Alaska
AOTW Recap: Highlighting the best of the best from an incredible year for Alaska sports
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Trying to compile just how many stories Alaska’s athletes brought this year is a hard task for anyone.
Week after week, it seemed like the next moment, athlete, or accomplishment wouldn’t be topped. At least until another seven days later.
Now, with 2024 entering its final moments, its time for a final look at what made the last 52 weeks truly special for the 49th state.
Jan. 9, 2024 – Emily Robinson
A young pup in a field full of big dogs, 16-year-old Emily Robinson went from underdog to top dog by beating out past Iditarod champions to claim the 2024 Knik 200 title.
Jan. 23 – Jessica Johnson
UAA gymnast Jessica Johnson has had quite a college career. From standout highs to tough lows, the Seawolf leader showed everyone what hard work and perseverance can do on Sunday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Jan. 30 – Zoie Campbell
Campbell is sought after to stand in the net for good reason. She has allowed just three goals in two undefeated seasons in the girls high school hockey league, while also excelling in games against boys. Campbell recorded 15 saves in a win against the defending state champions, before posting a shutout conference win against Service in the 2023-24 regular-season finale.
Feb. 6 – Aryanna and Harvey Watson
Aryanna and Harvey Watson haven’t been with Service Cougars for very long, but their combined impact on the girls basketball program is already being felt.
Feb. 14 – Henry Sholton
Two goals and an assist away from the hat trick from Henry Sholton helped the West Eagles soar past Dimond 3-2 in the 2023-24 hockey state championship.
Feb. 20 – Gus Schumacher
It’s been over 20 years since the World Cup found itself on American snow, and even longer since a skier donning the red, white and blue had won a distance event at the premier ski event, but Schumacher played a role in putting an end to those streaks in Minnesota.
Feb. 27 – Murphy Kimball
Current UAA skier Murphy Kimball made history at the World Cup before winning an Alaska state championship just two weeks later with the West Anchorage Eagles.
March 6 – Kinsey Dufour, Zophia Lucero and Kadence Rodgers
Kinsey Dufour, Zophia Lucero and Kadence Rodgers had already earned one Arctic Winter Games gold medal, and the futsal trio were able to claim another.
March 14 – Dallas Seavey and his dogs Aero and Sebastian
The veteran musher smiled for pictures with his lead dogs, Aero and Sebastian, tucked under each one of his arms. It was only appropriate for the dog duo to bask in glory after helping Seavey become the all-time winningest musher of The Last Great Race.
March 19 – Hendrik Cumps
Petersburg basketball had come up short the last three seasons, but Hendrik Cumps made sure the fourth time was the charm.
March 26 – Finn Gregg, Richard Cross and Orson Hoogendorn
Finn Gregg and Richard Cross carried the scoring for the Nome Nanooks at the Class 3A state basketball tournament, but it was Orson Hoogendorn who hit possibly “the biggest shot in the history of our school” to seal the state title.
April 2 – Patrick Tolan
Anchorage’s Patrick Tolan scored a goal in his weekend debut with the Wolverines, a few weeks before graduating from South Anchorage High School.
April 10 – Jihsana Williams and Semaj Walker
The “Fastest Alaskan Award” is a coveted title handed out to the respective winners of the boys and girls 100-meter dash at the Big C Relays, and this year, both awards went to Chugiak High School runners.
April 17 – Alissa Pili
From a Dimond Lynx to a Minnesota Lynx, Anchorage’s Alissa Pili was selected 8th overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
April 24th – Service Athletics
From bowling to basketball, Service athletes in eight different sports will be playing at all levels, from junior college up to NCAA Division I.
April 30 – Caelynn Carter
Wasilla sophomore Caelynn Carter’s new personal records shocked both herself and fans as Carter shined in the 2024 Native Youth Olympics.
May 7 – Meika Lee
There aren’t many high-level gymnasts in Alaska, but Meika Lee earned her right to be called one of the best.
May 22 – Tyson Gilbert
Between his 2020 Anchorage arrival and his final college basketball game earlier this year, Tyson Gilbert became a star player for the UAA Seawolves. But it was off the court that the recent graduate made his biggest mark.
