Alaska runner Allie Ostrander will make her pro debut this week

Allie Ostrander already has been a Kardinal and a Bronco, and this weekend she’ll make her debut as a Beast.

The Kenai Peninsula runner will make her professional debut Friday at the U.S. Track and Field Championships as a member of the Brooks Beasts track club, which recently signed Ostrander to a pro contract.

Ostrander will compete in the preliminaries of the women’s steeplechase at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. If she advances, she’ll run again in Sunday’s finals, where the stakes include three spots in the World Championships.

Alaskans have long known Ostrander as a beast, whether she’s competing at Mount Marathon, on a track oval or on cross-country trails. She was a Kenai Central Kardinal while running to seven individual state high school championships and a Boise State Bronco while running to three straight NCAA steeplechase titles. At Alaska’s famed Mount Marathon race, she owns the junior girls record and the second-fastest senior women’s time.

Now she competes for Brooks Sports, Inc., headquartered in Seattle. In a recent Instagram post, she’s wearing a Brooks singlet and a somewhat steely look.

“My training as a Brooks Beast will focus mainly on improving my intimidation stare, with a little side of running I guess,” she wrote.

“In all seriousness though, professional running has been a dream of mine for years, and I’m excited and appreciative that @brooksrunning has made this a reality for me. “

Ostrander was a redshirt junior at Boise State during the 2018-19 school year. She had one more year of college eligibility left, but armed with a degree in kinesiology, she decided to forego her senior season of track and cross country.

Ostrander graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average. Her excellence in the classroom led to an Alaska sweep of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s national Scholar of the Year awards in NCAA women’s track.

On Monday, UAA’s Caroline Kurgat was named the Division II scholar of the year in two sports — indoor track and outdoor track — and Ostrander was named the Division I scholar of the year in outdoor track. It was the third straight year Ostrander won the award and the second straight year Kurgat won the outdoor award.

Kurgat wrapped up her running career with the Seawolves this school year by winning two national titles at both the indoor national championships and the outdoor national championships. Those four titles gave her a total of seven for her career.

A nursing and medical laboratory science major, Kurgat will take a 3.47 GPA into her final semester of classes at UAA.

Kurgat was among nine UAA athletes to earn Division II All-America academic honors from the USTFCCCA. Ruth Cvancara, Chrisalyn Johnson, Dani McCormick and Marie Ries were among 448 women honored nationally, and Drew Johnson, Edwin Kangogo, Felix Kemboi and David Sramek were among 312 men honored.