This previous week in Alaska sports activities featured some wonderful performances and thrilling finishes on the prep, collegiate {and professional} ranges throughout the Alaska sports activities panorama. There have been additionally some athletes with Final Frontier roots that shined Exterior. On the prep sports activities scene, the Grace Christian boys basketball group stayed scorching and pulled off a surprising upset for a second weekend in a row whereas the chugiak boys hockey group cruised to a convention title. On the faculty scene, the College of Alaska Anchorage ladies’s basketball group broke even on a two-game highway stand whereas the lads’s group dropped back-to-back video games.
Headlines and highlights
The Grace Christian boys basketball group took residence the {hardware} at a match for the third weekend in a row by changing into the primary Alaska group to win the Alaska Airways Traditional since 2019 and the primary from the 3A degree to take action since 2006. It appeared like their thrilling slender victory over beforehand top-ranked 4A Diamond the week prior within the championship sport of the Alaska Prep Shootout could not be topped and would go down as arguably the largest upset of the season.
Nonetheless, the Grizzlies outdid themselves and defended even longer odds within the title bout this previous Saturday after they shocked Heritage Christian of North Ridge, California, in a 53-50 win. Led by senior and match MVP Sloan Lentfer Grace Christian prevented the athletic Warriors from taking up the sport with tenacious protection and great physicality.
“Our intention coming into the sport was to be bodily,” Grace Christian coach Jason Boerger stated. “We’re larger and bodily and that is who we’re. We needed to try this, however we additionally knew that Heritage Christian is so gifted and so gifted that they actually storm out within the first quarter. A giant effort was simply to attempt to management the tempo at the beginning of the sport.”
[Tournament terminators: Grace Christian pulls off upset to claim Alaska Airlines Classic title]
The Traditional wasn’t the one prep basketball match that passed off on the town this previous week because the 2023 O’Brady Invitational tourney was performed throughout the identical timeframe throughout city at South Excessive Faculty. This three-day occasion featured completely Alaska groups from throughout the state and in the end served as a showcase for the West Valley boys group. The Wolfpack tore by way of the bracket led by seniors Malachi Bradley, who was named match MVP, and stewart erhart who was the 2022 Alaska Gatorade Participant of the 12 months for basketball. They opened it with a 31-point win over kodiakadopted by a 20-point victory over Juneau-Douglasand capped it off with a 34-point win over Lathrop to stay undefeated at 12-0.
On the prep hockey scene, chugiak continued to dominate and set up itself because the group to beat on the Division I degree by blowing out Providers 8-0 on Saturday. The win not solely marked the Mustangs’ thirteenth win in a row and improved their general document to 14-0-1, it additionally secured each the Prepare dinner Inlet Convention common season title and the highest seed in subsequent week’s regional match with one other sport left to play.
Scholastic bowling noticed a surprising upset final week throughout Tuesday’s matches that now leaves the Eagle River boys as the one undefeated group by way of the primary 10 matches of the 2022-2023 season they usually have their ladies group to thank. Each of the Wolves’ groups defeated Diamond 22-13, handing the Lynx ladies their first lack of the season.
In prep nordic snowboarding motion, the Chugiak-Eagle River Stampede passed off this previous Saturday and after lacking the Lynx Loppet the week prior on account of an sickness, Providers Skimeister, Aaron Energy, made his return to the paths and emerged triumphant as he led the Cougars boys group to victory. His mark of 30:29.2 was adequate for first place. On the ladies facet, Service’s Olivia Soderstrom narrowly got here in first with a mark of 36:15.2 nevertheless it was West that claimed the general group win within the division thanks largely to having 4 skiers within the high 10, probably the most of any group.
On the faculty hoops scene, each of the uaa groups performed a pair of highway video games in opposition to Western Oregon and Saint Martin’s. The ladies’s group performed a few shut contests and got here out on high of 1 and narrowly misplaced the opposite whereas the lads’s group dropped each, dropping by almost double digits within the first and getting blown out within the second.
