Bell, Hansen, lead Haines at season opener meet against powerhouse Juneau-Douglas

Camelia Bell wasn’t sure she’d start at Saturday’s season opener cross-country meet in Haines.

The senior had been training hard all summer, but got sick with a sore throat in the week leading up to the Haines Invitational Cross-Country Meet’s 5,000-meter race that forced her to sit out of training. It wasn’t until the day before she decided to jump in the race.

“It’s a fun race. I decided if I don’t hit it, that’s okay,” she said.

She ended up hitting a personal record by about three minutes even with legs that were feeling less-than-fresh after fighting her illness, relying on fitness built up over a summer of physical landscaping work and training for two grueling half marathons.

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Bell helped lead a small but dedicated Haines team of just a dozen who were up against the powerhouse Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé team of 70 starters who dominated the men’s and women’s podiums. Nine of the top 10 finishers among both the boys and girls were from JDHS.

Mary Bell races in the season-opening cross country meet at the state fairgrounds in Haines on Aug. 31, 2024. (Lex Treinen / For the Chilkat Valley News)

Still, Glacier Bears coach Jordan Baumgartner said it was a “great start” for the season and it wasn’t just the sunny weather, which cleared just in time for the race start.

“We had a lot of personal bests today. We have a lot of newer runners and they were pretty happy with how they did today,” he said.

Bell’s finish of 24:40 put her in ninth place, and the top girl who wasn’t from Juneau-Douglas. Technically, the fastest girl on Saturday was Ida Meyer in 19:43, who placed fifth at the state championship meet last year. But, Meyer raced in the boys division, which her coaches said was to give her more competition. Her time was over a minute ahead of Kaia Mangaccat, who was the first finisher in the girls race at 21:32.

On the boys side, Andrew Hansen led the Glacier Bears with an eighth-place finish. Hansen said he was pleased with himself in what he believed was a 20-second course best in 19:14. He said it was a challenging course. The 5-kilometer route took racers from the parking lot of the state fairgrounds back behind the sandpits to start and through the Chilkoot Estates subdivision. The course was littered with puddles from a downpour in Haines on Friday and Saturday morning.

“It’s a lot of uphill and a lot of hard downhill so it’s not very moderate. It’s kind of extreme,” said the senior.

Boys racers start at the season opening cross country meet at the SEAK Fairgrounds on Aug. 31 2024 (Lex Treinen)

Hansen said his summer training was put on hold by a full-time job he held down in Idaho painting houses with his brother-in-law. But, he said he was hoping his times would continue to improve as the team transitioned from more mileage to more speedwork during training.

Hansen showed his capabilities with a fast finish where he pulled away from a competitor at his heels.

“There was a guy coming up on me and I had stuff left so I kind of let it loose,” he said, adding that his season goal was to shave his time down to the 17-minute range.

Camelia Bell said pacing also helped her pull away from a competitor during the race after a reserved start.

“Once I got the first loop, then I feel like I could really push myself because I know what to expect and I know what my body can do,” she said.

Bell said despite her strong start, she doesn’t have any specific goals for the season, other than to improve. She completed the 11-mile Takshanuk Ridge Run this summer, as well as the mountainous 25-kilometer (15-mile) Nifty Fifty in Juneau, which she did as a birthday run with with her mom.

“(My season goals) are up in the air, still. I’m just living life until I know what to do with it,” she said.

This year’s Glacier Bear running team is smaller than usual, but coaches and athletes said it’s brought intimacy to practices and meets. With just eight competitors on Saturday, and a total team of 12 (plus three middle-schoolers who have been practicing) it’s just a fraction of Juneau-Douglas’s 80-something person squad. On top of that, the Bears are missing last year’s top runner, Ari’el Godinez-Long, who has been practicing with the team but not racing due to what she said was burnout.

Baumgartner, who returned as head coach this year after a season off, said the small team has some advantages.

“I have way more time to spend with them one on one, so I think they’re gonna have more significant gains because I’ll be able to give more individualized attention,” he said. “For the most part it’s not about winning or placing, they just all want to improve.”

Scoring rules for state championships changed this year with just the top three runners scoring. That gives even a small squad like Haines a chance to qualify as a team, in addition to individual qualifiers. The regional meet is on Sept. 24 in Ketchikan. The state meet is Oct. 5 in Anchorage. At state, Haines competes in a small-schools division separate from Juneau.

Team members said there’s a sense of common focus, even if there are widely varying starting points and goals.

“Everybody that’s here wants to be here,” said Hansen.

Having a taste of the big-city competition was also exciting.

“It’s a nice feeling to be around a lot of people, but it makes you feel closer to your team,” Bell said.

Top 10 results for Haines Invitational Cross-Country Meet 5,000 meters (full results)

Boys

1. Erik Thompson 17:36.60 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.

2. Owen Woodruff 17:48.70 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.

3. Nick Iverson 17:56.30 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.

4. Logan Fellman 18:30.50 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.

5. Ferguson Wheeler 18:37.90 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.

6. Elias Schane 18:50.50 Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé.