I’m really grateful I had the opportunity to go,” Connally said. “I had a lot of fun. I was really nervous but the high schoolers and coaches helped keep my nerves low and helped me build up confidence and they were really supportive.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tConnally also placed fifth in the 200 meters in a PR 27.77. Mamae won in a SR 26.54<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Both performances would qualify Connally for the JO competition in Eugene for her age group.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I’m grateful for the chance, but I can’t go because I have softball during that time and I don’t want to ditch my team,” Connally said. “I also want to get better at my block starts and technique. My brother is coming back from college for the summer and hopefully we have some chances to go out to the track.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tWhen asked if she planned to beat her brother Connally said, “I feel like that would be impossible.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tAccording to North\/Southeast coach Stringer, Sitka sophomore Connor Hitchcock hit a PR 3,200 time of 9:52.29 for fourth place, finishing one second behind Sitka senior Silas Demmert in third with 9:51.59.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The race was won by Grace Christian senior David Sliwinski, running for Cook Inlet Conference, in 9:31.31. JHDS junior Edgar Vera Alverado hung tough to pull out a 10:12.41 for seventh place on windy Kodiak day. In that race seventh grader Henry Pysher placed 10th in 12:37.49 and would qualify for nationals in his age group.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I knew there was going to be the leaders and I was going to be in the chase pack,” Hitchcock said. “I was excited to have people to race with. There was a pack of four and I was just hanging on to the back. My teammate Edgar was hanging on right behind me. I thought that some of those kids wouldn’t be able to handle that pace so I let them do the work until I made the move. It was cool to have Edgar racing on the same team as me. We’ve talk to each other about races all season. It was different being on the same team because we could talk race strategy to work together. Earlier in the season we’d talk about the race, but not much strategy because we were competition.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tHitchcock also placed 10th in the 1,600 with a PR of 4:37.36. Race winner Robbie Annett, a Grace Christian sophomore, hit a PR 4:20.95 for his high school’s record. Both could qualify for nationals in their age group as could Homer senior Seamus McDonough in second place and Sliwinski in third, while Sitka senior Silas Demmert in fourth may not.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Ketchikan sophomore Jason Lorig won the 100 in a PR 11.12 with Bartlett sophomore Marquez Nevitte second in a PR 11.40. Lorig placed fifth in the 200 in a PR 24.27, but the faster finishers were all seniors so he may qualify in that event as well.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I didn’t expect to go faster than regions,” Lorig said. “It feels pretty good to run the sprints, it feels easy for me and fun.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tJDHS junior Wilder Dillingham should qualify for nationals as he set a PR 51.33 for second in the 400 meters, behind Chugiak senior Anders Larsen in a PR 50.37.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Coach Springer noted that Dillingham also ran the 300 hurdles, tripped to the ground but finished the race in a time that is one of the top 25 times of the season in Alaska.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
JDHS junior Etta Eller place third in the 800 in a PR 2:24.96, third in the 1,600 in a PR 5:15.78 and third in the 3,200 with a PR 11:44.23.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“My races this weekend were fun and a great way to end the season in a different environment than most races this season,” Eller said. “It was run to run alongside people from all over Southeast and all representing the same team. I felt stronger. It helped having back-to-back high competition races, that pushed me in this meet. I did more individual events than at state and I did them closer together so I felt more tired, but my times were stronger.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tEller said her summer running will be structured around the July JO nationals. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t“But apart from that I just love running trails in the summer,” she said. “And going up mountains. I love trail running, but maybe I will incorporate some more speed work on top of my loose fun training in the mountains.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tTMHS senior Mallory Welling placed second in the 100 hurdles in SR 16.39 and second in the 300 hurdles in PR 48.00. East’s Mamae won the 100 hurdles in 15.66 and Homer sophomore Gracie Miotke, of South Central All-Stars, the 300 in 47.52.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Welling was competing in her second BYI. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t“For me the unity we had as a team really stood out,” she said. “Last year we didn’t know the northern kids that well. I feel like this year we had a better connection overall. And our southeast portion of the team was bigger so it was more fun.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tHe older sister Naomi Welling, a state champion, also had participated at the BYI in the past and Mallory noted the importance of wearing the North\/Southeast team singlet.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We do a lot of the same events, she’s crazy good at them and I don’t think I will ever get to her level, but being able to have her with me, in a way, in those races is really important,” she said. “Because sometimes she is the one who pumps me up. She’s the one who helps me get focused on the race. So getting to wear that singlet, and kind of have her with me, is really special.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Even as impressive as Southeast Alaska athletes are, it is also impressive that most had to first get to Juneau before traveling to Anchorage and then Kodiak. For many this means traveling 900 miles, or more than the width of Texas, to be at this meet. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t“They gladly make this sacrifice to get one more shot at their competition after the ASAA state championships,” said North\/Southeast coach Stringer. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tThe BYI meet has no association with ASAA. Coaches volunteer their time to spend an extra weekend with the most skilled athletes from across the state. Alaska athletes are usually at a competition disadvantage across the nation compared to larger competitive populations of athletes, easier access to facilities and training and weather. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tSome of Saturday’s sprint races did not produce PRs as they faced strong Kodiak head winds. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t“But we got a lot of personal best on Friday when the weather was nicer,” Dunbar said. “The meet went pretty good. One downside is that the meet being in Kodiak, for the BYI we had a lot of financial assistance getting kids to Kodiak, but for the JO meet we did not have that. So athletes had to do that themselves. If we get on the road system I think we will get more participants. Especially for the younger age groups.” <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tThe BYI honors namesake Brian Young, an avid sports fan, volunteer, father and lifelong fisherman who passed away in 2011 after summiting Denali. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tDunbar has had the meet outside Kodiak twice before. In 2019 the meet was held at West Anchorage High School to promote their new field and last year it was held in Homer as the Alaska Marine Highway schedule did not facilitate adequate transportation to Kodiak. <\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\tDunbar is planning the 2024 BYI meet for Fairbanks, and hopes to move it around the state for greater athlete access and affordability. The BYI fundraises to host the event. Athletes have to provide their own transportation, food and housing. They are given team sweats and singlets and, of course, good memories.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The kids work hard and have a good time,” Dunbar said. “It is more about taking the pressure off and letting the kids relax while they are in shape and running against good competition on a good track and trying to get their personal best performances. They had a good time. They ran a fun relay at the end, they called it ‘anything but a baton relay 4×4.’ Right after we finished the competitive races. And they were, like, carrying people, and cans of whipped cream, a cowbell, a selfie stick, a traffic cone… passing off different things that weren’t batons. It was crazy but everyone had a good time.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
• Contact Klas Stolpe at Klas.Stolpe@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southeast track stars impress at Kodiak’s Brian Young Invitational <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":99994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[240,782],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-99993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-high-school-sports","tag-track-and-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99993","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\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99993"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=99993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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