Title-Defending Performances Highlight Alaska State Meet
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The first state meet of the season took place on Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska, and chilly weather and a muddy course didn't stop Alaska's best distance runners from chasing after titles.
That includes a handful of the state's best programs and talents who took to the line at Bartlett Trails hoping to capture their second-straight championships at the ASAA State XC Meet.
Competitions took place at across three divisions, and results saw two teams and one racer successful defend their state titles from 2021.
It began with the girls team from Haines High School who struck first, winning their second-straight DIII team championship by a narrow three-point margin. The state champion team, hailing from the 1,700-person southeast Alaskan community of Haines, scored a low 48 points to just beat out Glennallen with 51 points in second.
The final two title-defending efforts came in the DII boys division, where both David Sliwinski and his Grace Christian squad repeated as individual and team state champions. A tight two-man race between Sliwinski and Homer's Seamus McDonough made for quite the entertaining battle, but it was Sliwinski who pulled a couple of seconds ahead of McDonough over the final mile to win in 15:54.6.
The narrow win from Sliwinski proved crucial for Grace Christian on the team side, winning with 47 points and just two points ahead of Sitka in second.
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