The Haines Glacier Bears cross-country running team will run in Petersburg Saturday for a season opening invitational meet with area schools.
Head coach Keri Ewing said he is excited to arrive in Petersburg and get the season started. Assistant coaches Chandler Kemp and Alixanne Goodman are encouraged by what they have seen so far.
“I’m just excited that so many kids want to come run,” Kemp said. “Doing cross country in high school when I was living here was a really great experience for me.”
Kemp said he got to meet people all over the region and see a lot of cool places on his runs. It’s opened a lot of doors for him, he said. Kemp said he wants to show the kids on the team how much fun it can be.
This year’s team has a relatively high turnout of about 15 students. They’ve been training for the demands of 5K races they’ll face this season by running around Jones Point or up the “race trail” to the antenna tower on Mount Ripinsky.
Senior Madeline Andriesen said she joined the team three years ago in order to stay in shape and be with friends. Now she finds running calming as she struggles to prepare for college next year.
Hudson Sage, a junior and 3-year team member, said he is pleased with the opening weeks of practice and is pleasantly surprised by the good things he sees in the team’s future.
“We’ve got a good group of people here and we just have an all-out good team this year,” Sage said. “And a lot of the freshmen are just crazy fast this year, it seems.”
One of the team goals echoed by Marty Fowler, a junior, and Ketch Jacobson, a senior, is for the entire team to finish below 25 minutes in a 5K Race. Coach Ewing agreed enthusiastically when he heard that, saying, “That is a great goal.”
Senior Jacob Stigen, 17, is running at the front of the boys’ squad. So far he’s running under a 20-minute 5K, and said he wants to knock that down to 19 minutes in coming meets and then down to 18:30 by the season’s finish.
Freshman Kirby Faverty explained his enthusiasm for being on the team by comparing it to his experiences in middle school and speaking about the privilege of high school travel.
“In middle school we never had really big cross-country races. It was just a 400 or 800-meter, but this is a 5K and it’s a lot of work,” he said. “Plus, I’m looking forward to seeing all the nice courses.”
This year’s team includes seniors Madeline Andriesen, Charlie Bower, Ketch Jacobson, Stigen, and Jordan Stigen; juniors Marty Fowler, Hudson Sage, and Tulsi Zahnow; sophomores Kamakana Kanahele and Patrick Cunningham; and freshmen Dylan Chapell, Kiana Donat, Kirby Faverty and Siyel George.
Cross-country meets are held each weekend in September, with the regional meet in Sitka Sept. 24. The state meet takes place Oct. 1 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.