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Photo by Eric Engman

Photo by Eric Engman

Hutchison High School’s humble senior Kim Wilson used a little hometown advantage to help secure a rare individual quadruple.

“I took a nap, right after my 100 (meter dash) for about four hours,” Wilson said Saturday before she was named the most outstanding girls performer at the Alaska State Track and Field 1A-2A-3A Championships.

Wilson had the luxury to snooze because she lives on 15th Avenue not far from Lathrop High School. The rest got Wilson off her feet and helped her escape temperatures in the 60s, re-energizing her for the 200-meter run, which she seized by half a second over Cook Inlet Academy star Brooke Forsi.

“The 200, that’s my favorite race,” Wilson said. “The curves are fun.”

Wilson separated herself in the first separate Class 1A-2A-3A championships by claiming the triple jump Friday, then the long jump, 100 and 200 on Saturday. None of the events were particularly close, and Wilson’s efforts in the triple jump, 100 dash (and nearly the 200) even bested the winners from the 4A competition.

Wilson’s key to success was “just taking it one event at a time and focusing on what I have to do,” she said.

While athletes occasionally win three individual golds at the state meet, most fail in their bid for a fourth or join a relay instead.

Though Wilson could likely continue competing in college, she’s opting instead to play basketball at a school to be determined.

“I don’t want to (compete in track),” she said. “I have more love for basketball.”

Wilson single-handedly lifted the Hawks to a sixth-place finish by scoring 40 of her team’s 46 points.

Anchorage Christian School used team depth to win the title with 115 points, followed by Haines with 84 and Seward with 67.

ACS won just one event — Anna Simmers in a blazing 15.51 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles — but outpointed the competition with six runner-up results and many other point-scoring efforts.

“We had a good feeling that if the girls just performed the way they were expected to perform, that we’d do all right,” head coach Jason Hofacker said.

ACS was the top small schools team last year, but that was only good for a sixth-place tie because they were lumped in with the 4A schools. When the Alaska School Activities Association announced it was creating a separate 1A-2A-3A championship to give schools with fewer than 400 students more opportunities, ACS was amped.

“We were definitely excited about it because we’ve been in track for 30 years and the best we’ve ever finished is fifth,” Hofacker said. “So it was kind of neat to say ‘Hey, we actually have a shot to win.’”

The only disappointment for ACS may have been senior Nychele Fischetti finishing second to J.J. Lende of Haines in all three distance races — the 3,200-meter run on Friday and the 1,600 and 800 on Saturday.

Lende, using quick turnover and a low shuffle in contract to Fischetti’s longer stride, took a risk in the 800, where the ACS runner had the fastest seed time.

“I just went with my gut instinct and said, ‘I have nothing to lose; might as well get in front and see how long I can stay there,’” Lende said. “Nychele was the favorite to win, and I knew that.”

Instead, Lende got the lead and kept it with a strong finishing kick to win in 2:19.79, almost a second ahead of the tough-luck Fischetti.

Highlighting the other events was the lanky Forsi, who led CIA to a fourth-place tie with Grace Christian by dominating the 400 in 58.63, then anchoring the winning 4X100 and meet-closing 4X400 relays.