The main scorer for the ladies’s group this previous week was senior guard Jahnna Hajdukovich with 33 mixed factors, 22 of which got here in a historic efficiency within the group’s 69-61 win over the Wolves on Thursday. She turned the primary participant in program historical past to knock down seven 3-pointers on lower than 10 makes an attempt by going 7-of-9. junior guard Dathan Satchell led the lads’s group in scoring in each of their losses and recorded a mixed 39 factors between the 2 video games.
The Anchorage Wolverines had been again on the town and received again within the win column this previous weekend by sweeping the Kenai River Brown Bears in a two-game residence sequence. minnesota natives jackson reineke and wilson dahlheimer each recorded a pair of objectives over the course of the 2 contests and as a group, Anchorage outscored Kenai 9 objectives to three within the sweep.
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Earlier within the week, their teammate and Minsk, Belarus native Fedya Nikolayenya was introduced as the newest member within the 2023-2024 recruiting class for the College of Alaska Fairbanks males’s hockey group.
Alaska stars shining Exterior
Eagle River’s kaylin garner and Homer’s haylee owen helped the Johnson & Wales College ladies’s hockey group full a late rally and engineer a dramatic comeback in a 5-4 additional time victory over Salem State This previous Friday. The 2 sophomores each scored a pair of objectives with lower than eight minutes left within the third interval. Garner’s second aim of the evening got here within the closing minute and tied the sport to drive an additional interval the place the Wildcats would full the comeback simply 33 seconds into additional time.
Anchorage’s Finnigan Donley had fairly the spectacular exhibiting on the World Junior Alpine Championships this previous week. At simply 17 years outdated and nonetheless a senior in highschool, he’s the youngest member of the US Group however that did not cease him from inserting thirteenth in Friday’s super-G and twenty ninth in Thursday’s downhill occasion, which was good for first in his U-18 age group.
[Growing up blocks from each other in Anchorage, two skiers are competing on the world stage in Austria]
Alaska Pacific College Ski Group member, rosie brennanteamed up with fellow Olympic skier, Julia Kern, to complete third in Sunday’s FIS Cross Nation World Cup group dash in Livigno, Italy. It was her first motion since participating within the Tour de Ski.
“We slowly clawed our method again up and Julia made a robust effort on her second leg to tag me in a spot the place I had the house I wanted to do some work,” Brennan wrote. “I used to be capable of shut the hole to the leaders and tag Julia on the rear of the lead pack for her final leg. She skied so properly and stayed affected person so long as she might earlier than unleashing a completely epic end to nab us the final podium spot. The quick and flat course did not swimsuit my strengths, however I did what I might to maintain Julia within the combine. We had nice skis right now and it was an effective way to cap off the weekend.”
