McPhetres leads women's team in 6k race
August 31, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
The Alaska Nanooks women's cross country team was led by junior Alyson McPhetres as they finished second overall in the long course portion of the Alaska Cross Country Invitational six-kilometer race on Thursday at the West Ridge Trails.
Seattle Pacific was first on the day with 26 points, while Alaska garnered 37 points and Black Hills State got 60, marking the first time in Associate Head Coach Matt Dunlap's time with the program that they failed to win the team battle.
“The women have won every year I've been here, but it comes down to how you perform at Conference and Regionals, not what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Dunlap. “(End of the year) That's the focus and what we're working toward this season.”
McPhetres was fifth overall in 23 minutes, 23.9 seconds and fourth among scoring runners behind Seattle Pacific's top three finishers.
The Falcons' Robyn Zeidler was the race champion, blazing the course in 22 minutes, 56.9 seconds, while her teammates, Katie Thralls (23:16.9) and Katie Morris (23:21.4) crossed second and third.
Graduated senior Theresia Schnurr, who exhausted her running eligibility last fall but will compete in her final ski season this winter, finished just over a second before McPhetres in 23:22.7. For the older McPhetres sister, it was a good day as she shaved more than a minute off her 2011 performance on the same course.
“Based on the testing we did over the last two weeks, we knew that Aly was in good shape,” Dunlap added. “She showed it today in leading our team and it was awesome to see.”
Crossing next for the Nanooks was senior Raphaela Sieber (7th, 23:02.8), while freshman Julia Ebner (8th) had an impressive showing in her debut as Alaska's third-best runner on the day in 24:09.5.
Rounding out the Nanooks scoring team were senior Heather Edic (9th, 24:53.1) and rookie Sara Falconer (13th, 25:31.3).
“Two of our freshmen, Sara and Julia had good performances,” Dunlap said. “We through that both of them would make an immediate impact and they did indeed as they both were in our top-five today.”
Senior Megan Thompson followed McPhetres lead in shaving more than a minute off her 2011 performance's time too. She was 19th in 28:10.3 and rookie Victoria Frehill was 20th in 32:32.3.
“Megan had a huge improvement and she's worked really hard for it so its great to see,” said Dunlap.
The three teams return to the trails on Saturday, when they race a four-kilometer event at 10:30 a.m.