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
Track and field state champions staying close to home highlight second round of Alaska’s high school senior signings
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.
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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