The University of Alaska Anchorage has become a popular destination for some of the state’s top track and field talent over the past two years. Many of them opted to become Seawolves instead of venturing out of state to continue their athletic careers.

There were 23 Alaskans on the program’s roster for the 2025 season, and 20 of them were underclassmen who joined the team in the last couple of years. Now, the number of elite homegrown talents on the team is set to increase for the third year in row as several local products have committed to be part of the Green and Gold’s 2025-26 recruiting class.

Among this year’s crop of incoming talent is a quartet of recently crowned state champions.

Ketchikan’s Jason Lorig is a three-time state champion in the Division I boys 100 meter race, and set a state record as a junior. Lorig nearly broke his own record as a senior with a first-place time of 10.82.

“I really like Alaska, I like living here and it will be a good experience to run up there with a lot of new people from Alaska,” he said.

Lorig started talking to the Seawolves coaching staff around October and was sold after he visited the campus.

“I really liked their program and I liked the coach and they produce a lot of talent there,” he said.

Lorig cited incredible success stories such as Joshua Caleb, who rewrote program and GNAC records over the past two years, as a major selling point.

“I think it’d be good for me to go up there,” Lorig said.

Homer’s Gracie Miotke won the Division II girls 100-meter race at state with a personal and school record time of 12.51. She was also on the Mariners’ 4×200 and 4×100 relay teams that claimed state titles and broke more school records in the process. However, her principal event at UAA will be women’s hurdles.

“I’m super excited to keep competing in Alaska,” she said. “I know that they have a super great program and I can’t wait to go run with them.”

Miotke started talking to the Seawolves this past winter, beginning with assistant coach Ray Shadowens. She went on an official visit and even after going to look at some other schools, UAA just felt like the right fit.

“I committed in November and haven’t looked back since,” Miotke said.

Bartlett’s Tyler Drake claimed his first Division I boys state title in the 110-meter hurdles this past season. The previous year as a junior, he came up short to multi-time state champion and 2023 Gatorade Player of the Year A.J. Szewczyk. Szewczyk, who is coming off his freshman year with the program, will soon be a teammate of Drake’s.

“I’m just so excited to compete in Alaska with all these athletes,” Drake said. “I think the top seven best (senior) athletes in the state are all going to UAA. It’s just such a great feeling knowing that we’re going to help build up the UAA program. It’s already at a great point, I just can’t wait to make it an even greater program.”

Seeing athletes he grew up with and recently competed against already in the program, Drake believes joining the UAA roster will essentially be like competing on an “Alaskan all-star team.”

“You’re competing against them all the time and not just one meet,” he said.

Drake started talking to the staff at the end of last year, and in February, he called up a coach and let him know that he was set on becoming a Seawolf.

Chugiak’s Alliyah Fields capped off her prep career by successfully defending both of her titles in the 400 and 800 meter races and was the anchor on the 4×400 relay team that won a title as well, with a school-record mark.

“We all pulled through and I just did my job as an anchor leg and ran as hard as I could to close the gap,” she said. “I did not expect to break a school record, but it felt amazing.”

While Fields is sad to be hanging up her spikes as a Mustang, she is excited to lace them up as a Seawolf, and at UAA she’ll be honing her skills and pushing past her limits with many familiar faces.

“I am very grateful that I will be training alongside with athletes I’ve been competing against my whole high school career and finally call them my teammates,” she said. “I had the chance to talk to some of the talented athletes that will be attending UAA. They are very good people and we’re all looking forward to running with each other.”

Fields first met UAA head track and field coach Chas Davis during her junior season and kept in touch with him throughout the process. She committed after hearing some firsthand testimonials and endorsements from athletes already in the program.

“I knew I wanted to compete for UAA when I got to know some of my future teammates in person,” Fields said. “They were very helpful to tour me around their campus and talk about some of their programs and training facilities.”

Other 2025 graduates who have also committed to join the UAA track and field team include Sitka’s Marina Dill and Dimond’s Sarah Dittman and Avery Campbell.

The Anchorage Daily News asked coaches, parents and student-athletes to report individual college commitments. The following list is a compilation of those responses along with reporting from ADN sports reporter Josh Reed. If you know of a local student-athlete who could be included in a future article on college commitments, email jreed@adn.com or sports@adn.com.

Juneau-Douglas

Kai Ciambor will be competing in soccer at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

West

Beckett Stolp will be competing in track and field at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

Henry Carr will be competing in golf at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Liam Hase will be competing in wrestling at Bismarck State College in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Piper Sears will be competing in cross country skiing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Max Erickson will be competing in cross country running and track and field at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Merridy Littell will be competing in cross country skiing at Michigan Tech University in Houghton County, Michigan.

