ACS’s Tristian Merchant is headed to national cross-country championships

Tristian Merchant of Anchorage Christian School is headed to the Nike national cross-country running championships.

Merchant, a junior who repeated as Alaska’s Division II state champion last month, earned a spot in next month’s race by claiming sixth place at Saturday’s Nike Cross Northwest regional meet in Boise, Idaho.

Merchant completed the 5-kilometer course at Eagle Island State Park in 15 minutes, 18.7 seconds. His time wasn’t a personal best but it was good enough to send him to the 16th annual Nike Cross Nationals scheduled for Dec. 7 in Portland.

Merchant was one of several Alaskans who raced in Idaho. Leading the way for the girls was South High’s Ava Earl, who placed 83rd in a field of nearly 200 elite high school runners.

Merchant is the first Alaska boy to qualify for the Nike national championships, according to longtime coach Marcus Dunbar of Kodiak. Over the years Alaska has sent four boys and two girls to the Footlocker national championships, including Daniel Bausch of Chugiak, who placed 16th at last year’s national meet.

“I think it’s a pretty big deal,” ACS coach Jason Hofaker said. “It’s really cool. We’re proud of him.”

Merchant was well off the winning time of 15:02.9 registered by Evan Holland of Oregon, who won by more than 10 seconds. Second-place Nathan Green of Idaho clocked 15:13.30, and the next four finishers, including Merchant, were separated by 2.7 seconds.

“He was only five seconds off lead (after 1 kilometer) but was in 28th place. At 2K he made a huge move to go from 28th to eighth and he moved up two more from there,” Hofaker said.

Merchant, who trains with Doug Herron’s Alaska Running Academy, finished 12th at last season’s Footlocker regional championships but didn’t qualify for the national meet. He won’t return to the Footlocker regional race this year because it’s on the same day as the Nike nationals, Hofaker said.

In 2014, Kenai Central’s Allie Ostrander won the Nike girls national race to become Alaska’s first national high school cross-country champion. The only other previous Alaska qualifier for the Nike national meet is the West Valley girls team, which qualified for the meet twice.

An earlier version of this story misstated where Daniel Bausch was from. He is from Chugiak.