On a chilly, foggy, and cloudy Saturday morning, onlookers and runners from all over the Lower Kuskokwim School District gathered at the sand pit in Bethel to compete in a cross-country race.
Transcript, An Audio Postcard:
(Runners jog about, sounds of many moving feet)
Despite the cold, wet weather, students from across the Delta warmed up for the race in the opaque morning sun before the starting gun. The starting gun even had a little trouble getting going.
(Starting gun fails, laughter, and then goes off.)
And the runners were off!
(The crowd explodes with excitement as runners speed away.)
The race, a little over three miles, took place in Bethel’s extensive maze of sand-pits.
At the finish line, parents and fans cheered louder and louder as the first wave of runners came near.
(Crowd yells excitedly to runners)
Dorothy Bukowski is the first to cross for the high school girls team. She is 16 years old and lives in Bethel, where she's a junior at Bethel Regional High School. I caught up with her after the race. She was still so winded she could barely speak.
(sounds of cheering)
(Heavy breathing, a small cough)
KYUK: You just won first place! How does it feel?
Bukowski: I feel great!
KYUK: In your opinion, what did it take to win this race?
Bukowski: Practice.
The first place winner in the boys bracket was Eugene Alexie from Toksook Bay. This was his second year in a row coming in first. Last year, he won it for Kuskokwim Learning Academy.
His coach Sara Lucas says that the team pushed each other to victory.
Lucas: It was all them. They all worked really hard at practice everyday, showed up everyday, and they pushed each other, actually is really how they did it.”
The middle schoolers also competed after the high schoolers, but the results were not made official by the time this story was written.
KYUK’s interns Celina Angaiak and Jackie Williams reported this story with support from Katie Basile, Charles Enoch, and Adrian Wagner.