Kyle Craig and Adeline Fitzwater are pictured competing Tuesday evening during the Fairbanks Panther cross-country invitational. Fitzwater helped lead the Lady Panthers to the high school team championship.
(Journal-Tribune photos by Tim Miller)
Fairbanks High School honored its senior cross-country runners during the school’s invitational on Tuesday. Pictured from the left are coach Mike Van Winkle, Kai Van Dyke, Adeline Fitzwater, Gracie Hubbs, Kalor Greve, Kyle Craig, Aidan Groves and John Pastirzyk. Not pictured, Kaidie Carstensen.
(Photo submitted)
A partly sunny sky, warm temperature and slight breeze greeted cross-country runners from several schools on Tuesday during the annual Fairbanks Panther Invitational.
Boys and girls high school and middle school teams from Fairbanks, Mechanicsburg, Cardington, Delaware Christian, Riverside, Marion Harding and Southeastern competed on the course that ran through the Fairbanks campus.
FHS honored its 2019 seniors during its only home meet of the season.
Those seniors are Kyle Craig, Aidan Groves and John Pastirzyk for the boys and Adeline Fitzwater, Kaylor Greve, Gracie Hubbs and Kai Van Dyke for the girls.
The Panthers won the high school girls race with 26 points.
They were followed by Cardington-57, Mechanicsburg-61 and Marion Harding-73.
Delaware Christian, Riverside and Southeastern did not have enough runners to tally team scores.
Amelia Cameron and Fitzwater of FHS were the top two runners to cross the finish line.
Cameron won the race in 20:29.2 and Fitzwater was timed in 21:18.1.
Greve was fourth in 21:58.4, followed by Hubbs, 13th, 25:34.1; Linsey Eddy, 14th, 26:20.4; Van Dyke, 22nd, 28:23.2; and Lily Demeter, 24th, 29:34.7.
Cardington captured top honors in the varsity boys meet with 34 points.
The Pirates were followed by Harding-45, Delaware Christian-65 and Mechanicsburg-76.
Fairbanks and Southeastern did not have enough boys to score team points.
Craig, with a ninth-place time of 20:39, was the first Panther to cross the finish line.
He was followed by Groves, 17th, 21:23.5; Pastirzyk, 23rd, 22:40.6; and Nathan Parks, 33rd, 24:312.7.
Cardington won the middle school girls race with 33 points, followed by Delaware Christian-41 and Fairbanks-56.
Mechanicsburg and Riverside did not record team scores.
Rachael Hoover of Fairbanks won the race with a time of 13:23.2.
Donni Price was sixth in 15:43.3, followed by Ally Gearhart, 14th, 18:08; Lucy Matteson, 17th, 24:27.6; and Regan Jones, 18th, 30:41.4.
Mechanicsburg won the middle school boys race with 15 points, while Delaware Christian was the runner-up with 40.
Fairbanks did not have enough runners for a team score.
Zeke Gingerich of Fairbanks was fourth in 13:12.8; followed by Noah Thorley, sixth, 14:27.9; Nicholas Powell, seventh, 14:28.3; and Nicholas Johnson, eighth, 14:30.9.