By Kelly Gerlach

Fielding a full team for the first time since 1990, Glennallen High School girls’ cross-country placed 2nd at the state cross-country championships. The team rallied after losing their 5th place runner, Madison Carlton, to illness right before the state tournament, with their 6th and 7th place runners, Mia Ranck and Mia Bobowski, stepping up to run one of their best races of the season on Bartlett High School’s rainy and muddy terrain. 

Highlights of the state tournament were Teagan Rude’s 2nd place finish with a time of 21:26 and Brynna Gerlach’s time of 22:36, earning a 6th place finish. Cheyenne Fields and Nathaneal Severs both placed 12th for their races with competitive times of 23:22 and 18:47, respectively. Severs and Mia Bobowski outpaced their personal records on what is considered the most difficult race in the state.

While the girls’ team missed the team academic award by three-hundredths of a point, their cumulative GPA of 3.88 is an impressive feat.

Season Highs
The season started with Teagan Rude’s unexpected top 10 finish in a mostly 4A race at Colony High School. Teagan spent the rest of the season “pushing past my limits” to achieve her place as state runner-up for the second year in a row. 

The 3K race at ACS was another team high point with Teagan Rude, Brynna Gerlach, and Cheyenne Fields each placing in the top 5 for their grade divisions. 

Kenny Lake Coach Jacob Marshall and the Kenny Lake community did a fabulous job with the challenge of hosting the region II races at Kenny Lake School this year. Glennallen’s team enjoyed this beautiful (albeit snowy) course and every person on the team qualified for state individually. 

Boy qualifiers were Nathaneal Severs, Jordan Korth and Landin Robinson and girl qualifiers were Mia Bobowski, Mia Ranck, Bella Ranck, Madison Carlton, Cheyenne Fields, Brynna Gerlach and Teagan Rude. Athletes in grades 10-12 can compete for an academic award and everyone on the team in these grades received a medal for their high GPA as well. 

To culminate a wonderful showing academically and athletically, Glennallen girls’ team took home the first place trophy for Regions. Great work Panthers!

New Coach
With close to 20 runners in both junior high and high school boys and girls teams, Glennallen XC needed another coach to help with the team this year. Coach Mackenzie Dysinger, aka “Coach Mickey,” offered to assist with the team this year. As a marathon and ultra runner and master of all things fun, Coach Mickey added to the team in a magnificent way with her expertise as a runner, her wisdom and insight into life, and her ability to turn every single moment into one of adventure. 

As a coach on the other side of the mountain of youth, I much appreciated her incredible energy, her kind, patient and spontaneous way with kids, and ability to coach a capture the flag game in a way that is ridiculously fun without ending in a hospital visit.

Mia Bobowski describes Coach Mickey as “immensely supportive and motivational. She won’t stand for negativity and pushes each one of us to do our best every day. She gives equal support for all levels and never misses an opportunity to show us how much she cares. Her constant encouragement, reassurance and grace has kept me going and helped me achieve my goals through the season!”

“Coach Mickey coaches us on the mental side of running, which is 90 percent of the battle,” added team captain Brynna Gerlach.

Team Adventures
The season was full of novel adventures and mountaintop moments. “Going to the state fair with the team was a great memory,” says Teagan Rude, “and also the intense soccer games and suspenseful announcement before winning the 2nd place trophy at state.”

Nathaneal Severs also enjoyed “Running games, hanging out with the team and seeing new places,” while Landin Robinson’s highlight was the hot tub with the team after the bone-chilling, rainy race at state.

Some other season highlights for the team were playing capture the flag in Cordova in the dense rainforest with a lake and creek as boundaries, basketball games on the way home from Anchorage and the fun-filled ferry ride from Valdez to Cordova. The team camaraderie on the ferry, as well as unparalleled views and even a surprise birthday party at 5 a.m. made for a spirit of adventure despite a four hour high wind delay in arrival. 

Coffee with a Cause
With two days, one race and a team full of musicians in Cordova, we decided to try and arrange an informal concert for Cordova’s students as a way to thank them for feeding us and hosting us during our stay. What started out as an idea to play a couple tunes on piano and guitar while the kids were eating lunch morphed into a concert on stage with Cordova students and community members. 

Cordova music teacher, Chelsea Corrao, provided each of us with guitars, violins and a banjo and after we played a few tunes, their band of students played some fiddle music, then we all jammed together with fiddle, guitar, piano and vocals. Not everyone on our team plays an instrument, but everyone learned a chord or two before the session and joined the fun on stage anyway.

As an isolated community with limited ferry and medical services, Cordova has had very few visitors and no huge school sports events since COVID hit our nation in March of 2020. 

With us on stage and them in the audience area, we were able to make music together while adhering to their protocol of keeping a safe distance from one another. 

Hearing the rhythmic clapping and watching the smiles on the elementary kids’ faces provided a delightful experience. The best part of the event was seeing Glennallen and Cordova students letting go of performance anxiety to simply enjoy and share the gift of music!

A huge thanks to Cordova’s music teacher, Chelsea Corrao, for sharing the school’s instruments and helping to organize this community music jam. We also greatly appreciate Belle Mickelson, fiddle player and instructor for Dancing with the Spirits, for her wonderful work with Cordova’s young musicians and for directing and arranging for us to all play together!

Running Commentaries
Even with their athletic, academic and musical abilities, perhaps the most admirable quality  Glennallen’s group of runners has is their character and kindness in many situations. A couple of random strangers at the state fair commented on, “what a wonderful group of teenagers” Glennallen was. 

Seeing them do seemingly small things, like pick up trash, open doors for people and accomplish mundane tasks with a good attitude makes them a pleasure to be around. A stranger in Valdez even bought the entire team dinner at Subway. I hope these young people carry with them the desire to share their gifts and make a difference on whatever path life takes them.

Thanks!
Glennallen cross-country would like to thank the athletic directors at GHS, Toa Finau, Thérèse Ashton, and Carl Snider, for all of their help with the team this year! Also thanks to principal Jason Williams for his support, Yvette Delaquito for her inspirational comments and posting on social media and The American Legion and Lion’s Club for their much needed financial support of the team. 

Congratulations Glennallen cross-country team for a season well played!

Catch up on highlights from the GHS cross-country season here:

Great Season for Glennallen Cross-Country