In most visitors, Alaska inspires wonder at its beauty, awe at its wildlife, and admiration for the hardiness of those who make their lives in its vast backcountry, enduring some of the harshest conditions on earth.
Alaska
Alaska Sports Scoreboard: May 31, 2025
High School
Soccer
Girls
Thursday
South 4, Chugiak 0
Monroe Catholic 5, Grace Christian 0
Soldotna 1, Ketchikan 0
Colony 2, Service 1
Dimond 5, West Valley 0
Kenai Central 7, Redington 0
Homer 4, Palmer 1
Wasilla 2, Lathrop 1
Friday
Grace Christian 6, Redington 2
Service 5, West Valley 1
Chugiak 4, Lathrop 1
Palmer 1, Ketchikan 0
Soldotna 3, Homer 1
Kenai Central 2, Monroe Catholic 1
Dimond 1, Colony 0
South 3, Wasilla 0
Saturday
Palmer 1, Grace Christian 0
Monroe Catholic 4, Homer 3
Kenai Central 2, Soldotna 0
Colony 1, Wasilla 0
Service 4, Chugiak 1
South 4, Dimond 0
Boys
Thursday
West 4, Wasilla 0
Kenai Central 3, Monroe Catholic 0
Palmer 5, Homer 0
Ketchikan 5, Houston 0
West Valley 2, Dimond 1
Soldotna 3, North Pole 0
Juneau-Douglas 2, Service 1
Colony 2, South 1
Friday
Wasilla 3, Service 1
North Pole 3, Monroe Catholic 0
South 3, Dimond 2
Homer 4, Houston 2
Palmer 4, Ketchikan 3
Soldotna 4, Kenai Central 0
West Anchorage 3, Juneau-Douglas 2
West Valley 2, Colony 0
Saturday
Kenai Central 2, Ketchikan 0
Homer 2, North Pole 0
Wasilla 2, South 1
Palmer 3, Soldotna 2
Colony 5, Juneau-Douglas 0
West v. West Valley (late)
• • •
Softball
Tuesday
Monroe Catholic 7, North Pole 4
Monroe Catholic 11, North Pole 7
Wednesday
Delta 8, Monroe Catholic 2
Delta 7, Monroe Catholic 2
Dimond 15, Service 1
South 10, Bartlett 1
Chugiak 15, West 2
Service 14, Bartlett 13
Thursday
East 9, Dimond 6
South 7, Chugiak 1
Dimond 10, Service 2
Chugiak 12, West 0
Friday
Colony 11, Wasilla 0
Colony 10, Juneau-Douglas 2
East 1, South 0
Chugiak 11, Dimond 1
• • •
Baseball
Tuesday
Dimond 13, East 3
West 12, Bartlett 1
Wednesday
South 9, West 1
Dimond 10, Chugiak 2
Thursday
Service 10, Dimond 1
Eagle River 6, South 1
Wasilla 11, Lathrop 1
Colony 9, West Valley 3
Juneau-Douglas 10, Ketchikan 5
Houston 7, Kenai Central 4
Palmer 13, Redington 7
Soldotna 12, Grace Christian 1
Kodiak 2, Homer 0
Palmer 8, Houston 1
Soldotna 13, Kodiak 4
Friday
Sitka 6, Juneau-Douglas 2
Juneau-Douglas 4, Ketchikan 3
Colony 5, Wasilla 2
West Valley 4, Lathrop 3
South 7, Dimond 4
Eagle River 4, Service 3 (10)