May 28 – Andrew Arthur
In the span of four weeks, Soldotna’s Andrew Arthur was drafted to junior hockey and scored a hat trick in the state soccer championship.
June 4 – Jake Rafferty
Service senior Jake Rafferty batted 2-4 with 2 RBI’s while also pitching 6.2 IP, 7 strikeouts, and 1 earned run to help lead the Cougars to the 5-1 State Championship victory over Eagle River.
June 11 – Clair DeGeorge
Alaskan hockey player Clair DeGeorge just celebrated her 25th birthday and winning the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Walter Cup.
June 18 – Dylan Marx
Sitka High School alum and Glacier Pilots player Dylan Marx put the show in showcase for Major League scouts.
July 2 – Joshua Caleb
Joshua Caleb, a sprinter at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is on his way to shattering the Seawolf record books and helping his family back home in Nigeria.
July 9 – Davis Norris
Fairbanks’ David Norris smashed his previous record time at Mount Marathon eight years after he first set it in 2016.
July 16 – Levi Hopkins
Palmer wrestler Levi Hopkins bet on himself, which his how he went from Alaska State Champion to U23 Pan-American Gold medalist.
July 24 – Coen Niclai
Coen Niclai’s talent couldn’t be ignored any longer. His power at the plate as a hitter — and poise behind it as a catcher — had to be witnessed by MLB scouts in person. This spring, scouts from organizations like the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres and Miami Marlins made the trip to the Last Frontier to watch the Service senior in action.
July 26 – Alev Kelter
After trips to both Rio and Tokyo, Eagle River rugby plater Alev Kelter for Paris in pursuit of an Olympic medal.
July 30 – Kendall Kramer and David Norris
Coming off top-two finishes at Mount Marathon 2024, this pair of Fairbanks runners tore up the mud-soaked course in Alyeska.
Aug. 6 – Alaska’s Olympians
The state of Alaska occupies an Olympic podium all on its own following the 2024 Paris Games.
Aug. 15 – Keira DeLand
Keira DeLand is swapping out Alaska’s mountains for the rolling hills of Tennessee. Leaving the state on a golf scholarship.
Aug. 20 – Taurian and Cassidy Phillip
Taurian and Cassidy Phillip exploded onto the scene for Service High in Week 1 of the Alaska high school football season.
Aug. 28 – Deuce and Simeon Alailefaleula
Over two decades ago, Tui Alailefaleula was the Defensive Player of the Year while playing for the Bartlett Golden Bears. Now, son, Deuce, and nephew, Simeon, are eager to add to the family legacy.
Sept. 3 – Kade Russell
The latest in a long line of athletes, Kade Russell showed he can live up to the family name vs Barrow.
Sept. 10 – Cayden Pili
Living up to his family legacy, junior quarterback Cayden Pili lead Dimond football to heights not seen in decades.
Sept. 17 – Nolan Farr
Eagle River’s Nolan Farr is Alaska’s only 3-star prospect and has the Wolves on the prowl in the second half of the season.
Sept. 24 – East Anchorage Football
East Anchorage outlasted Bartlett 50-48 in a six-overtime thriller to retain “The Boot” trophy in honor of Aano Filaoialii.
Oct. 2 – Katahdin Staples
Katahdin Staples is one of the fastest long-distance runners in the state as a sophomore, making history as East Anchorage’s first state cross-country champion since 1974.
Oct. 8 – 2024 XC state championship winners
Hundreds of the Alaska’s top prep runners competed at the 2024 Cross Country State Championship Meet with these athletes outrunning expectations Saturday on the Bartlett Trails.
Oct. 15 – Ronan Bickling and Emerson Cross
The Seward duo helped lead the Seahawks to their second state title in as many years.
Oct. 21 – Jaxon Snaric
Homer’s Jaxon Snaric was born with Poland syndrome, but that didn’t prevent him from making the biggest play in the Div. III state championship game.
Oct. 28 – Lokeni Wong
Following losses to the Lathrop Malamutes in both his freshman and sophomore years, Soldotna’s Lokeni Wong helped the Stars avenge their First National Bowl woes in the 2024 Division II state title game.
Nov. 4 – Roberto Henriquez and Jackson Stimple
Trailing 4-2 with a period left to play, a pair of Anchorage Wolverines skaters helped bring the team back into the win column.
