Service Cougars sweep the team titles at CIC cross country championships

The Service Cougars celebrated a sweep of the Cook Inlet Conference cross-country team titles and a decisive victory in the boys race by senior Zander Mauer on a crisp autumn day Saturday at Kincaid Park.

Mauer won the boys 5-kilometer race by 14 seconds with a time of 15 minutes, 38 seconds. Michael Earnhart of Chugiak was second in 15:52, and the rest of the field lagged even farther behind.

Mauer, who placed second in last year’s conference championships, was joined in the top five by teammates Aaron Power and Joel Power. That lifted the Cougars to a 32-point win over Chugiak in the boys team standings.

Things were much closer on the girls side of things.

Emily Walsh of Eagle River outran Ava Earl of South by two seconds to claim her first CIC individual championship.

Walsh, who finished second last season, clocked 18:26 and Earl, who was third last season, was second in 18:28. Those two finished well ahead of everyone else.

Earl was also part of a close team race. She and her teammates finished second to Service by a single point, with Service capturing the team championship with 56 points to South’s 57. Nowelle Spencer and Tatum Witter finished fourth and sixth, respectively, to spark the Cougars.

Team titles were precious this year, because they won’t be awarded at next week’s state championships. The size of the state meet, tentatively set for Kincaid Park, is being limited because of COVID-19. Instead of a field of roughly 450 runners in three divisions of competition, there will be 208.

The CIC will send 16 boys and 16 girls to the Division I competition — ordinarily it sends about twice as many kids — and the battles for those top-16 spots were fierce Saturday.

In the boys race, 16th-place Bryson Powell of South edged 17th-place Noah Goltz of West by one second. In the girls race, 16th-place Elliana Zock of South beat 17th-place Zoe Chang of Service by five seconds.

Boys team scores — Service 40, Chugiak 72, South 82, West 86, Dimond 95, Eagle River 136, East 167.

Girls team scores — Service 56, South 57, Chugiak 75, West 84, Dimond 112, Eagle River 135, East 198.

Varsity boys — 1. Alexander Maurer, Service 15:38; 2. Michael Earnhart, Chugiak 15:52; 3. Jacob Lestina, Chugiak 16:36; 4. Aaron Power, Service 16:37; 5. Joel Power, Service 17:04; 6. Tayson McKenzie, Dimond 17:11; 7. Ethan Howe, East 17:12; 8. Jared Gardiner, Dimond 17:14; 9. Brady Burrough, South 17:14; 10. Michael Connelly, Chugiak 17:17; 11. Paul Hlasny, Service 17:25; 12. Forrest Rodgers, West 17:27; 13. Quinn Smith, West 17:30; 14. Owen Young, South 17:31; 15. Nicholas Prosser, Dimond 17:36; 16. Bryson Powell, South 17:38; 17. Noah Goltz, West 17:39; 18. Cole Posthumus, Eagle River 17:41; 19. Elias Soule, Service 17:43; 20. Isaac Main, West 17:47; 21. Benjamin Fischer, South 17:48; 22. Nolan Miller, South 17:51; 23. Joshua Penfield, Eagle River 17:51; 24. Solomon Shepherd, West 17:55; 25. Henry Michener, Eagle River 17:55; 26. Benjamin Meahan, Chugiak 17:59; 27. Max Johnsen, Dimond 18:01; 28. Murphy Kimball, West 18:02; 29. Evan Rand, Service 18:04; 30. Tommy King, East 18:05; 31. Will Gerlach, Chugiak 18:06; 32. Jason Hutchinson, South 18:06; 33. Kyle Fischer, South 18:16; 34. Joshua Baker, Eagle River 18:22; 35. Aaron Maves, West 18:32; 36. Ethaniel Padilla, Eagle River 18:34; 37. Alex Carl, Eagle River 18:41; 38. Jevin Lim, Service 18:45; 39. Ian Cruickshank, Dimond 18:47; 40. Mark Shepherd, Eagle River 18:53; 41. Matteo Vidal, Dimond 18:57; 42. Malzaiah Rubit, East 18:59; 43. David Schweizer, East 19:05; 44. Benjamin Ringsmuth, Chugiak 19:16; 45. Alex Lopez, East 19:22; 46. Dash Dicang, Dimond 19:27; 47. Ater Deng, East 19:31; 48. Jared Lindblom, East 19:36; 49. Colton Bobo, Chugiak 20:12.

Varsity girls — 1. Emily Walsh, Eagle River 18:26 2. Ava Earl, South 18:28; 3. Delainey Zock, Dimond 18:58; 4. Nowelle Spencer, Service 19:06; 5. Robyn Miller, South 19:21; 6. Tatum Witter, Service 19:29; 7. Natalie Hood, West 19:37; 8. Emily Erickson, Dimond 19:38; 9. Campbell Peterson, Chugiak 19:40; 10. Addison Capozzi, Chugiak 19:41; 11. Meredith Schwartz, Service 19:53; 12. Emily Moore, Chugiak 19:59; 13. Skyler Belmear, Chugiak 20:15; 14. Payton Smith, West 20:19; 15. Lucy Young, South 20:25; 16. Elliana Zock, South 20:26; 17. Zoe Chang, Service 20:31; 18. Marit Flora, Service 20:36; 19. Maggie Keffalos, South 20:48; 20. Ryann Dorris, West 20:52; 21. Kelsey Johannes, West 21:00; 22. Quincy Donley, West 21:09; 23. Marley Ireland, East 21:11; 24. Mina Hancock, Service 21:12; 25. Elizabeth Page, South 21:13; 26. Elizabeth Novakovich, South 21:19; 27. Sarah Bassett, Eagle River 21:22; 28. Claire Nelson, Eagle River 21:25; 29. Nora McBride, Dimond 21:28; 30. Tarja Latva-Kiskola, West 21:36; 31. Kiley Dennis, Chugiak 21:36; 32. Autumn Thomas, Chugiak 21:49; 33. Sophia Mayers, West 21:54; 34. Ruthie Richardson, Service 21:58; 35. Sophia Cvancara, Dimond 22:07; 36. Meg Smedley, Chugiak 22:19; 37. Maria Cvancara, Dimond 22:21; 38. Arianna Espindola, Eagle River 22:23; 39. Michelle Graeber, Dimond 22:38; 40. Mamie Johnson, East 22:45; 41. Amanda Michener, Eagle River 22:48; 42. Sarah Price, Eagle River 23:09; 43. Anna Halsey, Dimond 23:17; 44. Maddie Sivils, East 23:48; 45. Natalie Bader, East 24:02; 46. Thea Offrink, East 25:43; 47. Linnea Gray, Eagle River 26:37.

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