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A long line of fire engines and honking cars snaked around Petersburg’s Mitkof Island on Sunday afternoon. They were filled with proud parents and school staff, townspeople and high schoolers hanging out of car windows, fist pumping in the pouring rain.
When the Petersburg Vikings win state, the town celebrates with a noise parade. This time, the Vikings did it twice over. The Petersburg High School cross country teams – boys and girls – are champions in the 1A and 2A division after the state meet at Bartlett High School in Anchorage this weekend. It’s the first time in Petersburg cross country history the team has won a double championship.
Junior Gabriele Whitacre said the girls’ team was focused on taking first as they lined up at the start of the race.
“You know, nerves are running high, but we knew what we were supposed to do – we were supposed to win state,” she said. “That was our job.”
The course was tough, with hill after hill, and slippery mud and leaves. Whitacre said she couldn’t keep her pace, and it did a number on her teammates as well.
“It was not a very picture perfect finish,” she said. “We all kind of crossed and had our own little meltdowns. Some people got sick, and there was a lot of crying.”
Whitacre fell in the home stretch, blacking out, likely from exhaustion and stress. Somehow she still managed to haul herself to the end, coming in 28th.
“When I finished, I thought that we had lost,” she said.
Once she was feeling better, she asked coach Casey Gates how they’d done.
“Gabby,” he said, “we won.”
Three of her teammates had finished in the top ten – freshman Arielle Tucker in 4th, freshman Cadence Flint in 8th, and sophomore Maria Toth in 9th. But coach Casey Gates said at first they thought the team had lost.
“The girls race was like, this roller coaster of emotions until we actually saw the score, and it was clear that we won,” he said. “Then we all got fired up, and we had this big group team hug and we were excited. And yeah, there were happy tears rolling down.”
The boys were next and junior Alex Holmgrain said they could tell from how the girls had ended the race that it was going to be a difficult run.
“There was a lot of just, like, sharp uphills and steep uphills, and then like, downhills that went right back into another uphill that you had to climb back up,” he said.
The race was less of a roller coaster for the boys though. Holmgrain came in 4th, just a couple seconds behind teammate Gage Ventress, who immediately flopped to the ground. Holmgrain turned and spotted yet another Viking, senior Elias Ward, coming in behind them.
“I looked down at Gage,” he said. “I was like, ‘Gage, I think we won.’”
Three runners in the top seven – and not a single runner from Wrangell in sight. According to Holmgrain, Wrangell was the team to beat. Wrangell’s boys took first at the Region V meet the weekend before, led by lightning runner Boomchain Loucks. But somewhere in the second half of the race, Loucks flagged, and then collapsed. He didn’t finish the race.
His coach, Mason Villarma, said they don’t know what happened. Loucks is following up with a doctor this week. Villarma said while it’s disappointing to both Loucks and the Wrangell boys, the team appreciated the Viking’s sportsmanship during the race.
Petersburg’s Coach Gates said Loucks and the Wrangell team motivated the Vikings all season.
“Wrangell, that was our mountain all year long, you know, that was what pushed our boys all season long,” he said. So we don’t get to where we did without that competition.”
Gates said he got a little emotional after the race, thinking about how proud he was of his runners.
“I was finding myself tearing up several times,” he said.
He said one of his biggest goals was to foster a bond between teammates. Junior Gabriele Whitacre said that bond led to their success.
“I think that the team aspect and how good of friends we were this year really contributed to us winning,” she said.
After the race, the team celebrated together by going out to eat. They had fried chicken, bread, french fries, and ice cream for dessert.
Find more race stats here.
