Kendall Kramer
A trio of runners out of Interior Alaska put on a show at the GNAC Cross Country Championships in Lacey, Washington.
UAF’s Kendall Kramer and Naomi Bailey of Fairbanks, and UAA’s Jacob Moos of Galena turned in top-5 performances to become the lone Alaskans to earn all-conference honors.
Kramer, Bailey and Moos are all former winners of the Gatorade Alaska Cross Country Runner of the Years award who stayed home to compete for a college in Alaska. And they all made the all-conference team for the first time together.
For Kramer and Bailey, their performance at the GNAC Championships helped their hometown Nanooks make history with a program-best third-place finish in the women’s team standings.
UAF was picked last out of ten teams in the GNAC Preseason Poll. That was on paper, this was all heart.
Kramer finished third in the women’s 6-K in 21:34.5, just behind teammate Rosie Fordham in 21:30.1. Bailey was fourth in 21:45.
Naomi Bailey
Both Kramer and Bailey are former state champions out West Valley High.
Kramer, a freshman, has now made all-conference in two sports after earning All-RMISA honors in cross-country skiing last winter in both skating and freestyle.
Bailey, a freshman, is also a first-time all-conference runner.
On the men’s side, Moos clocked a time 24:42.4 to earn a career-best fifth-place showing out of 81 runners in the 8-K race.
Moos, a junior, earned all-conference honors for the first time. As an athlete, that is. He’s a two-time member of the All-GNAC Academic Team.
He was a two-time state champion at Galena High.
Moos finished second among UAA runners as the Seawolves finished fourth in the men’s team standings.
Moos closed strong, finishing tops among a five-man cluster that came down the stretch together.
All three Alaska runners will next compete Nov. 6 at the NCAA West Region Championships Monmouth, Oregon.
