Flagstad capture junior Mount Marathon races

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The junior boys winner was no surprise, while the junior girls winner was a complete surprise, Friday at the Mount Marathon Race in Seward.

After finishing second to Palmer’s Coby Marvin the past two years, Anchorage’s Vebjorn Flagstad, an incoming senior at South High, cruised to victory when Marvin aged up to the men’s race.

In the junior girls race, Calista Zuber, 14, of Anchorage took down a stacked field. The incoming South freshman said she hadn’t gotten into the race in two or three years of trying. Zuber’s mother successfull y c level contact list petitioned to get her daughter in, and Calista won with the very last bib number of all the racers.

Flagstad, 17, took 27 minutes, 31 seconds, to get halfway up and down the mountain course overlooking Seward. That was much slower than the 25:52 Flagstad put up in pursuit of Marvin last year, but still more than enough to top the 28:15 of Blaze Rubeo, 15, of Wasilla.

With the temperatures in the 50s and the course set up to be fast, Flagstad said it was hard to pace without Marvin there.

“My only goal last year was just hanging with Coby, and he’s just fast,” said Flagstad, who won in his final junior appearance. “I knew it was going to be a hard time to beat.

“I’m just happy with the win.”

Flagstad’s father, Trond, is a two-time men’s champion. Vebjorn added this win to a state skimeister title and a sophomore and a 3,200-meter crown at this spring’s Division I state track meet.

“This is up there,” said Flagstad, when asked where this victory ranks. “It’s so unique. It’s just an Alaskan race.”