Monroe Catholic 17, Delta 1
Kenai Central 7, Kodiak 3
Homer 8, Houston 3
Soldotna 10, Palmer 0
Saturday
Wasilla 2, West Valley 1
Sitka 14, Juneau-Douglas 12
• • •
Track and field
ASAA State Track and Field Championships
Day 1
Friday
Division I
Girls
3200 Meters Finals
1. Hannah Shaha 11:19.93, Chugiak
2. Hailee Giacobbe 11:23.22, Wasilla
3. Rosie Conway 11:35.46, East
4. Ella Hopkins 11:46.73, Colony
Discus 1kg Finals
1. Mona Koko 119’01.00, West
2. Layla Hays 115’09.00, Wasilla
3. Ailafo Fautanu 106’09.00, Dimond
4. Alessa Scott, 106’03.00, Dimond
High Jump Finals
1. Nevaeh Watkins 5’6.00, Dimond
2. Autumn Larson 5’4.00, Chugiak
3. Avery Johnson 4’10.00, Palmer
4. Hallie Fischer 4’10.00, Soldotna
Triple Jump Finals
1. Izzy Kizer 37’00.25, North Pole
2. Izabela Sullivan 36’02.50, West
3. Amelia Dempsey 34’08.75, Chugiak
4. Maya Tirpack 34’00.00, South
Boys
3200 Meters Finals
1. Vebjorn Flagstad 9:59.04, South
2. Katahdin Staples 10:00.68, East
3. Owen Woodruff 10:00.85, Juneau-Douglas.
4. David Penfield 10:01.51, Chugiak
Shot Put – 12lb Finals
1. Deuce Alailefaleula 53’01.00, Bartlett
2. Luke Miller 51’09.50, Soldotna
3. George Lane 51’03.50, East
4. Benjamin Hiestand 48’05.50, Chugiak
High Jump Varsity – Finals
1. Trey Colbert 6’0.00, Ketchikan
2. Corbin Gerkin 6’0.00, Palmer
3. Cameron Anderson 5’8.00, Service
3. Deontae Cromer 5’8.00, West Valley
Triple Jump Varsity Finals
1. Isaiah Douyon 43’02.75, South
2. Kenneth Motton 42’09.50, Colony
3. Johnathyn Kestel 42’00.75, Juneau-Douglas
4. Corde Bates 41’02.50, Dimond
Division II
Girls
3200 Meters Finals
1. Clare Mullin 11:49.35, Sitka
2. Iris Haas 11:55.96, Delta Junction
3. Marina Dill 11:59.96, Sitka
4. Claira Booz 12:08.88, Homer
Discus 1kg Finals
1. Jieaya Siatini Williams 122’00.00, Mountain City Christian
2. Alexia Pik 108’00.00, Redington
3. Emma Dohrn 95’09.00, Haines
4. Madison Dill 93’08.00, Sitka
High Jump Finals
1. Jessie Wentworth 5’0.00, Su Valley
2. Abby Sampson 4’10.00, Hutchison
3. Emma Walsh 4’10.00, Monroe Catholic
4. Maura McDaniel 4’8.00, Su Valley
Triple Jump Finals
1. Mia Bukala 34’02.00, Redington
2. Caroline Klebs 34’01.50, Grace Christian
3. Reilly Sue Baker 32’01.50, Homer
4. Selah Coots 31’05.50, Kenai Central
Boys
3200 Meters Finals
1. Robbie Annett 9:47.95, Grace Christian
2. Connor Hitchcock 9:48.57, Sitka
3. Colton Merriner 9:49.39, Grace Christian
4. Johannes Bynagle 10:02.21, Homer
Shot Put – 12lb Finals
1. Zach Martel 43’05.50, Redington
2. Kyle Petersen 41’11.25, Valdez
3. Gage Hawes 41’04.75, Houston
4. Kaden Duke 41’03.75, Petersburg
High Jump Varsity – Finals
1. Olin Liljemark 5’10.00, Seward
2. Austin Barnard 5’10.00, Su Valley
3. Royce Borst 5’8.00, Skagway
4. Luke Elhard 5’8.00, Seward
Triple Jump Varsity Finals
1. Gage Ivy 41’00.25, Kenai Central
2. Joshua Woko 40’02.00, Mountain City Christian
3. Jaidhen Oyao 39’07.25, Mountain City Christian
4. Cole McLaughlin 39’02.75, Sitka
• • •
2025 Twilight 12k/6k
12K Male Overall
1: Riley Howard, Anchorage, AK 37:21; 2: William McGovern, Anchorage, AK 37:28; 3: Noah Laughlin-Hall, Anchorage, AK 39:46; 4: Scott Patterson, Anchorage, AK 40:22; 5: Conor Deal, Anchorage, AK 41:30; 6: Andy Peters, Anchorage, AK 42:17; 7: Brian Sweeney, Anchorage, AK 42:26; 8: Connor Marth, Anchorage, AK 42:42; 9: Allan Spangler, Anchorage, AK 42:49; 10: Michael Rabe, Anchorage, AK 42:56; 11: Chad Trammell, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 12: Ryan Beckett, Anchorage, AK 44:11; 13: Dash Dicang, Anchorage, AK 44:18; 14: Eric Mortensen, Anchorage, AK 44:28; 15: Isaac Landecker, Anchorage, AK 44:39; 16: Nick Mendolia, Anchorage, AK 44:44; 17: Andrew Pounds, Anchorage, AK 44:52; 18: Trygve Solomonson, Eagle River, AK 44:58; 19: Mike Garvey, Anchorage, AK 45:08; 20: John Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 45:25
