The Delaney Park Strip was buzzing with cross country runners on Wednesday evening as over 400 athletes from seven teams in the Cook Inlet Conference competed in the class races.
Instead of splitting into varsity and junior varsity, prep runners went head-to-head against athletes in their grade, tackling a 3-kilometer course consisting of two meandering loops fit with hay bales, spectators and upbeat music.
South High won half of the evening’s races, opening with Ethan Elliott, who outpaced the freshman boys in a blistering 9 minutes, 31 seconds. He won by a whopping 40 seconds and ending up registering the third-fastest time of the day. Chugiak’s Owen Tracy (10:10) and Eagle River’s Kiernan Lord (10:15) rounded out the top three.
In the freshman girls race, the top two finishers — South’s Calista Zuber and Chugiak’s Maddison Kukuk — were separated by less than half a second. Zuber took top honors in 11:08, followed by Kukuk 0.39 seconds later, while Rylee Ruggles (11:12) took third…