Nov. 11 – Wes Mank
Eagle River’s Wes Mank reset the boys 100-yard backstroke swimming state record with a time of 48.65 seconds, breaking the previous record set by him at the 2023 state meet.
Nov. 18 – Nikiski Volleyball
The Nikiski volleyball program completed an improbable run through the Class 3A state tournament by dethroning the Kenai Kardinals in an “if-necessary” match.
Nov. 25 – Kadyn Osborne
Finishing her career in the same building where she once competed for state titles, UAA’s Kadyn Osborne is leaving the court with one last victory.
Dec. 2 – Taisetsu Ushio
He first caught the Wolverines’ attention because of his goal-scoring prowess. Now, he’s one of the best players on an Anchorage team looking to get back to the Robertson Cup Playoffs.
Dec. 9 – Teagan Lockwood
Teagan Lockwood, 22, was chosen to represent the United States at the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Italy.
Dec. 16 – Bishop Tosi and Hasaan Herrington
Growing up as opponents on the East side of Anchorage, Bishop Tosi and Hasaan Herrington have teamed up to star for their hometown University.
Dec. 24 – Keasiya Luedde
A year ago, Service hadn’t celebrated a state champion wrestler since 2016. Now, the program has two in the last two seasons.
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Most Alaskans, perhaps even most Americans, have a knee-jerk reaction to taxes. They affect citizens in a sensitive area — their pocketbook. Perhaps a little analysis and thought could change this normal negative reaction.
It is clear, even to the stingiest among us, that Anchorage and Alaska need more income. Our severely underfunded public schools, decreasing population — called “outmigration” these days — underfunded police force, deteriorating streets and highways, underfunded city and state park budgets, and on and on, are not going to fix themselves. We have to pay for it.
Public schools are the best example. Do you want your first grader in a classroom with 25-plus students or your intermediate composition student in a class with 35-plus students? What if the teacher needs four to five paragraphs per week per student from two such classes? Who suffers? The teacher and 70 students. It’s not rocket science — if you minimize taxes, you minimize services.
I was an English teacher in Anchorage and had students coming into my classroom at lunch for help. Why? They were ambitious. Far more students who wanted and needed help were too shy, too busy or less motivated. With smaller class sizes, those students would have gotten the help in class.
Some Alaskans resent paying taxes that help other people’s children. They often say, “But I don’t have any kids in school!” The same attitude is heard when folks say, “The streets in our neighborhood are fine.” Taxes are not designed to help specific taxpayers; they are, or should be, designed to help the entire community. And we are a community.
As well, lots of people get real excited by sales taxes, especially those who have enough income to buy lots of stuff. They argue that, on balance, sales taxes are unfair — they are regressive. That means that individuals with less income pay a higher percent of their income than individuals with a higher income, and this is true. It is minimized by exempting some expenses — medical care, groceries and the like.
A recent opinion piece published in the Anchorage Daily News explained the disadvantages of a regressive tax. In doing so, the author made an excellent argument for using a different kind of tax.
The solution is to use an income tax. With an income tax, the regulations of the tax can prevent it from being regressive by requiring higher tax rates as individual incomes increase. Alaska is one of only eight or nine states with no state income tax. For those folks all worked up about regressive sales taxes, this is the solution.
Any tax that most folks will accept depends on people seeing themselves as part of the same community. That’s not always obvious these days — but it doesn’t change the bottom line: We still have to pay our way.
Tom Nelson has lived in Anchorage more than 50 years. He is a retired school teacher, cross country ski coach, track coach, commercial fisherman and wilderness guide.
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Christmas presents may be arriving later than expected for many rural communities in Alaska. That’s after Alaska Air Cargo, Alaska Airlines’ cargo-specific carrier, placed an embargo on freight shipments to and from several hubs across the state. According to Alaska Airlines, the embargo began on Dec. 16 and will end on Dec. 21.
The embargo excludes Alaska Air Cargo’s GoldStreak shipping service, designed for smaller packages and parcels, as well as live animals.
Alaska Airlines spokesperson, Tim Thompson, cited “unexpected freighter maintenance and severe weather impacting operations” as causes for the embargo.