12k Female Overall
1: Anna Dalton, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 2: Julianne Dickerson, Anchorage, AK 47:24; 3: Molly Walli, Anchorage, AK 47:38; 4: Breanna Day, Eagle River, AK 48:21; 5: Sam Longacre, Anchorage, AK 49:32; 6: Hannah Souders, Anchorage, AK 50:33; 7: Sarah Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 51:00; 8: Kyra Walter, Eagle River, AK 53:10; 9: Carolyn Stwertka, Anchorage, AK 53:11; 10: Rylee Ruggles, Eagle River, AK 53:11; 11: Allison Macy, Chugiak, AK 53:25; 12: Trophe Brandt, Anchorage, AK 53:47; 13: Anna Smith, Anchorage, AK 54:00; 14: Jillian Gavalya, Chugiak, AK 54:09; 15: Haley Gilman, Anchorage, AK 54:11; 16: Brooke Gottmeier, Anchorage, AK 54:26; 17: Iris Samuels, Anchorage, AK 54:54; 18: Annika Dollick, Levelock, AK 55:06; 19: Sofija Spaic, Palmer, AK 55:07; 20: Lia Slemons, Anchorage, AK 55:31
6K Male Overall
1: Eduardo Orozco, Anchorage, AK 19:31; 2: Hoka Ben, Kent, WA 20:15; 3: Amadeus Semo, Anchorage, AK 21:36; 4: Pedro Ochoa, Homer, AK 21:48; 5: Malachi Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 22:49; 6: Will Graham, Anchorage, AK 22:57; 7: Mark Fineman, Anchorage, AK 23:48; 8: Cyrus Rader, Wasilla, AK 23:58; 9: Emerson Michaud, WasillaWasilla, AK 24:00; 10: Miles King, Anchorage, AK 24:07; 11: Tyler Berliner, Anchorage, AK 24:37; 12: Reyce Lee, Anchorage, AK 24:45; 13: Kaden Brown, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 14: Joel Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 25:02; 15: Dylan Chalifour, Anchorage, AK 25:16; 16: Parker Hadley, Eagle River, AK 25:56; 17: Ashley Schultze, Chugiak, AK 26:11; 18: Ed Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:12; 19: Zane Hopewell, Anchorage, AK 26:13; 20: Jonathan Moran, Anchorage, AK 26:45
6K Female Overall
1: Emily Moore, Eagle River, AK 23:22; 2: Karina Packer, Anchorage, AK 24:13; 3: Liv Kullberg, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 4: Holly Martinson, Anchorage, AK 25:58; 5: Gigi Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:06; 6: Jennifer McGrath, Anchorage, AK 26:31; 7: Nicole Kimball, Anchorage, AK 26:37; 8: Heather Poe, Anchorage, AK 26:41; 9: Meghan Saramak, Anchorage, AK 27:34; 10: Hailee Stepetin, Eagle River, AK 27:37; 11: Estelle Johnson, Eagle River, AK 28:07; 12: Ashley Shaw, Eagle River, AK 28:10; 13: Jane Jackson, Provo, UT 28:39; 14: Alexandra Miller, Anchorage, AK 28:56; 15: Elsa Sternicki, Anchorage, AK 29:05; 16: Cameron Otte, Eagle River, AK 29:33; 17: Amanda Peters, Anchorage, AK 29:35; 18: Akari Kawamura, Komaki, AK 29:50; 19: Brittany Cross, Palmer, AK 30:31; 20: Suzanne Ward, Anchorage, AK 30:44
Alaska
An Alaska vacation can remind Israelis the world doesn’t revolve around them | The Jerusalem Post
For Israelis, it can also inspire humility. Not because the Jewish state is smaller than Denali National Park, but because in Alaska, one is reminded that the world neither revolves around Israel nor is obsessed with it.