Final week’s outcomes
prep basketball
Women
tuesday
Ronan 44, Metlakatla 40
West Anchorage 63, Tikigaq 55
wednesday
Tikigaq 62, Ronan 43
West 40, Metlakatla 25
Colony 66, Service 6
thursday
West 51, Ronan MT 41
Tikigaq 70, Metlakatla 58
boys
thursday
West 65, Ronan MT 45
Heritage CA 66, Ketchikan 16
East 52, Higley AZ 43
Grace Christian 63, Metlakatla 37
South 57, Palmer 33
Lathrop 56, Ninilchik 44
West Valley 58, Kodiak 27
Juneau-Douglas 64, Bartlett 53
Colony 52, Thunder Mountain 41
Minto 68, Huslia 53
Edgecumbe 104, Houston 88
Kotzebue 80, Tanana 18
friday
Heritage Christian 50, East 35
Grace Christian 58, West 53
Ronán 56, Metlakatla 51
Higley 63, Ketchikan 60
Colony 52, Thunder Mountain 41
Wasilla 93, Soldotna 60
Houston 74, Sitka 66
Minto 77, Tok 57
Petersburg 53, Wrangell 40
Kotzebue 83, Aqqaluk 42
91 Hooper Bay, 65 Scammon Bay
Shaktoolik 45, Shismaref 39
Shaktoolik 79, Gamble 62
saturday
Grace Christian 53, Heritage Christian 50
Ketchikan 70, Met 53
East 68, West 62
Kodiak 41, Palmer 32
Bartlett 62, Ninilchik 57
Juneau 67, South 40
West Valley 81, Lathrop 47
70 Edgecumbe, 21 Redington
Petersburg 56, Wrangell 51
Monroe 77, Chugiak 29
Wasilla 72, Soldotna 40
Cordova 64, Glennallen32
bowling
tuesday
boys
Bartlett 35, Chugiak 0
West 22, Service 13
Eagle River 22, Diamond 13
South 29, East 6
Women
Chugiak 25, Bartlett 10
Service 29, West 6
Eagle River 22, Diamond 13
East 27, South 8
thursday
boys
Diamond 35, South 0
Eagle River 30, Service 5
West 29, Bartlett 6
East 33, Chugiak 2
Women
Diamond 33, South 2
Eagle River 22, Service 13
Bartlett 24, West 11
Chugiak 27, East 8
Hockey
tuesday
Chugiak 5, West 3
wednesday
Service 15, Bartlett 6
thursday
Juneau-Douglas 13, Bartlett 0
South 7, Eagle River 1
West Valley 3, Diamond 3
friday
Kenai 4, Service 1
Chugiak 6, South 0
West Valley 3, Diamond 2 (2OT)
Houston 9, Juneau-Douglas 1
saturday
Chugiak 8, Service 0
School
Girls’s Basketball
thursday
UAA 69, Western Oregon 61
saturday
Saint Martin’s 66, UAA 65
Males’s Basketball
thursday
Western Oregon 84, UAA 76
saturday
Saint Martin’s 100, UAA 73
NAHL
friday
Anchorage Wolverines 4, Kenai River Brown Bears 2
saturday
Anchorage Wolverines 5, Kenai River Brown Bears 1
Three issues to look at for this week
Rivalry Week
School
Basketball
UAA vs. UAF at Alaska Airways Heart, Saturday 3:15 pm
The Seawolves will probably be trying to snap a two-game dropping skid and get again on monitor of their second matchup with their state rival and sister college program. The primary assembly resulted in a convincing 81-59 victory for uaa on New 12 months’s Eve. Their main scorer on the evening was senior Da’Zhon Wyche With 24 factors however since his eligibility has since expired, they might want to discover a totally different recipe to beat the Nanooks, who’re additionally on a two-game skid after dropping back-to-back video games to the identical opponents because the Seawolves performed final. week.
Hockey
UAA vs. UAF at Seawolf Sports activities Advanced, Friday 7:07 pm
The 2 colleges’ males’s hockey packages will face off to shut out the Governor’s Cup with a two-game sequence with the primary contest going down on the town whereas the second will probably be performed in Fairbanks. The Seawolves have but to beat their state rivals this season because the Nanooks lead the season sequence 4-0. This would be the first time each groups are again in motion for the reason that first week of January.
NAHL
Fairbanks Ice Canine vs. Anchorage Wolverines at Ben Boeke, Friday and Saturday 7 pm
The Seawolves and Nanooks will not be the one rivals squaring off on the town this week because the Anchorage and Fairbanks rivalry extends to the junior hockey degree as properly. The Wolverines will host the Ice Canine in a two-game sequence this weekend however not like the faculty matchup, each contests will probably be on the town. Meaning Anchorage hockey followers could have an opportunity to look at each of their hometown groups in the event that they needed or get a double dose of Wolverines. Anchorage leads the season sequence 4-2 with the final assembly on this heated rivalry leading to a 5-4 triumph for the Wolverines in November.