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Another Strong Showing for Raider Runners

KUCB | By David Gibson

Published September 6, 2016 at 3:19 PM AKDT

The Unalaska Raiders had another strong showing for the second week in a row this past weekend at the ACS Class Invite on Friday and the Palmer Invitational on Saturday. The Raiders got some more valuable experience for a very young team. The ACS Class invite is a 3K flight race that is run according to what grade each runner is in. That race is always a fun one to watch and gets the athletes a little bit of experience before the big race in Palmer.

The Palmer Invite is the largest cross country race in the state of Alaska. It drew over 1,000 athletes and 47 teams from around the state to the always fast Mike Janeck Trails. The Lady Raiders had a strong showing placing 6^th in the team standings. Freshmen, Hailey Wilson led the way for the Raiders with a huge career personal best of 23:32 placing 32nd, Freshman, Mercedez Caudillo had a season personal best of 24:12 placing 42nd, Junior, Bridget Nalam had a career personal best of 24:34 placing 49th, Freshmen, Julieanne Berikof had a season personal best of 25:14 placing 53rd, and Sophomore, Mia McWilliams rounded out the field for the women’s team with a season personal best of 27:30 placing 63rd.

On the boys side the young Raiders also had a strong showing of their own placing 5^th in the team standings. The Raiders were led by Sophomore, Trevor Wilson with a season personal best of 18:02 placing 15^th, Freshmen, Henry Simmonds had a career personal best of 18:58 placing 30th, Junior, Talon Shaishnikoff had a career personal best of 19:13 placing 37th, Junior, Carey Boston had a career personal best of 19:35 placing 48th, and Sophomore, Raul Garcia rounded out the field for the men’s team with a season personal best of 20:01. It was a big day for all of the Unalaska runners as all ten athletes ran season bests and 5 ran career bests. It was an especially big day for Henry Simmonds being able to break the 19 minute mark for the first time in his young running career, which is a huge accomplishment in the state of Alaska. It was also a big day for Carey Boston breaking the 20 minute mark.

The rest of the Raiders ran in a local cross country race on Saturday at Kelty Field and saw 3 career personal bests. The Varsity Raiders will be heading out again this week to run in the Seward Invite on Friday afternoon and then in the New Balance Flight Races at Russian Jack in Anchorage on Saturday. For Updates on times and schedules check out the Unalaska Raiders page on Athletic.net.