Hawk Harper

We know many of you have been waiting for this—Hawk will be teaching his running class through Utah Valley Community Ed this fall.  The class will cover training for everyone from beginning runners to marathoners.  The class will run 4 Wednesdays from September 26th-October 17th at 6:00pm at Canyon View Jr. High and usually lasts between 1 1/2 to 2 hours a night.   Register here through UV Community Ed.  All levels of runners welcome.  Oh, and don’t forget to come ready to run!

Golden laying down for BYU-Hawaii

Read the original article at: http://newsminer.com/2007/09/02/8701

“HARPER COMPLETES SWEEP OF COLLEGE RUNNING RACES”
By Matias Saari
Published September 2, 2007

As a 12-year-old in St. George, Utah, Golden Harper ran a world-best age-group marathon time of 2 hours, 45 minutes.

On Saturday at Birch Hill Recreation Area, the senior from BYU-Hawaii dug deep in an all-out sprint to win the Alaska Nanooks Interior Invitational 3.87-kilometer race.

Harper edged hard-charging Brandon Laan of Hawaii Pacific University by two-tenths of a second for a winning time of 11 minutes, 31.9 seconds.

“I’m a marathoner. I haven’t run anything this short, I don’t think, in seven years, so it felt really weird and really fast,” said Harper, who also claimed Thursday’s 8K at the UAF Trails by a more comfortable margin. “I have enough killer instinct in me that letting people pass me at the end is not my game. So I figured if I could get away to where I had a lead with 100 meters left, I’d be OK.”

Laan has run 1,500 meters in 3:43 (the equivalent of a 4:09 mile) but said he may have started his sprint a little late. He still nearly caught Harper on the gradual uphill homestretch, closing a several-second gap to maybe 18 inches.

“Coach (Christian) Friis has got a plan all set to peak when it really matters,” said Laan, a senior from London, Ontario, who races frequently against Harper. “Losing in the stretch here, although it hurts, I feel confident that I might get him in the end.”

For the second time in as many races, a sprint between a Nanook and HPU Sea Warrior swung the dual meet in favor of the visitors. This time, Joseph Sybrowsky edged Alaska’s Zach McGill at the line by .3 seconds for eighth place overall. More importantly, it gave HPU a 28-29 win over their hosts.

“It’s a little frustrating. I’ve been on both sides of that as a coach and as an athlete,” Alaska coach Scott Jerome said. “I try to impress upon them that the whole meet could swing on their performance, so you have to treat every person in front of you as if the whole meet is on your shoulders.

“That’s the kind of mindset that we try to instill in these guys and, you know, they’re going to learn it and they’re going to get better.”

McGill, a freshman from Minnesota, still wound up as Alaska’s second finisher behind fifth-place Estonian Vahur Teppan.

“I haven’t had any speed work all summer. I’ve just been putting in base miles,” McGill said. “Once I get some intervals in, I won’t have a problem catching a guy like that again.”

BYU-Hawaii also topped the Nanooks men in their dual meet, 20-35.

Alaska’s women were more fortunate, splitting their dual meets by topping HPU 24-35 but falling to BYU-Hawaii 24-31.

The Nanooks were paced by Anna Coulter in fourth place (14:33), Beth Zirbes in fifth (14:36) and freshman Nikkol Sipes in sixth (14:38). Winner Amanda Whitford of BYU-Hawaii ran 14:12.

“Beth and Nikkol really came on strong today,” Jerome said. “They didn’t get too excited at the beginning, they kind of paced themselves, then they turned it on on the second lap and that was a smart way to run.”

Sipes preferred Saturday’s hilly short race to Thursday’s longer event.

“I felt so much better than Thursday,” she said. “I think I was more nervous maybe Thursday being my first race with everybody.”

Sipes was recruited as a runner while most of the other Nanooks are Nordic skiing specialists.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s that different. Everyone’s just one big family,” she said.

Held under sunny skies and in pleasant temperatures, the Nanooks’ first home meet in two years was a success and something Jerome hopes to continue annually.

The Hawaiians certainly enjoyed running in milder weather than back home and experiencing Alaskan hospitality.

“I always assumed it was really cold up here but it’s been beautiful,” Laan said. “We stayed at (Billie’s Backpackers) hostel and met a lot of cool people. People from Alaska have been just so welcoming and appreciative of the sport.”

Sojourner Golden Harper (while running for BYU Hawaii) won 2 NCAA Cross-Country races back to back in Alaska this week. Through trees on single track trails and jumping over roots, Golden won by over 13 seconds in the first race. The second, shorter course, but still quite hilly and fun (hard of course), Golden held out for the win by just over a second. CONGRATULATIONS GOLDEN! And good luck for the rest of the college cross-country season! Below is the following article from the Alaska Fairbanks newspaper:

http://runcorner.com/srcblog/?page_id=148