Alaska sports week in review: South wrestling dominates at CIC regionals, Service skiers take individual titles
Dec. 13—This past week featured several dominant performances at the prep, collegiate and amateur levels across the Alaska sports landscape. It also saw some athletes with Last Frontier roots shine Outside. On the prep wrestling scene, South Anchorage won its 11th straight region title. On the college scene, the University of Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team completed a sweep while the men's hockey team got swept by their instate rivals.
Headlines and highlights
After finishing as a close second at last year's state wrestling tournament, the South Anchorage wrestling team will be heading into this year's championship tourney on a high note after claiming their 11th straight Cook Inlet Conference regional title this past Saturday in dominant fashion.
No wrestler better personified their utter dominance as a team during the all-day tournament than junior Aaron Concepcion. The 2021 Division I state champion at the 135 weight division tore through his bracket at 145 pounds by pinning all three of his opponents on his way to a first place finish that included a swift first-period pin of 2021 state placer Ryunosuke Tsukada of Service.
South's Aaron Concepcion pins Service's Ryunosuke Tsukada
"He was just excited to get back on the mat," South coach Randy Hanson said. "He had an injury earlier in the year and it was tough not only physically but mentally. To not be able to wrestle at Lancer Smith (Tournament) and not be able to be there competing with his team (had him) itching to get back in and excited to get back and wrestle hard."
The University of Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team won their second and third games in a row by sweeping William Jewell in a two-game home series over the weekend. The Seawolves beat Cardinals 87-83 on Saturday and decisively 75-56 on Sunday. Senior guards Vishe' Rabb and Jahnna Hajdukovich recorded solid weekends scoring over 20 points apiece in the first game alone. Rabb finished the weekend with a combined 43 points and Hajdukovich wasn't far behind with a combined 39 points.
UAA All-American distance runner Cole Nash followed his strong showing at the NCAA DII Cross Country National Championships last Friday by churning out a provisional qualifying time of 14:42.69 in the 5,000-meter run at the Colorado Running Company Pre-Holiday Meet Saturday in his first race of the indoor track and field season. The Littleton, Colorado, native came in second place in the event and his adjusted time of 13:59.55 due to the altitude of Colorado Springs ranks second all-time in program history and eighth in Division II this season. His impressive showing was enough to earn him Great Northwest Atlantic Conference Male Track Athlete of the Week honors.
The UAA men's hockey team had its impressive four-game win streak come to an end over the weekend with a pair of back-to-back losses to instate rival UAF in the first leg of the return of the Governor's Cup. The Seawolves red-hot offense that had recorded four or more goals in three straight games only managed to score four goals combined in their two road games against Nanooks on Friday and Saturday at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.
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Reigning Division II Alaska state prep hockey champion Houston continued to look like a juggernaut, extending its winning streak to nine in a row after winning three straight games against conference opponents in consecutive days from Thursday to Saturday. Two of the wins came against Delta Junction and the Hawks improved their record to 13-0-1 overall.
Cross Country Ski Race, Cross Country, Skiing, Kincaid Park,Meredith Schwartz
The high school skiing season had its second event on Saturday with the South Classic Ski Race at Kincaid Park and saw a pair of Service Cougars finish in first place. The boys division was won by Service's Aaron Power in a time of 20:51.2 while his teammate, Meredith Schwartz, won the girls division with a finish of 25:02.5.
[Service skiers sweep races at South Classic on Saturday]
Due to last week's snow storm, the Anchorage Scholastic Bowling League was only able to get in one round of matches between Cook Inlet Conference foes on Tuesday. Through the first six matches of the 2022 season, Eagle River is the only undefeated team in the boys division at 6-0 after handed West their first loss of the season. In the girls division, Dimond remains the lone unbeaten at 6-0 and previously undefeated Service bounced back from suffering their first loss of the season at the hands of the Lynx with commanding win over Bettye Davis East.
The Anchorage Wolverines resumed their four-game series with the Kenai River Brown Bears as a part of the Club 49 Cup by splitting a two-game homes series over the weekend at Ben Beoke Ice Arena after sweeping the on the road last weekend. Despite the best efforts of Belarusian forward Fedya Nikolayenya, the Wolverines lost 5-4 in overtime in the first game on Friday but responded and rebounded in dominating fashion on Saturday with a 11-3 shellacking in which Nikolayenya scored the team's first goal of the night and his third of the series.
[Belarusian forward shines for Anchorage Wolverines in overtime loss to Kenai River]
Alaska stars shining Outside
Anchorage native and Alaska sports legend, Alissa Pili continued the scorching hot start to her junior season and first at the University of Utah after transferring from USC by tying a career-high in points scored in a single game with 28 in a 76-59 win over Brigham Young University. It marked her second straight game with that exact point total and the seventh double-digit scoring outing of the season as she has helped guided the Utes and undefeated 8-0 record.
[Set for greater success: Alaska basketball star Alissa Pili is thriving in her new environment]
Eagle River's Vanessa Aniteye kicked off her final indoor track season win at the Spokane Invitational in Washington after finishing the 800 meter race in 2 minutes, 13.04 seconds and earning an NCAA provisional mark in the process. The Chugiak High School alum currently ranks No. 1 in the nation for Division II in 800 meters and will certainly aim to produce even lower times as the season goes on.
