Ostrander wins gold, Thomet silver at world championships
Allie Ostrander
Ostrander became just the second American woman to win the women’s junior title and it capped a wonderful week that started with the Boise State University freshman winning her college cross country debut.
The up-and-down race covered 2.9 miles and challenged runners with more than 800 feet of elevation game.
Ostrander, of Kenai High fame, crossed the line in 19 minutes, 44 seconds, beating the runner-up finisher from the Czech Republic by 39 seconds.
In July, she finished second at Mount Marathon in Seward with the fastest time by an Alaska woman.
Before that she won the junior girls race six times and beat the boys in 2014 to become the first girl to win the overall title.
In the boys race, Thomet covered the 5.5-mile course in 35 minutes, 50 seconds to finish second. He held off a Turkey runner to earn the silver medal.
Levi Thomet
Thomet, of Kodiak High fame, is not in college but instead studying in Germany as part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
In Germany he won his first road race, a 10-K.
“It was more of a tempo,” he told milesplit.com. “But I won and ran 32:25, which I was pretty happy with counting that I haven’t raced in a while. It felt good and made me feel good about how my training has been going.”
Thomet logged about 60 miles per week in preparation for the World Mountain Running Championships.
“It felt great to get selected,” he said. “I’ve had a real desire to make a USA team for a while and when this came up, I was pretty excited.”
Ostrander and Thomet also helped the American team bag silver medals in the team competition.