Thunder Mountain’s Dihle Top Runner, JDHS Girls Top Team

Thunder Mountain senior Kiah Dihle leads the pack out of the start of the Capital City Invitational on Saturday at Sandy Beach. (Klas Stolpe)

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Thunder Mountain senior Kiah Dihle won her fourth race in a row Saturday, topping the girls field in the Capital City Invitational 5K along the Treadwell Mine Trail at Sandy Beach in 19 minutes and seven seconds to help the Falcons place second with 24 points behind Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé with 24, but ahead of Haines 74, Ketchikan 89 and Mt. Edgecumbe 136.

  “I just run as hard as I can every time,” Dihle said. “Don’t save any thing up, just go as hard as I can.”

  Dihle and Sitka junior Anna Prussian took turns in the lead with neither getting more than a step in front and at many times were side-by-side until Dihle pulled away in the third lap and finished with a 13 second cushion over Prussian’s 19:20.

“She was fun to race with,” Dihle said. “It was nice to have someone up there with me. It’s the same thing, just run as hard as I can. I was nervous, though. She is a great runner and a really nice person so it was fun.”

  Dihle had been slightly injured the past few weeks and has been cross-training by swimming.

  “So my goal is to swim hard this week and see how regions go,” she said.

  Prussian took three seconds off her personal best time from her freshman year on the course.

  “I was not expecting it,” Prussian said. “And having Kiah there to, like, keep my eyes on, it was really great. I have been watching her race for a few years and I know she is super strong but she always pushes herself really hard so I think I am just going to try and stick with her at regions and see how far I can hold on.”

  Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé sophomores Etta Eller and Rayna Tuckwood battled with freshmen Clare Mullen of Sitka and Ariel Godinez-Long of Haines for third place.

  Mullen edged the group in 19:43, Eller took fourth in 19:50, Godinez-Long fifth in 19:51 and Tuckwood sixth in 19:54.

  The Crimson Bears placed 12 runners across the line before any team’s third runner placed and dominated the overall team finish. Sitka only had four individual runners so did not place in the team scoring.

  “Working with my teammates in every race is the key,” Eller said. “In this race, like, at the beginning it just felt good and I had a running buddy. We just worked together for the entire race and tried to pick off the person in front of us. Teamwork is always the thing.”

  At the Region V championships next weekend, the 2/3/4A schools will all run in one race but be scored by separate classifications. That means the various athletes across all three classifications can get the competition needed to push them on to state. It also means a runner who crosses the line out of first place might actually be the top runner in his or her school classification size.

  The Crimson Bears Eller said the mental part of running will be key.

  “At this point of the season we have put in all the physical work or most of it,” Eller said. “So at this point it is just about our mental attitude and just, as a team, going into the next two big races together and as a team it helps us individually. So, yeah, I’ll just be focusing mainly on my mindset because I know what my body can do. So I’m focusing on my attitude.”

  Sitka’s Prussian said she needs to put her all into every Wolves’ track workout if she wants to improve her PR and finish before Dihle.

  “We have, like, two hard workouts a week,” Prussian said. “As long as I put everything into those, then my recovery days will get me stronger in the next week.”

  The Region V Championships are in Ketchikan this Saturday, Oct. 2. The 3A/4A boys race at 9 a.m., 3A/4A girls at 9:35 a.m., 1A/2A boys at 10:15 a.m. and 1A/2A girls at 10:55 a.m.

  4A schools are: JDHS, TMHS and Ketchikan. 3A schools are: Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe. 2A schools are: Craig, Haines, Metlakatla and Petersburg. 1A schools are: Angoon, Gustavus, Hoonah, Klawock, Klukwan, Pelican, Skagway, Thorne Bay, Wrangell and Yakutat.

  CAPITAL CITY INVITATIONAL GIRLS RESULTS

  1. sr. Kiah Dihle 19:07 TMHS; 2. jr. Anna Prussian 19:20 SIT; 3. fr. Clare Mullen 19:43 SIT; 4. so. Etta Eller 19:50 JDHS; 5. fr. Ariel Godinez-Long 19:51 HNS; 6. so. Rayna Tuckwood 19:54 JDHS; 7. sr. Annika Schwartz 20:09 JDHS; 8. sr. McKenna McNutt 20:27 JDHS; 9. sr. Ella Goldstein 20:28 JDHS; 10. sr. Grace Sikes 20:45 TMHS; 11. fr. Ida Meyer 20:46 JDHS; 12. sr. Trinity Jackson 20:50 JDHS; 13. so. Maisy Morley 21:23 JDHS; 14. sr. Celia Wheeler 21:34 JDHS; 15. jr. Grace Long 21:41 HNS; 16. sr. Paige Boehlert 21:42 KTN; 17. fr. Carol Frey 21:43 KTN; 18. so. Ruby Rivas 21:43 JDHS; 19. so. Kinley Lister 21:46 Petersburg; 20. jr. Skylar Tuckwood 21:50 JDHS; 21. sr. Mia Anderson 21:57 MEHS; 22. so. Iris White 22:07 JDHS; 23. jr. Mamie Crooks 22:14 Kake; 24. sr. Avery Williamson 22:33 HNS; 25. sr. Kenai Holien 22:43 Klawock; 26. sr. Abigail Booton 22:44 TMHS; 27. jr. Mackenzie Olver 22:46 TMHS; 28. jr. Aliyah Overturf 22:47 TMHS; 29. sr. Addie Poulson 22:54 SIT; 30. fr. Trisha Capps 22:55 KTN; 31. jr. Avari Getchell 23:40 HNS; 32. so. Sophia Owen 23:42 TMHS; 33. sr. Maggie Boehlert 23:45 KTN; 34. fr. Kate Thompson 23:52 PSG; 35. fr. Clara Odden 23:54 KTN; 36. jr. Alexus Sakamoto Quezon 24:07 PSG; 37. jr. Lexi Johnson 24:26 Klawock; 38. jr. Malia King 24:27 KTN; 39. fr. Ashlyn Ganey 24:36 HNS; 40. fr. Aspen Bauer 25:00 KTN; 41. so. Jelsey Gologergen 25:04 MEHS; 42. so. Maitlin Young 25:52 SIT; 43. sr. Jayda Skeek 25:59 TMHS; 44. jr. Sally Chapell 26:00 HNS; 45. fr. Laney Green 26:28 MEHS; 46. so. Mackenzie Lam 26:32 TMHS; 47. so. Jillian Jackson 26:43 Kake; 48. fr. Ila Nettleton 26:48 HNS; 49. jr. Deirdre Toyomura 27:26 Petersburg; 50. so. Sarah Nanouk-Jones 27:27 MEHS; 51. sr. Naomi Olver 28:36 TMHS; 52. so. Isabella Hoppe 28:59 Klawock; 53. jr. Hailey Moses 29:16 MEHS; 54. sr. Gwendolynn Lockwood 29:36 TMHS; 55. fr. Ashley Rexford 30:43 MEHS; 56. so. Clara Pablos 30:44 Thorne Bay; 57. so. Hailey Hedges 30:52 Klawock; 58. jr. Izzy Jackson 31:36 MEHS; 59. fr. Athena Jordan 32:01 Metlakatla; 60. sr. Dionna Jackson 32:46 Kake; 61. so. Nichole Mendonsa 39:23 Thorne Bay; 62. sr. Jasmine Aceveda 39:49 Kake; - jr. Maya Chaskin DNF TMHS.