A big splash in the mud for about 200 Southeast cross-country runners at Capital City Invite

Marina Dill has plenty of experience running in the rain as a senior on Sitka High School’s cross-country team. But she said “through my entire years of running I’ve never ran on something this muddy” after winning the women’s race at the Capital City Invite at Savikko Park on Saturday morning.

“I thought it was fun — like at the start,” she said. “But as I was running it was so distracting.”

“Every time we go down a hill it was like mud. And at this very steep hill that we go up there’s just a mud pile right in front of us. So that was a little bit of effort trying to push through because the whole trail is practically just mud.”

However, the event featuring about 200 students from 10 Southeast Alaska high schools was a clean sweep for Sitka in the individual divisions of the 5K race, while host Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé — which had by far the biggest group of students — prevailed in both of the team categories.

Dill finished first among the 79 students from seven Southeast Alaska high schools taking part in the women’s 5K race that included an out-and-back circuit along the Treadwell Mine Historic Trail, with a time of 20 minutes and 24.17 seconds. The fastest female at the event was another Sitka senior, Clare Mullin, who ran with 124 boys from 10 high schools who completed the course and finished in 19:46.45 (and was officially listed as the sole competitor in the “special” division).

Winning the men’s division was Sitka senior Connor Hitchcock with a time of 16:30.49, who was in sunny spirits despite being covered with mud splatters as he accepted congratulations after his finish.

“It’s just cross-country in Alaska,” he said. “That’s how we like it. I mean, it’s fun.”

A few students were muddier than others after suffering some slips and falls during the race. Piper Caskey, a sophomore at Ketchikan High School, said she started faster than last year’s first attempt on the course, but she fell near the beginning and ended up finishing with a time of 25:53.21.

“So it wasn’t my best race and it was not my best time either, but I did better than I thought I would with falling,” she said. Also, she had more resolve this year since “if it was last year and if I felt at the beginning I probably wouldn’t have finished.”

Zach Bos, a JDHS freshman, who had a similar experience near the start of the race, still managed to finish 28th with a time of 19:04.24. He said a consistent pace is the best approach on the course when it’s muddy.

“Going out too fast in the beginning or too fast near the end is just not the greatest way to go,” he said. At the beginning of the race “I was trying to get up ahead of the crowd so I wouldn’t get stuck in the bottleneck, but then I keeled over and didn’t work out.”

Another JDHS freshman, Emmett Hightower, suffered his misfortune by losing a shoe during the final sprint across the park at the end of the course. He opted to pick up and carry the show across the finish rather than stop to put it back on, finishing in a time of 23:51.14.

“I’m still happy that I got close to my personal record,” he said.

Finishing the course strongly, if not among the leaders, was still a triumph for Meliame Tupou, a JDHS junior who said she actually remembers running a wetter race during a relay as a sophomore. But Saturday presented its own challenges as a solo competitor.

“I think the challenge for me personally was trying not to slip the whole time because it was just super muddy and slippery,” she said. “And also I think the other challenge was to keep on feeling motivated and ready to go because the rain can just be so daunting sometimes.”

But Tupou, a member of Thunder Mountain High School’s track team last year, said in some ways it was also easier to run the course this year because she felt better prepared from training as part of a newly consolidated team from what were two Juneau high schools.

“Our coaches, the ones from TM and JD, they came together and they made this really great training program for us,” she said. “And so we actually run this course like twice a week which means we’ve got it memorized like the back of our hand.”

The event was also the senior recognition day for the JDHS team, with the varsity next competing this coming Saturday at the Region 5 Championships in Ketchikan. The Alaska School Activities Association State Championships are scheduled Oct. 5 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.

2024 CAPITAL CITY INVITE RESULTS

(Full official race results)

TEAM

Men

1. Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé 26

2. Sitka 57

3. Wrangell 75

4. Petersburg 109

5. Mt Edgecumbe 175

6. Skagway 191

7. Ketchikan 209

8. Craig 219

9. Metlakatla 226

10. Hoonah 237

Women

1. JDHS 22

2. Sitka 44

3. Petersburg 71

4. Ketchikan 133

5. Hoonah 142

6. Mt Edgecumbe 145

7. Kake 151

INDIVIDUAL

Men

1. Connor Hitchcock 16:30.49 Sitka; 2. Nick Iverson 16:38.14 JDHS; 3. Erik Thompson 16:49.89 JDHS; 4. Boomchain Loucks 17:01.89 Wrangell; 5. Owen Woodruff 17:11.14 JDHS; 6. Trey Demmert 17:25.89 Sitka; 7. Sage Janes 17:29.74 JDHS; 8. Aulis Nelson 17:38.17 Craig; 9. Logan Fellman 17:55.67 JDHS; 10. Francis Myers 17:57.95 Sitka.

Women

1. Marina Dill 20:24.17 Sitka; 2. Kaia Mangaccat 21:23.05 JDHS; 3. Siena Farr 21:41.14 JDHS; 4. Della Mearig 21:49.52 JDHS; 5. Nevah Lupro 21:56.33 JDHS; 6. Aliyah Merculief 22:04.14 Sitka; 7. Natalie Hall 22:06.42 Sitka; 8. Lua Mangaccat 22:07.80 JDHS; 9. Sunna Schane 22:08.05 JDHS; 10. Maria Toth 22:16.42 Petersburg.

Special

1. Clare Mullin 19:46.45 Sitka.

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