Alaska's top prep runner in 2008-2009, Trevor Dunbar (University of Portland, OR) won the USATF Cross Country Junior Championships held at the Plantes Ferry Recreation Park in Spokane Washington.
(Photo courtesy Victah Sailor; PhotoRun.net)
Dunbar took an early lead in the 8K race passing the 2K mark in 5:50 with the main pack behind him crossing in 6:04. Dunbar moved out to a 75 meter lead crossing 4K in 12:02. Second place runner, Andrew Colley, from North Carolina State, started closing the gap around 5K but high school runner Walter Schafer (Sr., Cherry Creek HS, CO) broke away from the pack and moved in close behind Colley until the 6K mark where he pushed into 2nd place.
Dunbar passed the 7K mark in 21:21 and with 400 meters to go Schafer moved to within 7 seconds of Dunbar.
Dunbar's strong solid pace took him over the finish line in 24:04 with Schafer in second (24:10); Andrew Colley (24:16, North Carolina State) in 3rd: Andrew Kimpel (24:19, Washington State, WA) in 4th; Michael Lynch (24:24, Columbia, MD) in 5th; Ammar Moussa (24:28, Jr., Arcadia HS, CA) in 6th and Erik Olson (Sr, 24:33, Novato, HS) in 6th.
The top 6 runners will travel to Poland to compete in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. As the alternate, Erik Olson, will only go to Poland if one of the top 6 drop out by a specific date determine by the USATF Cross Country Council.
Dunbar attended Kodiak HS in Kodiak Alaska and was the recipient of the Gatorade award for track and field and twice for cross country. He also won the Arcadia 5000 meter race, Nike Outdoor Nationals in the 2 mile and the 3000 meter run and placed second at Foot Locker Nationals.