This previous week in Alaska sports activities featured some glorious 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 workforce pulled off probably the most surprising upsets of the younger season. On the school scene, the College of Alaska Anchorage gymnastics workforce hosted a twin meet for the primary time since being totally reinstated.

Headlines and highlights

The Grace Christian and Dimond boys varsity basketball groups gave the impression to be on a collision course within the 2023 Alaska Prep Shootout. They have been two of the highest groups of their respective divisions heading into the match driving multi-game win streaks and their heavyweight bout within the title sport didn’t disappoint or lack for pleasure.

The Grizzlies outscored the Lynx 21-14 within the last quarter with the final two factors securing a 55-54 victory coming from match MVP Sloan Lentfer on a pair of clutch free throws. The 6-foot-7 senior middle led his workforce in scoring with 16 factors and practically notched a double-double with eight rebounds. With the win, Grace Christian received its sixth straight sport whereas snapping Dimond’s six-game win streak. It additionally marked its second consecutive weekend claiming match titles after profitable the Mt. McKinley Financial institution Event in Fairbanks the earlier week.

In prep hockey, the highest groups in each Division I and II continued to dominate and stay undefeated into the brand new yr. The Chugiak Mustangs improved their general report to 12-0-1 and prolonged their win streak to 11 video games in a row with a 10-0 shutout of Service and a 4-1 win over West Valley. The reigning Division II state champion Houston Hawks improved their general report to 17-0-1 and prolonged their win streak to 13 consecutive video games with a trio of victories final week, two of which got here towards Monroe Catholic, the place they outscored the Rams by a mixed margin of 13-2, permitting only one aim in every sport.

Scholastic bowling returned from winter break final week with matches on Tuesday and Thursday and thru the primary eight matches of the 2022-2023 season, Eagle River is the one undefeated workforce within the boys division at 8-0 with blowout wins over Bettye Davis East and South. Within the women division, Dimond additionally stays the lone unbeaten at 8-0 after doing the identical to Chugiak and West.

The annual Lynx Loppet Invitational hosted by Dimond Excessive happened at Kincaid Park on Friday with the basic and Saturday with the pursuit. The highest finishers within the girls and boys divisions produced first-place marks on each days of the occasion. Not even a 45-second moose delay may cease Service junior Skyler Amy from being the primary throughout the end line within the boys race whereas Soldotna sophomore Ariana Cannava bested pleasant rival Emily Moss of Kenai Central.

[A moose delay and a friendly ski rivalry renewed at Lynx Loppet Invitational]

Lumen Christi Catholic Excessive Faculty multi-sport standout Emily Ross was named because the 2023 Alaska recipient within the Heisman Excessive Faculty Scholarship competitors. Not like the annual Heisman Memorial Trophy that’s awarded to probably the most excellent faculty soccer participant within the nation, the Heisman Excessive Faculty Scholarship acknowledges and awards the nation’s high seniors who’re excellent students in addition to athletes.

Along with enjoying for the Archangels’ basketball, soccer and volleyball groups, Ross is a 4.0 pupil who volunteers inside her college and group. She can be attending Milwaukee Faculty of Engineering, the place she has already been awarded an athletic-academic scholarship and can play basketball and examine civil engineering. The Nationwide Honor Society and Scholar Management Board member can also be into account for a Presidential scholarship.

On the school hoops scene, each UAA basketball groups rebounded from powerful losses on Thursday with bounce-back wins on Saturday. The boys’s workforce got here up brief 79-74 towards Western Washington on Thursday however obtained again within the win column Saturday with a 68-59 win over Simon Fraser. The ladies’s workforce responded from struggling a 71-47 loss to Central Washington on Thursday with a 68-58 victory Saturday over Northwest Nazarene.

[Inconsistent offense sinks UAA men’s basketball team in loss to Western Washington]

The main scorers from the previous week have been junior guard Tyson Gilbert with 30 mixed factors for the lads’s workforce and sophomore ahead Kate Robertson with 18 mixed factors for the ladies’s workforce.

