The Galena boys took first place and both girls placed in top ten at the Region VI meet in Fairbanks at the North Star golf course on Saturday, Sept. 27.

The first place runner was Kaleb Korta, a junior from Galena, with a time of 17 minutes, 4.2 seconds on the 5-kilometer course among schools in the 3A division.

Kaleb was almost one minute ahead of the second-place runner, and came in second overall against all the other runners at the regional meet, including runners from the larger division 4A schools.

“I’m proud of entire cross country running team,” said co-coach Molissa Bifelt. Both she and co-coach Jon Korta are looking forward to see how the team does, especially the boys, at the state championship on Oct. 4 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.

In the girl’s race, Galena’s Sarah Brown came in third place with a time of 22:47. Mariah Wigley, a freshmen from Russian Mission, came in eighth place with 24:12.9.

The win by the Galena Hawks runners at regionals means that the entire team gets to go to the state championship.

In the boys race, Jacob Moos, a freshman from Galena, came in third with 18:02.1, with freshmen teammate Trenton Ambrose behind him in fourth place finishing at 18:39.3.

Placing in sixth place was junior Joe Apfelbeck from Galena, who had a personal record with a time of 18:58.6.
Coming in 12th for the boys was Zelek McNeilly, 19:47.9; in 15th place, Isaac McElwee, 20:30.7; and in 22nd place, Lynn-Victor Lonewolf , with a personal record of 22:00.8.

The race took place on the North Star Golf Course in Fairbanks, and the weather during the meet was clear, sunny skies and with a temperature of 45 degrees. The course was made up of rolling hills. Runner took the same loop ran twice.