Varsity Volleyball
Valdez Volleyball Invitational
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – This weekend we hosted our Valdez Invitational Tournament. There were 9 teams in the Varsity tournament: Valdez, Delta, Eielson, Reddington, Houston, Seward, North Pole, Bethel, and Lathrop. The girls played great on Friday in pool play. We played a single set to 25 against each team, ending the day in 2nd with a record of 6-2.
Day 1 Pool Play vs: Reddington 1-0, Eielson 0-1, North Pole 1-0, Bethel 1-0, Seward 1-0,
Lathrop 0-1, Houston 1-0
We started off pool play on Saturday for the Gold Bracket. This bracket was the top 5 teams from day 1: Lathrop, Valdez, North Pole, Seward, and Reddington. The girls played their best games so far this season. They finished pole play and secured a place in the championship game with a record of 4-0.
Day 2 Pool Play vs: Reddington 1-0, North Pole 1-0, Seward 1-0, Lathrop 1-0.
The Championship game took place at 6:30pm against North Pole. This match was best 2 out of 3. The girls played with the most energy and confidence I have seen out of them. Both sets were close until the end but North Pole came out on top 2-0.
Masen Holmes diving for a ball, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
All-Tournament: Masen Holmes, Ambrosia Woodgate
Best Defensive Player: Olivia Selanoff
Good Sport: Lucy Selanoff
JV Volleyball
Valdez Invite
Sep. 10-11
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Lady Bucs JV Volleyball team came out with a bang at the Valdez Invite this past weekend, winning 5 out of 7 sets on Friday and placing the team in the Gold Division Bracket against Seward, Houston, and Lathrop on Saturday.
The Bucs started out bright and early Friday, playing sets every hour on the hour. In the first three sets against Delta, Eielson, and Lathrop, the team had a combination of strong serving with few serving errors and loud communication on the court. Bethel gave the team a run for their money in a close 28 – 26 set, Bucs pulling out the victory. The next two sets against Houston and Seward were a mental challenge. The players started to lose confidence in themselves and each other as communication on the court dwindled. The day ended on a high with one last win against Redington. Caelyn Wise and Marcedes Taylor were both huge contributors to the team’s success with their consistent serving. Wise served 32 successful serves on Friday alone, followed closely by Taylor with 25 serves for the day. Coming in off the bench to serve for our team was Bailey Gittens, who also was a huge champion to team motivation from the sidelines along with Rachel Berkley, Denali Woods, and Sydney Cronk.
On Saturday the team was excited to have made their first goal for the weekend: to be competing in the Gold Division with eyes on the championship game. The Bucs started out a ball of fire, moving, talking, setting up plays to attack the Houston Hawks. The first half of the game the two teams were neck and neck, but a breakdown in passing midway put the team in a mental slump that was difficult to overcome and eventually led to our first loss of the day. In the next set the Bucs came out aggressive with 24 attacks against the Lathrop Malemutes. It was a narrow win, but a win nonetheless as 25-23.
Excellent out of system help from R. Berkley and Bella Smelcer. Our final set of the day against the Seward Seahawks was another high-energy game. The team played hard but eventually lost 18-25.
Excellent serving this weekend by M. Taylor, C. Wise, B. Smelcer, and J. Crisp. Many attacks at the net by Christina Wise, D. Woods, B. Smelcer, and R. Berkeley, with 13 kills for Smelcer!
Bella Smelcer and Marcedes Taylor were selected to be a part of the All Tournament Team for the JV Gold Division. Hard work and great leadership by these two all season!
Way to go Bucs!
Cross-Country
George Plumley Invite
Palmer High School
9/11/2021
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – What a gorgeous day for a race!! Six members of the Bucs Cross-Country Team traveled to Palmer for the newly named George Plumley Invite, in honor of a Palmer volunteer who recently died from cancer. The clouds cleared Saturday morning and the sun slowly dried the dew dampened course as the day went on. The course resembled a roller coaster with consistent ups and downs. Beginning on a grassy field, runners took off for three laps on the trails that meandered through the trees and finished at the 50 yard line on the track.