That realization came on a trip The Wife and I took to America’s Last Frontier last month.
“Where is your final destination today?” the woman checking us in for our flight home at the Anchorage airport asked chirpily.
“Tel Aviv,” I replied. “Where’s that?”
When I said it was in Israel, she smiled and said, “Oh.”
Lest one think this was just a fluke: on the plane a few hours later, another Alaskan asked where we were going. When we answered “Tel Aviv,” she said she had never heard of it.
Granted, two people do not a Pew Poll make, but they do offer a small corrective to the perception – fed by the media most of us follow – that the world is preoccupied with Israel, thinking about us obsessively, talking about us constantly, and cursing us unremittingly.
The last part, at least in Alaska, is also not true. During our two weeks there, we saw no “Free Palestine” graffiti, nor were we subjected to dirty looks or “child killer” comments when we said we were from Israel.
All of America, it turns out, is not Mamdani’s Manhattan, nor does social media present a proportionate picture of that country’s reality.
One of the problems with social media is that every incident of antisemitism is posted online. The incidents are real and rising at an alarming rate, but seeing them all in one place creates a disproportionate sense of how likely you are to encounter them while traveling.
Watch enough clips of a Jewish kid harassed on a New York subway or an Israeli couple berated at a hotel in California, and you begin to wonder whether the same thing awaits you when you ride an American subway or check into a hotel.
It doesn’t. Yet the cumulative effect is that you begin to wonder how open to be about your Israeliness. You don’t decide to hide it, but simply having to ask the question adds a mini-layer of apprehension before every trip.
When Israel comes along for the ride
You also learn to read the Uber.
“Honey,” I urged The Wife before we got into an Uber in Chicago during a brief layover, “you don’t have to say you’re from Israel.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “I’m not going to hide who I am.”
“Wonderful sentiment,” I replied. “The driver’s name is Rabah. Humor me.”
We didn’t volunteer our place of origin, nor did he ask.
But on the entire trip, that was the only time we consciously withheld that nugget of biographical information. Everywhere else, we proudly said we were from Israel – and it was fine. More than fine: it was often a conversation starter.
On a whale-watching excursion, we sat across from a young couple from China who work at Google. They were intrigued that we lived in Israel, and even more fascinated that we passed on the chicken sandwiches being served.
Instead of looking for sea creatures, The Wife spent a good part of the trip explaining why some of the fish in the sea we can eat and others we can’t.
“Honey,” I whispered at one point, a bit annoyed. “We didn’t pay all this money for you to give an introductory lecture on kashrut. Look for the damn puffins.”
Since October 7, another layer has been added to the anxiety of travel: whether your flight will be canceled at the drop of a ballistic missile.
One doesn’t just hop over to Alaska on a whim; it takes planning and a special occasion to justify the expense. For us, it was 40 years of wedded bliss, so we booked back in October after being warned that rental cars sell out months in advance.
We chose United. But just days after the war with Iran broke out, United – typically – canceled flights until mid-June, four days after our planned departure. We acted quickly – well, The Wife acted quickly – and switched to El Al. Still, it complicated the trip further.
Then came the more serious question: Do you leave the country when one of your sons or your son-in-law is in miluim in Lebanon, Gaza, or Syria?
My first instinct was no: you don’t leave when one of your children is serving. That may have worked before Oct. 7, when reserve duty meant a few weeks a year and could be planned around.