Marcus Walsted will be competing in cross country running and track and field at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Olivia Chichenoff will be competing in softball at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.

Dylan Sanders will be competing in football at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Colony

Kaidence Browning will be competing in softball at Farmingdale State College in Farmingdale, New York.

Ridge Spencer will be competing in football at College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho.

Chugiak

Alliyah Fields will be competing in track and field at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Dimond

Aubree Ogee will be competing in softball at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon.

Ketchikan

Jason Lorig will be competing in track and field at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Homer

Gracie Miotke will be competing in track and field at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Bartlett

Tyler Drake will be competing in track and field at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Service

Nevaeh James will be competing in basketball at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Louisiana.

South

Jioni Walker will be competing in softball at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington.

Milly Wurst will be competing in softball at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa.

Catie Newall will be competing in softball at Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Washington.

Bettye Davis East

Muhammed Sabally will be competing in basketball at University of Alaska Anchorage.

Deng Deng will be competing in basketball at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Colony

Jonathan Figgins will be competing in football at University of Wisconsin-River Falls in River Falls, Wisconsin

Monroe Catholic

Shannel Kovalsky will be competing in basketball at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington.

Tucker Williams will be competing in basketball at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington.

West Valley

Layla Fields will be competing in track and field at Central Washington University in Kittitas County, Washington.

Zaire Stebbins will be competing in football at Victor Valley College in Victorville, California.

Devillain Mataia will be competing in flag football at Tiffin University in Tiffin, Ohio.

Lathrop

LillyAnne (Ruby) Tansy will be competing in volleyball at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Neveah Moreland will be competing in basketball at Nelson University Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona.

Wayne Snowden will be competing in football at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Geronimo Talo will be competing in football at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Kodiak

Amaya Rocheleau will be competing in swimming at California State University-East Bay in Hayward, California.

Valdez

Romen Weber will be competing in wrestling at Minnesota North College-Itasca in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Angelo (AJ) Tudela will be competing in wrestling at Minnesota North College-Itasca in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Hoonah

Krista Howland will be competing in wrestling at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — For the first time ever, parts of Alaska will be under a heat advisory — but you can put an asterisk at the end of that term.

It’s not the first instance of unusually high temperatures in what many consider the nation’s coldest state, but the National Weather Service only recently allowed for heat advisories to be issued there. Information on similarly warm weather conditions previously came in the form of “special weather statements.”

Using the heat advisory label could help people better understand the weather’s severity and potential danger, something a nondescript “special weather statement” didn’t convey.

The first advisory is for Sunday in Fairbanks, where temperatures are expected to top 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius). Fairbanks has has been warmer in the past, but this is unusual for June, officials said.

Here’s what to know about Alaska’s inaugural heat advisory:

Why it’s the first

The National Weather Service’s switch from special weather statements to advisories was meant to change how the public views the information.

“This is an important statement, and the public needs to know that there will be increasing temperatures, and they could be dangerous because Alaska is not used to high temperatures like these,” said Alekya Srinivasan, a Fairbanks-based meteorologist.

“We want to make sure that we have the correct wording and the correct communication when we’re telling people that it will be really hot this weekend,” she said.

Not unprecedented and not climate change

The change doesn’t reflect unprecedented temperatures, with Fairbanks having reached 90 degrees twice in 2024, Srinivasan said. It’s purely an administrative change by the weather service.

“It’s not that the heat in the interior that prompted Fairbanks to issue this is record heat or anything like that. It’s just now there’s a product to issue,” said Rich Thoman, a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.

Thoman also clarified that the term swap doesn’t have anything to do with climate change.

“I think some of it is related to the recognition that hot weather does have an impact on Alaska, and in the interior especially,” Thoman said.

Little air conditioning

While the temperatures in the forecast wouldn’t be considered extreme in other U.S. states, Thoman noted that most Alaska buildings don’t have air conditioning.

“And just the opposite, most buildings in Alaska are designed to retain heat for most of the year,” he said.

People can open their windows to allow cooler air in during early morning hours — if wildfires aren’t burning in blaze-prone state. But if it’s smoky and the windows have to remain shut, buildings can heat up very rapidly.

“Last year was the third year in a row in Fairbanks with more than a hundred hours of visibility-reducing smoke, the first time we’ve ever had three consecutive years over a hundred hours,” he said.

