The Haines High School cross-country team’s home meet on Saturday, Sept. 5, is expected to include a community run for all-comers.
Event times and attending schools still were being ironed out this week, following a practice when the Glacier Bears braved a trek up Cemetery Hill.
The Haines meet at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds is the team’s season opener. The squad also is scheduled to compete in Wrangell, Ketchikan and Juneau prior to the state meet in Anchorage on Oct. 3.
More than 20 students have turned out for practices, under the direction of coaches Tara Bicknell, Lilly Boron and Alixanne Goodman.
“We have a lot of younger runners this year, which is super exciting,” Bicknell said. “We’ve seen big improvements in a short amount of time.”
Goodman said the team is “a pretty young group that is going to excel as they get older,” but senior leaders have been nurturing the newcomers “like a mother duck and all the ducklings.”
Senior Zane Durr in an interview this week was quick to name the “awesome” sophomore Tulsi Zahnow as one of the squad’s young stars.
Durr said he’ll be more focused in his senior season. “I’m hoping to do a lot better this year.”
Senior Jenae Larson said she is looking forward to having more girls on the squad. “I’m pretty excited about it. We finally have a full girls’ team to compete as a team, not individuals.”
Keegan Sundberg, a 2015 Haines graduate, was the Glacier Bears’ lone state qualifier last season. He placed 29th of 129 boys’ runners at state. Another departure is senior Neil Little, who figured to be among the Glacier Bears’ top returnees this year but moved to Sitka.
As a team, the Haines boys finished sixth at the 2014 regional meet among small schools, trailing Sitka, Petersburg, Mount Edgecumbe, Craig and Kake. The girls also placed sixth overall, behind Mount Edgecumbe, Petersburg, Wrangell, Sitka and Craig.
Regional competitors who are back for the Glacier Bears include seniors Durr, Casey Bradford and Matthew Green, junior Mori Hays and sophomore Hudson Sage for the boys; and Zahnow, Larson, and senior Destinee Cowart for the girls.
Cowart joined cross-country as a junior to prepare for basketball season.
“I feel a lot better about this season than I did last year,” she said. “We’ll have a pretty fast team, hopefully.”