But today, when they have each logged upward of 350 days, saying you won’t leave while they are serving essentially means that you won’t leave at all.
Which, by the way, is hardly the end of the world. But what can I say? I like to travel.
So we went, even though as we were watching bears and sea otters, my youngest son was dodging drones in Lebanon.
“Go,” he said. “What are you going to be able to do by being here? And if, God forbid, something happens, you’ll come back.”
“That’s not the point,” I said. “How can we enjoy it if we are worrying about you?”
“You’ll figure out a way,” he teased.
And he was right. Sure, we worried, but less than if we were here. Distance, it turns out, has its advantages. I wasn’t glued to the news, tracking every development on his front.
Perhaps that was Alaska’s greatest gift. Not the calving glaciers, surfacing whales, or foraging bears, magnificent though they were. It was the realization that while Israel is the center of our world, it is not the center of everyone else’s. Every now and then, regaining that perspective is refreshing. ■
I’m typically pretty wordy. But just watch the video.
Disclaimer: Matt Addington is a professional. These bears grazed toward him from 100 yards away while he held tight. Do not try this ever, under any circumstances, or you will likely spend the rest of your time on this earth as bear poop.
Matt Addington is an incredible professional photographer, and I can say that from personal experience. He’s captured images of me in rough shape and somehow made them stunnin’. The Minnesota-based photographer and filmmaker has built a career telling outdoor stories, and his latest bear video proves he knows exactly where to point a camera.
Places like Katmai National Park in Alaska (where this video was taken) can offer unusually close encounters with brown bears, thanks in part to abundant food and tightly managed visitor access. That doesn’t make encounters like this casual or safe to imitate.
Addington is an extremely experienced outdoorsman, and he was photographing with professional guides Scott and Jackie Stone. For people hoping to photograph bears this way, a guided wildlife photography tour is one of the safest ways to do it. Do not try this in Yellowstone or your local national forest.
The bears were grazing nearly 100 yards away when the group set up. They stayed put as the animals continued feeding and gradually moved closer, resulting in some incredible footage and a once-in-a-lifetime photo.
I can only hope he wore his brown pants under his waders.
Alaska
Black bear breaks into Alaskan mall, eats a peach and relieves itself on floor before leaving: video
Can bearly believe it!
A black bear was caught on camera seemingly running errands at a local shopping mall in Anchorage, Alaska over the weekend.
The bear entered the commissary mall at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson around 9 a.m. Sunday, KTUU reported, citing a JBER spokesperson.
Wild footage shows the young cub strolling through the commissary’s automatic doors and exploring all that the mall had to offer.
The hungry bear stole and ate a piece of fruit before emptying its bowels on the hallway floor on its way out of the building.
Kory Godbout, who works at the barber shop on the military base, was waiting for his first customer of the day when he spotted the furry intruder traveling through the automatic doors.
“My coworker, who is cutting hair in front of me, she yelled, ‘Bear!’” Godbout recalled.
“And I looked up from my phone and the bear was walking into the barber shop right in front of me,” the barber said. “And we all ran into the break room and shut the door behind us.”
After a few minutes, Godbout and his coworkers emerged from the break room and followed the out-of-place bear into the commissary, where it took a peach from the grocery store and ate it.
The barber recalled that a few onlookers were “going big to try and scare” the bear out of the grocery store.
But all of a sudden, the black bear returned to the barber shop.
“By that time, we were able to run back to the shop and then lock the door,” Godbout said.
“And then we were watching him from the window and then that’s when he decided to, you know, use the restroom in the hallway.”
Officers from Conservation Law Enforcement attended the peculiar grizzly scene and were able to direct the wild animal towards a river and into the woods, according to the JBER spokesperson.
JBER’s wildlife program manager Colette Brandt said in a press release that the bear had triggered the automatic doors and that Sunday’s events were entirely incidental, KTUU reported.
While there has been a decline in bear-related calls since the military base installed bear-resistant dumpsters, seven bears have been put down at JBER for public safety over the past year.
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An Alaska vacation can remind Israelis the world doesn’t revolve around them | The Jerusalem Post
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