“This embargo enables us to prioritize moving existing freight already at Alaska Air Cargo facilities to these communities,” Thompson said in an email to KNOM. “Restrictions will be lifted once the current backlog has been cleared.”
Other carriers like Northern Air Cargo have rushed to fill the gap with the Christmas holiday just a week away. The Anchorage-based company’s Vice President of Cargo Operations, Gideon Garcia, said he’s noticed an uptick in package volume.
“It’s our peak season and we’re all very busy in the air cargo industry,” Garcia said. “We are serving our customers with daily flights to our scheduled locations across the state and trying to ensure the best possible holiday season for all of our customers.”
An Alaska Air Cargo freighter arrives in Nome, Dec. 18, 2025. It was the daily-scheduled flight’s first arrival in Nome in a week after maintenance issues plagued the Alaska Air Cargo fleet. Ben Townsend photo.
Garcia said the holiday season is a tough time for all cargo carriers, but especially those flying in Alaska.
“We operate in places that many air carriers in other parts of the country just sort of shake their head at in disbelief. But to us, it’s our everyday activity,” Garcia said. “The challenges we face with windstorms, with cold weather, make it operationally challenging.”
Mike Jones is an economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He said a recent raft of poor weather across the state only compounded problems for Alaska Air Cargo.
“I think we’ve seen significantly worse weather at this time of year, that is at one of the most poorly timed points in the season,” Jones said.
Jones said Alaska Air Cargo is likely prioritizing goods shipped through the U.S. Postal Service’s Alaska-specific Bypass Mail program during the embargo period. That includes palletized goods destined for grocery store shelves, but not holiday gifts purchased online at vendors like Amazon.
“When a major carrier puts an embargo like this it clearly signals that they’re having an extraordinarily difficult time clearing what is already there, and they’re trying to prioritize moving that before they take on anything new,” Jones said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Alaska Airlines was responsible for 38% of freight shipped to Nome in December 2024.
Alaska Air Cargo’s daily scheduled flight, AS7011, between Anchorage and Nome has only been flown four times in the month of December, according to flight data from FlightRadar24. An Alaska Air Cargo 737-800 freighter landed in Nome Thursday at 11:53 a.m., its first arrival in one week. Friday’s scheduled flight has been cancelled.
Alaska Airlines is adding a daily flight between Bellingham International Airport and Portland International Airport starting next spring, the airline announced Dec. 18.
The flights will begin March 18, 2026 and will be offered during the year on the E175 jets. The announcement is part of a slew of expanded routes Alaska will begin offering in the new year across the Pacific Northwest, Wyoming and Boston.
“Anchorage and Portland are essential airports to our guests and us in our growing global network,” Kristen Amrine, vice president of revenue management and network planning for Alaska, said in the announcement. “Portland is not only a great city to visit, but we also offer convenient nonstop connections for those continuing their travel across our wide network.”
The Portland route is the first time in years the Bellingham airport has offered a flight outside of Seattle or its typical routes in California, Nevada and Arizona. In the last 10 years, Alaska and Allegiant Air ceased non-stop flights to Portland, Hawaii and Las Vegas.
Matthew Rodriguez, the aviation director for the Port of Bellingham, said Thursday his team is excited for the expanded route. The route will also allow Alaska to start data gathering to see if there’s market demand for more direct flights out of Bellingham.
The airline will be able to examine how many people from Bellingham are flying into Portland and then connecting to other flights, including popular destinations like Hawaii and San Diego.
“It’s going to help our community justify a direct flight, which, in my opinion, we have a data that already supports the direct flights, and we already had an incumbent carrier doing those direct flights,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s going to take very much additional data for Alaska to acknowledge that.”
Guests can already start booking the hour-long flight to Oregon on the Alaska Air website or app.
Intrepid airport enthusiasts have also noted Alaska is phasing out one of its nonstop flights between Bellingham and Seattle in early January.
In a statement, Alaska said the “flight adjustments are about putting more connecting flights from Bellingham through Portland to decrease some of the strain in Seattle.”
The phase-out allows for the Portland route to be brought online in time for spring travel.
Alaska is also adding a daily year-round flight between Paine Field in Everett and Portland in June.
This story was updated at 11:53 a.m. with additional comments from the Port of Bellingham.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
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