Cross country athletes ride the Haines fire truck in the parade down Main Street on Monday (Photo courtesy of Ari’el Godinez-Long)

The Haines high school cross country team won a state championship title in Anchorage over the weekend. As KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports, the teenage athletes were welcomed home with a parade on Monday.

 

Division III teams are from Alaska’s smallest schools. Haines’ boys and girls were competing with athletes from 39 other communities around the state.

So after coming out on top, they were welcomed home with Haines residents cheering them on. A community brass band played along Main Street as cross country runners paraded by on the Haines fire truck, in celebration of winning the 2021 Division III title. 

“It felt really cool to be like, acknowledged for our sport, and just to see how much everybody cared about our results, and our running,” said freshman Ari’el Godinez-Long, who won first place among girls with a time of 20:31.1 or a 6:45 minute mile average at Saturday’s competition held at Bartlett High School in Anchorage

“It was scary to see that many people there and I was like, woah. And as soon as the gun went off, I started to relax and just run,” she said. 

Haines girls placed first with 34 points, Glennallen was second with 54 points, and Sockeye was third with 58 points. 

“I was in the lead the whole time, but I was pushing myself, I wasn’t slacking or anything,” Godinez-Long said. “And I kept thinking I heard footsteps anyways and was like, oh cr—, they’re coming after me! Then I spend up, like I gotta catch the lead biker. So that was kinda my motivation the whole race.”

Sophomore Leo Wald won second among the boys, with a 17:47.3 time, and a 5:45 minute mile average, a personal record. 

“Oh it was super fun,” Wald said. “Yeah, there were alot of people and I was super hyped up for it. And, we all kinda started out slow, and then I started slowly picking people off, and I thought I was going way too fast, and I was going to get really tired at the end, but I wasn’t going to lose anything. So I ran as fast as I could and started picking people off til I was in second, then I was like oh wow, here I am. It was pretty fun.”

Haines boys placed first with 38 points, Petersburg second with 44 points, and Craig was third with 89 points.

Haines 2021 Cross Country team Front Row: Alex Weerasinghe, Hayden Jimenez, Arîel Godinez-Long, Willa Stuart, Kobe Brew, TJ Smith, Ashlyn Ganey, Ila Nettleton, MacKenzy Dryden 2nd Row: Coach Jordan Baumgartner, Sal Chapell, Phoenix Swaner, Uriel Bravo, Luke Davis, Leo Wald, Jacob Weerasinghe, Avari Getchell, Grace Godinez-Long, Colin Aldassy 3rd Row: Avery Williamson, Rylan Jorgenson-Geise, Eric Gillham, Gaelen Allen, Seth McClurg, Logan Borcik, Kaleb Jones, Coach Hannah Clark

The season was not without challenges. It started in August, as the community saw its worst surge of COVID cases since the pandemic started. Athletes tested twice weekly, maintained classes and training, and traveled for meets around Southeast. The weather has been no joke either. At regionals in Ketchikan in early October, the boys team competed in a hail storm. 

“And we’re like wow, this rain really hurts,” Wald said. “But it was hail and it didn’t really get much better for the whole race. And a lot of people didn’t drop time on that race. It was a fast course, but just really bad weather. But I dunno, I thought it was kind of fun to run through.”

And, a team member tested positive for COVID, and had to be isolated, and all close contacts had to be tested. 

 “It was definitely a struggle,” Ari’el Godinez-Long said. “It was definitely hard for that person. But as a team, we really wanted to make them feel like it wasn’t their fault. Because it definitely wasn’t, it could have happened to anybody. So the whole time we were working on trying to get better for them. And supporting them through the phone, calling or Facetime, whenever we could. Like when we were on trips we would call them a lot. Just to fill them in, so they didn’t feel like they were missing much.”

But they made it through the quarantine period, and qualified for the state championship. So the team all raced in Anchorage together. 

“They ended up coming and yeah, did really well,” Godinez-Long. “They helped out our team, and I like to think we wouldn’t have been able to win without them.”

Now, with a cross country victory under their belt, these athletes are on to their next sports seasons. Godinez-Long is already playing volleyball, and Wald started wrestling this week. They’re also looking forward to basketball and ski season, and plan to race track in the spring.