Haines Runs with the Glacier Bears

At the top of the final climb of the Haines cross-country running course, eighth grader Ari’el Godinez-Long took the lead for the first time and never looked back. She crossed the finish line in 21:04, 40 seconds ahead of second-place finisher MacKenzy Dryden, who was followed by other members of the defending state champion Glacier Bear girls team as well as a crew of some of Haines’ finest adult runners who had been invited to provide some much-appreciated competition.

A few seconds behind Dryden, Hannah Boron crossed the line. Then, Grace Godinez-Long and Sarah Elliot sprinted the homestretch neck and neck with Godinez Long taking the lead in her final strides. A minute later, Haley Boron and Stoli Lynch gave the crowd another thrilling kick to the finish as Boron managed to finish a one second ahead of the two-time Region V champion.

In the boys’ event, 2019 individual state champion and Haines High School graduate Siyel George returned to his home course to pace his former teammates, pulling away from sophomore Luke Davis in the home stretch to post a two-second victory in 18:36. Mark Davis and Carson Crager were next, followed closely by Kaleb Jones. Then it was a tight pack of five Glacier Bear boys finishing within just over 20 seconds of one another.

Haines usually alternates the annual hosting duties with Skagway, but due to travel concerns, the Haines School instead decided to hold the first ever “Haines Dual,” featuring the members of the two squads versus 10 community members of each gender, ranging from middle school to middle aged.

It was a unique opportunity for runners to race their home course on back to back years. Like the Skagway race course, the Haines course has a reputation among Region V teams as being a hard place to set personal records. It was designed in 2017 by Chandler Kemp. It starts in the parking lot of the Southeast Alaska Fairgrounds, then winds through the fairgrounds, up into the fair’s gravel pit and makes two unique laps through the adjacent sawmill property. It also includes the Chilkoot Indian Association’s boardwalk trail as well as a steep downhill through the CIA subdivision. Kemp acknowledges, “There is no chance to find a rhythm through all of those changes!”

Despite the difficulty, the Glacier Bear Bears endured. After the race, Lydia Andriesen reflected on the effort, “The Haines course is a really tough course! The sandy hills are really difficult to push through. Even with its challenges, I was happy to race in Haines another time before graduating. Personally, I met my goal to be under 24 minutes which puts me two minutes faster than I started out last year, so I was pretty satisfied with that,” she said.

Mark Davis expressed his gratitude for the opportunity, “I’m really glad we get to have a cross-country season this year. It’s great to be running together again and it was awesome to have a meet this weekend-really fun to have a race where people from the community are out there supporting us.” He added coach Jordan Baumgartner, “is doing a great job getting us races for this season.”

Glacier Bear captain Hannah Boron managed to have the fastest race of her distinguished four-year varsity career. “This race was particularly special to me, because I thought I would never run this trail again in competition. Last year I had gotten terribly sick before the Haines race so I missed what I thought would be my final chance to run in my hometown as a Glacier Bear. The current pandemic changed that, giving me another opportunity to run with my team. It was so delightful to run with my girls again and so incredible to finally beat my high school goal of running in the 21’s.”

The Glacier Bears’ annual fundraiser, a race up and over 7-Mile Saddle trail on Mount Ripinksy and back into town was originally scheduled for Aug. 29 but has been postponed until Sept. 12.