Alaska’s 2024 prep cross country season came to a close this past Saturday, Oct. 5 in Anchorage. Dozens of schools and hundreds of athletes took to Bartlett High School’s trails for the Alaska Cross Country Running State Championships over the five-kilometer (3.
1 miles) racing distance. Two Fairbanks athletes cruised to top-15 medal finishes in the loaded Division I (D1) races, and two Interior girls finished in the top five of their respective Division II and Division III races. In a bit of a surprise, Fairbanks and Anchorage schools didn’t produce any top-three individual finishers across the three girls races.
Wasilla sophomore Hailee Giacobbe won the D1 girls title over Juneau-Douglas senior Ida Meyer by a five-second margin. She ran the fastest girls time of the day (19:04). Lathrop sophomore Solveig Finstad delivered the best finish by any Fairbanks runner, placing eighth in a strong time of 19:48.
She was the only Malemute girl in the top 50, as her team finished 10th. West Valley finished one spot and five points ahead of Lathrop in the team standings, led by freshman Miriam Armstrong finishing 18th to become the only member of the Wolfpack to finish top 40. Armstrong was the second freshman finisher in the D1 girls race, ahead of a few other notable Fairbanks rookies: Hayden Kumfer of the Student Wrestler Development Program (28th), Hazel Sutton of West Valley (43rd) and Olivia Collins of North Pole (44th).
Chugiak won a fourth-straight D1 girls team title in d.