Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Nick Iverson rocketed to a personal best time of 16:27 to win the Region V Division I Cross Country Championship on Saturday at Ketchikan’s Ward Lake.

“It feels pretty good,” Iverson said. “We kind of knew we had a pretty good team coming into the meet so a lot of the pressure was really kind of off. We were all really excited though because we knew it was a really fast course and we hadn’t run on many fast courses this year. We knew there would be a ton of PRs across the board so we just kind of went out there and gave it our best and the outcome was great.”

Iverson led a quartet of Crimson Bears to the top four finishes and six of the top seven times for the team title as well, topping Kayhi 16 to 45.

Iverson said he and two teammates started the race conservatively as it also features DII fast runners.

“After the first mile, we really just started cruising it and passed a ton of people,” he said.

They passed rival Ketchikan and then battled with Sitka.

“Really it just helped push us,” he said. “It feels good. We’ve been training hard all season. We knew we would have a good team even before the season started and it’s good seeing the younger guys hitting some good marks because we know even next year JD will have a pretty strong team after some of us are gone…Now, since we are reaching the end of our season we’ll start tapering. Meaning we’ll stop training as hard. Our workouts will reduce intensity so we can start giving most of our energy into this final meet. Now we know we are in the mix to potentially win state.”

A trio of runners from the now-defunct Thunder Mountain High School wore their new JDHS singlets to the next three placings.

Sophomore Erik Thompson hit a personal best time of 16:34 for second place, senior Owen Woodruff a personal best of 16:41 for third and senior Sage Janes a personal best of 17:16 for fourth.

“It is pretty awesome,” Woodruff said. “We never got to win one for TM. It feels good to be on the other side of it and take home a region W.”

Woodruff said the combining of teams “was different and people may have had strong opinions, but for me I was just excited to run with new people and we have a really strong team this year because of that. I think if we didn’t combine schools there would be no way we had a chance of getting state this year. I’m pumped about it. We have a large team and good coaching staff.”

Woodruff said he used to “overthink races, but this year I had a different mindset and just kind of went out there, didn’t really think about it, just run the race and see what happens. I knew this would be a fast course and I’ve been working super hard this summer and the summer before and I have really been wanting to break 17 minutes. I knew it was possible on this course. I just ran loose and everything ended up playing out good.”

Sage Janes said the team had discussed that this would be the seniors’ last region meet.

“We were kind of looking at this race like, honestly, a resting type of race for state,” Janes said. “We weren’t supposed to go 100% but I thought about it more and just wanted to go for the PR. I ran this race like it was my last one but I also saved myself for our state race coming up. Because of the consolidation this year I think we have a good shot of winning state. It is going to be a big race.”

Ketchikan sophomore Noah Robbins was fifth in 17:23, followed by JDHS sophomore Logan Fellman and senior Ferguson Wheeler in personal best times of 17:29 and 17:31, respectively.

“I kind of had different goals from some of the other boys,” Wheeler said. “I wasn’t really reaching for a PR today, it was kind of more to build my confidence because last week I didn’t have the greatest race ever. I did terribly and threw up a whole bunch at the end. So I was just looking for a race to get into my groove and feel my routine and finish strong. So I went out at 90%, like a tempo pace, then the back two miles I started to pick it up and it felt really good, and I managed to get a PR anyways.”

The top team and top 10 individual qualify for state and Kayhi junior Carter Phillips and sophomore Henry Vail placed eighth and ninth with 17:37 and 17:53, respectively. JDHS junior Elias Schane finished the Crimson Bears’ scoring in 10th place with a personal best 17:55.

“We’ve been doing a ton of work the past two weeks,” JDHS co-coach Zack Bursell said. “We had the state preview at Bartlett and then our home meet, which we are always going to go hard on, so coming into regions, I knew we had state next weekend so I was just making sure these guys knew that it is a real challenge to pull off four really strong meets in a row where you are going all out. I told them to just play it smart, play it safe, use your instincts and go out there and do your best, but just keep in mind the real big effort comes up next weekend. I think these guys really wanted to get out there and have a fast race on this course. It’s a good time to get PRs. I think we managed to get both of those things done at the same time.”

Bursell said there wasn’t necessarily a strategy that “so-and-so was going to go with so-and-so but these guys know how to work together. We’re in a tight group in all of our workouts. I think they were able to use each other out there to gauge their pace and boost their confidence.”

The DI and DII races were held jointly but scored separately. Sitka senior Connor Hitchcock posted the day’s fastest time of 16:23, followed by classmate Trey Demmert in 17:03 and junior Francis Myers in 17:26.

The Wolves outscored Mt. Edgecumbe 19-40 for the region team title.

Rounding out the top 10 individual placers for state were MEHS senior Nathaniel Vincler in 17:31, MEHS sophomore Derek Wilson 18:05, SIT junior Calder Prussian 18:17, SIT junior Justin Hames 18:27, SIT junior Brett Ross 18:42, MEHS senior Brent Sun 19:25 and MEHS junior Donald Olson 19:52.

Wrangell junior Boomchain Loucks, last season’s state champion, is looking on track to defend that title as he won the DIII Region V title Saturday in 16:51.41 and led the Wolves to the team title as well, but Craig sophomore Aulis Nelson was just a thread of singlet behind in 16:51.90.

Finishing out the top 15 individual state qualifiers were: 3. junior Alex Holmgrain, Petersburg 17:35; 4. junior Gaje Ventress, PSG, 17:45; 5. junior Ian Nelson, WRG, 17:46; 6. sophomore Jackson Carney, WRG, 18:10; 7. senior Elias Ward, PSG, 18:11; 8. senior Andrew Hansen, Haines, 18:16; 9. senior Daniel Harrison, WRG, 18:33; 10. sophomore Xzavier Munoz-Torres, Kake, 18:52; 11. sophomore Ben Kandoll, PSG, 19:00; 12. junior Jackson Powers, WRG, 19:04; 13. freshman Lucas Stearns, WRG, 19:08; 14. sophomore Everett Meisner, WRG, 19:12; 15. freshman Logan Rupprecht, Skagway, 19:18.

Wrangell scored 12 points to win the team title and will be joined at state by Petersburg with 14. Other scores included SKG 48, CRG 49, HNS 70, KAK 70, Hoonah 82 and Metlakatla 83.

JDHS will compete on the Bartlett High School Trails in Anchorage this coming Saturday for the 2024 ASAA Cross Country Running State Championships.

“It’s great to go in with confidence after having a great result like this,” Bursell said. “I think we just focus on the specifics on how to run that state course at Bartlett. It’s a different beast with relentless hills and there will be a lot of traffic with other athletes out there. We’re just going to dial in on all the components of that race and make sure we are as prepared as possible.”

Complete Region V Championship results are at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/248258/info.