The largest cross-country meet in Nome in twelve years took place this past Saturday. After a strong showing at the Unalakleet Invitational earlier this month, Nanook Coach Jeff Collins says his team continued its success over the weekend.
“Tobin Hobbs won that race. And the interesting thing about that was there were some runners that had beat him last year. So it’s great for him to see and also get some reinforcement that his training from the summer helped out and he’s seen some improvement from that.”
For the varsity girls, Ava Earthman was the top runner, coming in fourth place. Mallory Conger placed seventh, Della Medlan placed eighth, and Natallie Tobuk placed tenth, with Georgianna Ustaszewski rounding out the scoring for the Nanooks in sixteenth place.
The Nome teams had their work cut out for them, with 11 teams total and more than 130 runners. Several Bering Strait School District schools were competing, including Golovin, Unalakleet, and Koyuk, and some non-BSSD schools as well, including Kotzebue and Bethel.
“We were one point behind Bethel. And those are always exciting races. And it just shows that every place counts, so you’re always fighting for those spots.”
Coach Collins says his Junior High boys ran an outstanding race, especially Jon Smith, who “really closed the gap in between fourth place and fifth place… right behind our fourth-place runner.”
On the girls’ side, Collins made mention of standout performances by Wookie Nichols, Audrey Bahnke, and Sarah Bahnke, who took spots twenty-one through twenty-three.
The Nanooks head to Kotzebue this coming weekend, with Coach Collins saying his girls’ team is looking forward to the chance of beating the Huskies on their own course.
Photo at top: Courtesy of Devin Tatro.