There’s only been two summers in Fairbanks in the 21st century with no hours of smoke that reduced visibility, a situation he said was commonplace from the 1950s to the 1970s.

What about Anchorage?

The Juneau and Fairbanks weather service offices have been allowed to issue heat advisories beginning this summer, but not the office in the state’s largest city of Anchorage — at least not yet. And, regardless, temperatures in the area haven’t reached the threshold this year at which a heat advisory would be issued.

Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist with the weather service, said by email that the Anchorage office is working on a plan to issue such advisories in the future.

The state of Alaska is once again asking the Board of Game to allow wildlife managers to shoot bears from helicopters in a rural part of Southwest Alaska in the interest of increasing caribou numbers.

The board is scheduled to hold a special meeting on July 14 in Anchorage to consider the revised proposal to expand its predator control program east of the Wood-Tikchik State Park from just wolves to include all bears.

The move follows a ping-ponging series of court decisions based less on the program’s merits than on the way it was steered through the public rules-making process back in 2022. Critics, and eventually an Anchorage Superior Court judge, said the management practice was adopted with insufficient public input in a way that denied Alaskans their right to weigh in.

If the Board of Game approves the state proposal, aerial gunning for bears would resume next May and last until early June.

In 2023 and 2024, when the intensive management program around the Mulchatna caribou herd ran its full course, the Department of Fish and Game reported killing 180 bears, almost all of them brown bears.

This March, a judge ruled the program was unlawful.

Fish and Game then quickly went back to the Board of Game and requested an emergency version of the same authorization, which was granted. Weeks later, a different Superior Court judge, Christina Rankin, initially declined to halt to the program, largely on technical grounds, but said it was still not a legal management strategy. Shortly afterwards, the state shot 11 bears in the course of three days.

That led Rankin to issue a restraining order sought by the environmental group that had sued the state to halt the bear program.

The Department of Fish and Game has stood behind its approach, and the current proposal is an attempt to cure the program’s legal deficiencies but otherwise replicate what it carried out in recent seasons.

“Our intent is to do it very efficiently and effectively and, frankly humanely‚” said Ryan Scott, head of the ADF&G’s Division of Wildlife Conservation.

Scott said that while some criticism of the program on scientific and conservation grounds has merit, the division is tasked under Alaska law with managing ungulate populations in ways that maximize their numbers, and emphasized that rural subsistence hunters have had no opportunity to take Mulchatna caribou since 2021.

Though the state does not have reliable recent data on the number of bears in the area, which sits about midway between Bethel and Dillingham, he said the overall environmental impact from the predator control effort is minimal.

“While it’s true we don’t know the densities in that small piece of real estate, there are bears all over the place,” Scott said in a brief interview Thursday. “We are trying to do this very surgically … in a very small amount of time.”

Nicole Schmitt is the executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which sued the state to block the bear killing after it came to light in 2023 and is still opposed to the program.

“We’re happy to see that The Board of Game is finally following its own rules by having a meeting with bare minimum public notice, but are disheartened that it took the advocacy of hundreds of Alaskans and two judges to get them to comply with their basic constitutional obligations,” Schmitt wrote in an email.

Schmitt’s group has persistently questioned the scientific basis and methods of the department’s bear program. In its latest proposal, the department does not set any limit on the number of bears it intends to take in the coming years, only that the target bear population is however many it takes to bring the caribou numbers up “to a level that results in increased calf survival and recruitment.”

“They have no way of knowing the impact this program has on bears. I’ve never seen the Board of Game open a no-limit season on moose or caribou because they heard there were a lot of moose and caribou around,” Schmitt wrote. “They’re literally shooting in the dark for a solution to the Mulchatna caribou herd decline, and wasting precious state funds to do it.”

Scott said that compared to 2022, when wildlife managers initially proposed expanding predator control to bears, there’s now a clearer link between bears and caribou calf survival.

“Given the data that we have, predation is limiting the growth of the herd,” Scott said.

The division plans to present additional evidence showing that its predator control efforts are having a positive effect on the Mulchatna herd at the special meeting next month.

If the measure is approved, Fish and Game could keep removing bears from the area through June 2028, although the program could be halted if Mulchatna herd numbers rise to the level where harvest can resume, which the state estimates at 30,000-80,000 animals. The herd is currently estimated at around 15,000.

Written comments on the proposal must be submitted to the Board of Game before 5:30 p.m. on July 14. The special meeting will be held that same day at the Coast Inn in Anchorage, with the potential for a second in-person meeting continuing on into Tuesday to accommodate more testimony.