The UAA gymnastics workforce opened 2023 by internet hosting West Chester College for a pair of twin meets on Friday and Sunday. Though the Seawolves fell in each contests, it marked their first competitors since being totally reinstated and they’re excited for the outlook of not solely the season however this system as a complete for years to return now that its destiny not hangs within the steadiness.

“That is actually a rebuilding yr and I’m actually excited to see us progress all through the following few meets,” Seawolves head coach Marie-Sophie Boggasch mentioned. “That’s form of the outlook, we’re simply constructing.”

[UAA gymnastics team opens the 2023 season with emotion and gratitude]

A pair of members of the UAA ladies’s ski workforce had sturdy showings on the World College Video games in Lake Placid, N.Y., over the previous few days. Carmen Nielssen, a Norwegian native, completed sixth general Monday with a time of 1:43.38 within the Alpine mixed occasions. Her American teammate Ainsley Proffit completed seventh general with a end of 1:43.39.

Kwethluk’s Raymond Alexie continued to greatest elite competitors in his scorching begin to the racing season with one other sturdy displaying within the 2022-23 Kuskokwim 300 racing season. Within the 2023 Bogus Creek 150 on Saturday, the 19-year-old trailed defending champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel by a minute on the midway checkpoint however would go on to shortly catch up and surpass him on his solution to finally ending 27 minutes forward with a end time of 16 hours, 7 minutes.

Nic Petit received the Copper Basin 300 over the weekend, edging out Brent Sass for the title of the race that begins and finishes in Glennallen. It was the fifth title for Petit, who has battled Sass earlier than as they completed 1-2 in each 2019 and 2020. Sass obtained a win himself final season, a yr wherein he additionally received the Iditarod. Jessie Holmes completed third, adopted by Matt Corridor.

The Coca Cola Cup Race Sequence at Alyeska was contested over the weekend with 4 days of snowboarding happening in comparatively comfortable snow circumstances. The U12 ladies’s growth class winner was Samantha Langlie and Finn Pelkola received the U12 males’s growth class. Ava Huey and Elizabeth Hutcheson tied for high honors within the U14 ladies’s growth class, whereas Sammy Stiassny received the U14 males’s growth class. The U16/U18 ladies’s open class winner was Ava Murphy whereas George von Wichman took the U16/U18 males’s open class.

The 2023 Frosty Backside Bike Race happened on Saturday at Kincaid Park and noticed greater than 150 racers embrace the weather and pleasant competitors. Within the lengthy course race, Laura Fox of Anchorage completed effectively earlier than the remainder of the ladies’s discipline by greater than 27 minutes with a time of three:08:04. Luke Buth of Fairbanks edged out Eric Flanders of Anchorage by 5 second 2:43:13 to 2:43:18 on the lads’s lengthy course. Within the brief course ladies’s race, Kinsey Mortgage of Eagle River completed practically a full minute forward of Jennifer Schmidt of Anchorage in 1:59:37 whereas Brandon Chiu of Anchorage completed a mere 10 seconds forward of Ellison Libby, additionally of Anchorage, 1:45:04 to 1:45:14.

Alaska stars shining Exterior

Eagle River’s Vanessa Aniteye of Seattle Pacific College continued her sturdy begin to the indoor monitor season by shaving two-plus seconds off the quickest NCAA Division II end within the 800 meters on the Washington Indoor Preview this previous Saturday. The Chugiak alum’s time of two:10.83 bested her nation-leading mark of two:13.04 that the previous sprinter-turned-distance runner clocked in at through the Spokane Invitational final month.

Aniteye wasn’t the one former Mustang monitor and discipline star to shine on the Indoor Preview. Emma Nelson, additionally of Chugiak fame, received the excessive bounce with a mark of 5 toes, 9.25 inches because the Oregon State senior recorded the second-best bounce of her profession and lacking her private report by lower than one inch.

Anchorage’s Alissa Pili continues to dominate and are available up clutch for the nationally ranked College of Utah ladies’s basketball workforce. Her team-leading 27 factors did extra than simply come one level shy of tying her career-high level complete within the Utes’ 80-79 win over No. 14 Arizona in a Pac-12 showdown on Sunday. Pili’s twenty sixth and twenty seventh factors got here on free throws that ended up being the final two factors of the sport and secured the victory for her workforce.