This was by far the largest event of the season. Palmer hosted over 900 runners. Freshman Morgan Hamilton began the festivities with 82 other JV girls. Thankful for our grueling hills training, Hamilton earned another PR, shaving off 27 seconds to finish 75th at 29:08. Hamilton’s hard work at practice is paying off during races. Up next was Freshman Jace Wadsworth, joining 112 other JV boys. J. Wadsworth tackled each hill and maintained an even speed throughout the course. J. Wadsworth finished in 112th place at 29:32, just shy of his PR.
Sophomore Anika Palomar was up next, facing off against 156 Varsity girls. What an exciting race! After a fall at the very beginning by a Wasilla girl, the girls were called back to start again, creating confusion and unsettling some runners. Finally, the girls were off again. Palomar stayed strong and attacked the hills. She finished 2 seconds shy of her PR in 120th place at 24:59.
The biggest race of the day was the boys varsity with 180 runners. Valdez Varsity runners faced off against schools from all over Alaska. Starting off at the back of the pack, Valdez paced themselves. Senior William Benes was on track after his first lap. Juniors Jason Smilie and Cole Wadsworth weren’t far behind Benes, beating their per lap goal. Overcoming the beginning of the season slump, all three found their groove and earned season bests! Benes powered down the track a mere 2 hundredths of a second behind Dillingham finishing 130th at 20:36. A couple minutes later, C. Wadsworth came barrelling down the track finishing in 146th place at 22:08. Lastly, with the most impressive finish, Simile fired up his wheels to pass five other runners on the track to finish 157th at 22:55.
With more runners competing in races, our standings have changed slightly in our Region VI ranking for Divisions 3/2/1. Caruthers remains in 6th and Benes at 11th place. C. Wadsworth has moved up to 16th place and Smilie up to 22nd place. J. Wadsworth has slipped to 30th place. Palomar remains in 4th place and Hamilton has slipped to 11th.
We missed having Caruthers, Beck, and Metzger at our race and hope to have them joining us next week as we head to Salcha Ski Trails.
Swimming
VHS Swimming
Valdez vs. Palmer, Wasilla, and Colony High Schools
Wasilla Invitational
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Valdez Buccaneer Swim Team had a wonderful weekend in Wasilla. The Lady Bucs really showed how hard they have been training taking a 2nd Place finish overall scoring 60 points for Valdez. Lady Bucs took 3rd place in both the 200 & 400 Freestyle Relays scoring 16 points, and The Lady’s 200 Medley Relay took 2nd place with a new season best time of 2:09.16 a 5 second improvement from earlier this season. Swimmers who placed in the top 3 individually were Rhain Osburn who took 3rd Place in her 500 Freestyle, and also set a personal best time of 1:21.91 in her 100 Backstroke dropping 2.5 seconds. Kinsey Mishmash took 3rd Place in her 100 Breaststroke, as well as, setting a personal best time of 2:52.03 in her 200 Individual Medley dropping 7 seconds.
Billi Lovell had tremendous swim meet! She scored the most team points individually contributing 11 points by taking 1st place in her 50 Freestyle and 3rd place in her 100 Butterfly setting a personal best time of 1:05.74 dropping 1.5 seconds. Due to her wonderful swims and contribution to Lady Bucs 2nd Place finish Billi Lovell is more than worthy of this weeks Swimmer of the Meet honor.
Other notable swims from this weekend were Fisher Mishmash who took 3rd place in his 200 Freestyle. Liam Roosma also had an incredible meet. Placing 3rd in his 200 Individually Medley with a personal best time of 2:28.17 dropping a whopping 13 seconds, and has broken the 1-minute barrier for the first time in his 100 Freestyle with a personal best time of 57.78. Levi Clubb also set a personal best time of 1:10.5 in his 100 Freestyle dropping 3 seconds. As well as, Ava O’Brien who set a personal best time of 1:14.22 in her 100 Freestyle dropping 1.5 seconds. Ginger Keller set a personal best of 1:22.54 in her 100 Backstroke dropping 4.5 seconds. Finally, Sophia Hodgkins on the teams hardest working swimmers setting personal best times in both her individual swims setting a time of 2:29.09 in her 200 Freestyle dropping 5.5 seconds, and setting a time of 1.09.09 dropping 1.5 seconds.
The Team is very excited to be home the next two weekends with our Home Meet being the 24th & 25th of September. The Team Mascot, Beige, has made its inaugural trip with the team and the swimmers couldn’t be happier. Whatever bonds the team together! I am very proud of our swimming Bucs and I look forward to swimming at Home next!