Saturday Race Results:
— Northland Preparatory Academy traveled to Page Saturday for the Lake Powell Invitational and, without top runner Delani Hanson, the Spartans still managed to finish second behind host Page High, which dominated behind one of Arizona’s top runners, Symond Martin.
Leading the way for NPA was senior Aaron Nicol, who finished sixth overall Saturday in 17:48 — Martin won in 16:26 — coming off a 17-minute performance last week at the Desert Twilight meet. David Hayes cracked the top 10 in 18:18, followed by Emilio Haubert (14th in 18:38), Harrison Kessenich (17th in 18:55) and Miles Underwood (20th in 19:15).
The girls were led by Jaelyn Weiss (4th in 22:47), Sarah Drexler (9th in 23:58) Eva Madsen (10th in 23:59) and Laura Drexler (18th in 24:21). NPA had only four runners; thus, no team score.
Meanwhile, Flagstaff High ran its JV teams at the Glendale Showcase and came away with the boys team victory in the “open” races, while the girls placed third. For the boys, Flagstaff defeated Red Mountain, 66-78, with sophomore Ezra Varley finishing second overall in 17:40. For the girls, Flagstaff’s Karina Branch and Izzy Bland finished sixth and seventh overall in 23:35 and 23:40.
— On a warm morning at the Nordic Ski Center, former Coconino Community College runner Tristyn Hatch won the Flagstaff Marathon — a technical and hilly trail race contested at 8,000-plus feet — with a time of 3 hours 18 minutes 17 seconds.
Hatch, 20, was a scoring member of the 2022 Comets cross country team, and he finished as Coconino’s No. 2 runner at the National Community College Division 2 championships that year. Now attending NAU, Hatch has run some local races, placing fourth last summer behind three professional runners in thr Footprints for Hopi 10K at Fort Tuthill.
The women’s Marathon winner Saturday was 30-year-old Flagstaffian Rolonda Jumbo in 4:02:52. Jumbo ran middle distances and the steeplechase for NAU from 2013-2016 and was a four-time state champion in cross country at Chinle High School.
In the half marathon, Flagstaff’s Kam Harder (1:34:17) cruised to a seven-minute victory over Norwegian Asgar Risheim Kvam. Ivette Mejia, 34 of New York City, was the women’s winner in 1:42:40. The top Flagstaff woman (and fifth overall) was Erica Rackley in 1:50:58.
Harder has shown impressive versatility on the trails over the past year. He finished the Cocodona 250 in 100 Hours 57 minutes 32 seconds, and was the eighth overall finisher in the 2023 Saddles 50 Mile Run in Prescott. Perhaps his most impressive finish was at last year’s Soulstice Mountain Run (11.2 miles), where he finished third behind former Western States 100 winner Rob Krar and Olympian Rachel Smith.
The top Flagstaff finishers in Saturday’s 10K were Sara Severance (first woman overall in 58:33) and Kyle Christian (second male in 54:50).
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