Girdwood’s Keegan Messing received the second nationwide championship of his determine skating profession after recording an general rating of 257.78 to earn a gold medal on the Canadian nationwide championships Saturday. The twin citizen had already introduced his retirement previous to the occasion however now the two-time Olympian can add two-time nationwide champion to his illustrious checklist of profession accomplishments.

[Girdwood’s Keegan Messing wins second straight Canadian national figure skating title]

Final week’s outcomes

Prep Basketball

Ladies

Tuesday

Dimond 55, Service 23

West 53, Bartlett 49

Chugiak 44, South 39

East 33, Eagle River 17

Thursday

Ketchikan 53, Bartlett 32

Palmer 37, East 32

Saturday

Ketchikan 50, East 22

Boys

Tuesday

Dimond 66, Service 56

East 82, Eagle River 47

West 65, Bartlett 58

Chugiak 58, Eagle River 48

Wednesday

West 61, Thunder Mountain 55

Thursday

Dimond 70, ACS 28

Bartlett 61, Service 59

Grace Christian 103, Tikigaq 70

Wasilla 76, Chugiak 71

East 46, Monroe Catholic 39

Friday

Grace Christian 60, ACS 50

Dimond 78, Wasilla 64

East 59, Colony 55

Saturday

East 73, Thunder Mountain 36

Grace Christian 55, Dimond 54

Bowling

Tuesday

Boys

West 24, South 11

Eagle River 35, East 0

Dimond 35, Chugiak 0

Service 31, Bartlett 4

Ladies

West 30, South 5

Eagle River 29, East 6

Dimond 33, Chugiak 2

Service 29, Bartlett 6

Thursday

Boys

Dimond 33, West 2

Eagle River 28, South 7

East 22, Bartlett 13

Service 35, Chugiak 0

Ladies

Dimond 31, West 4

Eagle River 33, South 2

East 25, Bartlett 10

Chugiak 29, Service 6

Hockey

Wednesday

Chugiak 10, Service 0

Houston 9, Tri-Valley 2

Thursday

West 3, Palmer 1

Friday

Dimond 15, Bartlett 0

Chugiak 4, West Valley 1

Houston 5, Monroe Catholic 1

Saturday

Eagle River 8, Service 6

Houston 8, Monroe Catholic 1

School

Girls’s Basketball

Thursday

Central Washington 71, UAA 47

Saturday

UAA 68, Northwest Nazarene 58

Males’s Basketball

Thursday

Western Washington 79, UAA 74

Saturday

UAA 68, Sim Fraser 59

Gymnastics

Friday

West Chester 191, UAA 189.175

Sunday

West Chester 191.625, UAA 188.725

Three issues to look at for this week

Prep

Basketball

Alaska Airways Traditional at West Excessive Faculty

There’ll highschool hoops aplenty on the town this week because the twenty sixth Alaska Airways Traditional will happen at West Excessive Faculty this week. There can be a women round-robin match from the Jan.17-19 that can embody three Alaska colleges and one from out of state. The boys match will run from Jan. 19-21 and have 5 Alaskan colleges and three from the Decrease 48. The 2023 O’Brady Invitational will happen at South Excessive Faculty and all eight workforce collaborating can be from Alaska and embody undefeated West Valley led by 2022 Alaska Gatorade Participant of the 12 months for Basketball, Stewart Erhart.

Hockey

Chugiak v South at Ben Boeke, Friday 4 p.m.

Earlier than the NAHL gamers take the ice on the Ben Boeke Ice Area, there can be a Cook dinner Inlet Convention showdown between the undefeated Mustangs and the feisty Wolverines. This can mark the second assembly between the 2 groups this season with the primary leading to 5-0 victory for Chugiak.

NAHL

Kenai River Brown Bears vs. Anchorage Wolverines at Ben Boeke, Friday and Saturday 7 p.m.

After 16-day break, the Wolverines can be again house and again in motion after they host the Brown Bears for a two-game sequence this weekend. The season sequence is tied 3-3 with the final assembly on this underrated rivalry leading to a powerful 11-3 triumph for Anchorage this weekend’s sport may determine who takes the lead with a sweep or stays tied with a break up.