Allie Ostrander, a 2015 graduate of Kenai Central, finished sixth in the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin.
Ostrander, a redshirt junior, led the six-kilometer race along with Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer for the first four kilometers. At four kilometers, New Mexico sophomore Weini Kelati, many people’s prerace favorite, made her move. Colorado senior Dani Jones was able to stick with Kelati and win the kick down the stretch, finishing in 19 minutes, 42.8 seconds, to the 19:45.3 of Kelati.
The course was covered with an inch of snow and temperatures were in the 30s at the start of the race.
Ostrander nabbed sixth in 19:56.9 to earn all-American status, adding to a runner-up finish at nationals as a freshman and a fourth-place finish at nationals last year as a redshirt sophomore. She also has a pair of NCAA outdoor titles in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Boise State also has re-emerged on the national scene since the arrival of Ostrander. The Broncos women finished a second-straight sixth with 288 points, while Colorado ran away with the title with 65 points. The Broncos men were 10th, putting both programs in the top 10 for the first time in meet history.
“Today didn’t go the way we thought it would,” Boise State head coach Corey Ihmels said after watching both the women and men get the top rankings in program history this season. “To get both teams in the top 10 and have three all-Americans is a great accomplishment, but we have higher goals and aspirations for where we want to take this program.”
With Ostrander’s top-10 finish, Ihmels has now had a women’s athlete in the top 10 at nationals for eight straight years.
Washington State women’s soccer loses in 2nd round
The Washington State women’s soccer team, with 2015 Nikiski graduate Rachel Thompson in net, lost 1-0 to Georgetown in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Washington, D.C.
The Cougars had five shots — four on goal — while Georgetown (19-0-3) had 13 shots. Thompson ended with four saves, while WSU also had a team save.
Washington State finished the season at 13-6-1 after opening with 10 straight wins, then losing five straight.
Thompson, a redshirt junior, took over in net after five games when redshirt senior Ella Dederick, considered one of the top keepers in the country, was injured. Thompson helped the Cougs keep their season headed in the right direction by winning Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Week twice.
McCormick, Bergholtz shine at DII meet
University of Alaska Anchorage senior Dani McCormick finished 11th Saturday at the NCAA Division II West Region championship meet in Billings, Montana. The 2015 Soldotna graduate was part of the Seawolves women’s team that won the team championship, highlighted by a 1-2 finish by UAA teammates Emmanuelah Chelimo and Nancy Jeptoo.
McCormick finished the 6K course with a time of 21:35.66, about 38 seconds behind the winning time by Chelimo.
2015 Kenai Central graduate Alex Bergholtz was the lone representative for the University of Alaska Fairbanks women’s team. Bergholtz, a redshirt junior for the Nanooks, finished 121st out of 180 runners in the women’s 6K race, finishing with a time of 23:39.05 to rank 45th among GNAC runners.
