Birch Hill XC Preview-Alaska

Saturday, August 16, 2008

FAIRBANKS — The high school cross country running season is about to begin — albeit in somewhat informal fashion.

The West Valley Invitational is set for today at the Birch Hill Recreation Area, but many local harriers are not yet eligible because they have not fulfilled the requirement of attending 10 practices.

Therefore, official 4-kilometer races will be held for eligible athletes (10 a.m. for girls, 10:45 a.m. for boys) followed by open races (11:30 a.m. for girls, 12:15 p.m. for boys) designed for runners who aren’t yet eligible. The general public can enter the open races as well.

Fewer than half of West Valley’s 40-45-member team will don Wolfpack running shirts and line up for the official races, second-year coach Dan Callahan said Thursday. The rest must run in the open event and can’t wear West Valley gear.

“It’s going to be the exact same distance, same course,” Callahan said. “It doesn’t really matter to me how many are going one or the other. They’ll get the same effort in.”

All the Region VI schools — West Valley, Lathrop, North Pole, Monroe Catholic, Eielson and Delta Junction — are expected to participate, Callahan said.

The course, by Birch Hill standards, is a bit mild, Callahan said. Runners will twice negotiate a rolling but not excessively hilly route.

“I didn’t want to throw in too hard of a hill course right off the bat,” he said.