[Running with purpose: Ex-UAA track star Vanessa Aniteye balances being an elite athlete, a student and a mother]
In her first race back after missing the 10k Skate Lillehammer due to an illness, Alaska Pacific Nordic Ski Center member, Rosie Brennan, braved the cold and the 10 kilometer course at the Beitostolen 10k classic in Norway to finish in eighth place this past Saturday. Her time of 27:36.1 was six seconds behind top U.S. finisher Jessie Diggins (27:30.1) and 40.2 seconds behind first place finisher Kerttu Niskanen (26:56.3) of Finland.
"I am normally not bothered by the cold, but I was admittedly not as prepared as I could have been," Brennan wrote in a statement. "That said, I was really happy with my skiing, especially coming off illness. My skis were great as well. I did what I could with the body I had and it was definitely missing a gear that I wanted, but it was a very solid effort with some improved technical skiing."
Last week's results
Prep Hockey
Boys
Tuesday
Dimond 8, Eagle River 1
Thursday
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Houston 9, Tri-Valley 0
Friday
Service 11, Bartlett 2
Houston 10, Delta Junction 1
Saturday
West 15, Bartlett 3
Service 2, South 2
Houston 6, Delta Junction 2
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Prep Bowling
Boys
Dimond 33, Bartlett 2
Dimond — Jared Krison 245
Bartlett — Nick Jones 159
Eagle River 31, West 4
Eagle River — Connor Lanehart 275
West — Noah Marx 183
Service 27, East 8
Service — Aaron Richard 182
East — Colton Penetac 231
South 35, Chugiak 0
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South — Elijah Pediangco 221
Chugiak — Barrick Stewart 63
Girls
Dimond 29, Bartlett 6
Dimond — Maia Struble 196
Bartlett — Mai-See Cha 155
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Eagle River 29, West 6
Eagle River — Grace Hardy 200
West — Callie Justice 202
Service 33, East 2
Service — Lillian Blumeburg and Alyssa Porcelli 146
East — Alea Harris-Barnes 114
Chugiak 31, South 4
Chugiak — Lindsey Vig 219
South — Zoe Fencil 110
Skiing
South Classic Ski Race
Girls
Team totals (top 4 skiers)
1. East 39; 2. Dimond 41; 3. Service 47; 4. West 49; 5. Chugiak 63; 6. South 97.
Individual Top 10
1. Meredith Schwartz, Service, 25:02.5; 2. Marley Ireland, East, 25:06.5; 3. Emily Erickson, Dimond, 25:10.8; 4. Kiley Dennis, Chugiak, 25:37.6; 5. Olivia Soderstrom, Service, 25:46.7; 6. Ameli Kam-Magruder, Dimond, 26:17.2; 7. Rose Conway, East, 26:30.4; 8. Piper Sears, West, 26:42.6; 9. Anna Halsey, Dimond, 26:59.4; 10. Brynn Rathert, East, 27:04.8.
Boys
Team totals (top 4 skiers)
1. West 20; 2. Service 33; 3. South 57; 4. Dimond 80; 5. East 102; 6. Chugiak 106; 7. Eagle River 126.
Individual Top 10
1. Aaron Power, Service, 20:51.2; 2. Justin Lucas, Service, 20:53.5; 3. Hlake Hanley, West, 21:30.1; 4. Murphy Kimball, West, 21.30.3; 5. Cole Flowers, West, 21:38.6; 6. Ethan Howe, East, 21.44; 6; 7. Owen Young, South, 22:00.1; 8. Liam Chisholm, West, 22:01.6; 9. Oliver Wright, West, 22:29.3; 10 (tie). Ethan Ski, West, 22:30.4; 10 (tie). Hatcher Menkens, West, 22:30.4.
College
Women's Basketball
Saturday
UAA 87, William Jewell 83
Sunday
UAA 75, William Jewell 56
Hockey
Friday
UAF 5, UAA 2
Saturday
UAF 7, UAA 2
NAHL
Friday
Kenai River Brown Bears 5, Anchorage Wolverines 4 (OT)
Saturday
Anchorage Wolverines 11, Kenai River Brown Bears 3
Three things to watch for this week
Prep
Wrestling
State Championship Tournament at Alaska Airlines Center, Friday 11 a.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.
The postseason for the 2022 high school wrestling season will come to a close this weekend with teams across the state coming to town with the hopes of claiming state titles for their respective programs. The Cook Inlet Conference champion South Anchorage Wolverines will be looking to dethrone the three-time reigning champion Colony Knights and with their first team title since 2018.
Hockey
Chugiak v Dimond at Ben Boeke, Wednesday 6:30 pm
Weather permitting, the top high school hockey matchup of the week will take place in town between the reigning Division I state champion Lynx and the top-ranked Mustangs. Both teams are undefeated against Cook Inlet Conference competition but Chugiak has yet to beat this year with an overall record of 8-0-1.
College
Hockey
UAF at UAA, Friday 7:07 p.m. and Saturday 6:07 p.m. at the Seawolf Sports Complex
The UAA and UAF men's hockey teams will be in town competing in a second straight weekend series in the return of the annual Governor's Cup. The Seawolves are 5-2 on their home ice this season and have won four straight in front of the green and gold faithful. It will be their last time playing at home this calendar year and until they face the Nanooks for the fifth time this season on Friday, Jan. 27.
