Phelps led a strong performance for the Mariner girls on Friday, placing first in the girls 5-kilometer race at the Anchorage Christian School Invitational meet. Phelps posted a time of 19 minutes, 56 seconds to edge ACS's Nadine Fischetti by 6 seconds. Melanie Mach (21:05) and Megan Mahan (21:40) placed ninth and 11th.
Meanwhile, on the boys side, following an intense push to the finish line, Garroutte posted a time of 16:43, less than a second behind race-winner Mick Boyle of Kenai and less than a second in front of third-place finisher Trevor Baldwin of Kenai. Ivan Heimbuch, Travis Hines and Dylan Anderson all finished in under 20 minutes, placing 32nd, 43rd and 44th, respectively.
The Homer boys placed sixth in the team standings for the meet, which was won handily by Kenai. The Homer girls did not have enough varsity finishers to qualify for the team standings.
On Saturday, the Mariners moved a little further north for the Palmer Invitational, where they faced a tough field of Class 4A competition from across the state.
Garroutte finished the 5-K race in 17:09.02 to place sixth out of 121 runners. Phelps (20:07.6) placed 13th out of 120 runners.
The Mariners will head to Seward on Saturday for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Meet.
Sepp Jannotta can be reached at sjannotta@homernews.com.
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