Daniel Bausch runs to 16th place at national cross-country championships

One mile into Saturday’s national high school cross-country championships, Daniel Bausch of Chugiak was dead last in a field of 40 elite-level runners.

It was all part of his plan.

Bausch’s conservative start led him to a 16th-place finish in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in San Diego, California.

“There were only 40 guys and I knew that as long as the pace wasn’t glacial that I’d be fine starting at the back of the pack,” Bausch said by phone. “I’m happy with my result, but top 15 was All-America, so it’s pretty bittersweet.”

Cole Hocker of Indianapolis won the 5-kilometer race at Balboa Park in 15 minutes, 13.7 seconds. Bausch clocked 15:55.7 and was 1.9 seconds out of 15th place.

He joins an elite group of Alaska boys who have gone to the Foot Locker national championships and come home with an impressive result.

Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar claimed second place at the 2008 race, West High’s Miguel Gomez was 13th in 1992 and Kodiak’s Levi Thomet was 16th in 2013 and 15th in 2012. The top finish for an Alaska girl came in 1980 from West’s Anne Locke, who placed 13th.

Kenai’s Allie Ostrander in 2014 won the Nike Cross Nationals, the other cross-country national championship for high school runners.

Marcus Dunbar, the architect of Kodiak’s successful running program and a historian of Alaska running, said Bausch’s performance elevates him to the top of Alaska high school running.

“I would say that performance puts Daniel on my Alaskan All-Star fantasy team,” Dunbar texted Saturday.

Other boys on Dunbar’s list – son Trevor Dunbar, Gomez, Thomet, plus three all-time greats – Don Clary of East, Chris Gilbert of Wasilla and Doug Herron of Bartlett.

Last month, Bausch dropped out of a race for the first time in his career at the Nike regional race. He’s been the dominant runner in Alaska all season, and he said he wasn’t used to running at the front of a race with a lot of other people. He wasn’t mentally prepared for that, he said.

He came back strong to finish eighth in last week’s Foot Locker West Regional, which made him the region’s eighth and final qualifier for Saturday’s national championships.

Chugiak High coach Melissa Hall said Bausch learned from the Nike race, where he went out too fast. She said that before Saturday’s race, Bausch told his girlfriend -- who planned to watch online -- not to worry if she saw him at the back of the pack early in the race. And indeed, there Bausch was -- last in the field after about a mile.

“He just stuck to his plan and started working his way up,” Hall said. “I saw him at a mile-and-a-quarter and he was all the way up to 24th.”

Bausch said he has learned to take a different strategy when racing against elite runners in the Lower 48.

“Now that my high school career is over, I’m not going to be the best any more for a long time, if ever,” he said. “At a national level I’m not super-competitive – I’m good, obviously, but I’m not the best.

“Which just means there’s so many things I can do better – I can run more miles, I can run smarter, I can eat a lot better and I can start incorporating a lot of recovery and core work.”

To that end, Bausch said that when he returns to Anchorage, he will take it easy for a week.

“I haven’t had a single rest day this year,” he said.

Bausch has gone to three races in the Lower 48 since the end of Alaska’s cross-country season, something he said wouldn’t have happened without the support of people like Hall and Chugiak ski coach Stan Carrick. “So many people are giving a lot just so these things can happen,” he said.

His post-race duties Saturday included meeting with a Division I college coach. Several colleges are interested in him, Hall said, and Saturday’s result will fortify his goal of competing in college.

The national championships gave Bausch a taste of what it’s like to be an elite runner. He said the 80 high school runners in San Diego were treated like royalty. They stayed at the posh Hotel del Coronado, ate like kings and received loads of New Balance gear.

“They treat us almost like we’re sponsored athletes, which means we got a ton of gear from them, and also that we weren’t supposed to wear anything else really,” Bausch said. “I wore a (Nike) shirt to the banquet without even thinking about it and they kinda chewed me out over that, so I learned pretty quickly.”