Cross Country
2021 State Championships
Bartlett High School
October 9, 2021
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Bucs Cross-Country team ended the season with 5 of the team’s 7 core runners traveling to Anchorage for State. What a great way to end the season! The Bartlett course is full of hills, twists and turns. There was an added challenge due to the torrential rain in the early morning of race day. Spikes will only help so much in the mud. Supporting the team, Junior Jason Smilie reminded runners to run through the mud instead of trying to run around.
Fortunately the rain subdued in time for the races. The boys faced 66 other runners from around the state, especially the intimidating presence of the Grace Christian power house that dominated their Regions. Senior William Benes ended his last high school race strong in 57th place at 20:41. Benes’s season best this year was 20:05 at Regions and his personal best is 19:16 from 2019 at Regions. Sophomore Rafe Caruthers has made great gains this year and finished in 51st place at 20:17. Caruthers’s personal best was at Kenny Lake earlier this year at 19:52.
Sophomore Anika Palomar made her second trip to state, along with Freshman Morgan Hamilton. Both girls made incredible progress this season. They ran against 60 other girls in another tight field that was dominated by Grace Christian once again. Palomar finished 40th with a time of 25:28, exactly 1 minute behind her personal best from Regions. Hamilton bolted to the finish line in 57th place at 27:46, her personal best was also at Regions at 26:08.
What a bittersweet end to another great season! It has been an absolute honor coaching Senior William Benes these past four years. He works tirelessly to improve himself in all areas. Benes is a well rounded athlete that led his team by example. You are going to do great things William!
A huge thank you to all of the parents that traveled to the races, even through the snow. For showing up each week for team dinners and for those that endured sleeping on the floors of high schools, thank you! A special thank you to alum Rafael Alfaro for helping to lead and motivate the team to stay strong and to push themselves.
Go Bucs!
Volleyball
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – This weekend the varsity volleyball team competed in the Grace Christian Invitational. This was an 18 team tournament consisting of 2A, 3A, 4A. Friday was single set pool play. We ended pool play 5-3 and were seeded 3rd in the Platinum Bracket. The girls had some great games and were able to really start clicking as a team. This was the first week that we have had the entire team all season and it really made a difference in team energy.
Saturday’s bracket play was the best the girls have played all weekend. We started off playing Bartlett with close games, but falling short and losing 0-2. Next they played Homer, beating them 2-0. The girls came back and played one of their best games against Kenai, the defending 3A state champs. They played phenomenally and dominated both sets, winning 2-0. Their last game was against Bartlett again, ending 1-2. The girls came to play and took the first set from them. They played with a competitive yet calm mentality that we have not seen before. It showed the potential they have to be a powerhouse team in the state. The next two sets were extremely close but Bartlett took them. We ended the tournament taking 3rd out of 18 teams.
All- Tournament Team
Momoe Togagae
Pool Play VS.
Palmer 14-25
ACS 25-13
Monroe 25-21
Kenai 12-25
Nikiski 25-23
Colony JV 25-20
Seward 20-25
Kodiak 27-25
Platinum Bracket VS.
Bartlett 11-20, 19-21
Homer 22-20, 21-19
Kenai 25-23, 20-14
Bartlett 21-19, 17-20, 5-9
E-Sports
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The first week of E-Sports was a great success!
Our Smash Ultimate team went 3 rounds against North Pole and won all.
The Rocket League team played against Colony High School in a best of 5 matchup.
The Bucs won the first three games so there was no need to play more.
The Madden 21 team went head-to-head against Doc Bosco Tech Institute out of California. We won the first game, but DBTI was able to take the match with wins in game 2 and game 3.
Coming up this next week:
Smash Ultimate faces off against Akula on Wed.
Madden21 team has claimed a forfeit against Punahou Gray, and the Rocket League team goes against the Hutchison High School Hawks on Thurs.
Our team E-sports page can be found at:
https://app.playvs.com/org/valdez-high-school-valdez-ak