Cross Country Running Regionals:  (Coach Mel Koontz)

9/22/18  Region VI Championships

Saturday was filled with exciting races at Birch Hill Recreational Area in Fairbanks.  The rain from the last few days gifted the runners with giant puddles and muddy bogs to cross.  After jogging the course, the runners’ hopes of getting personals bests was quickly squashed.

Going into the races, Junior Kalin Woods was favored to make it to state for the Buccaneers.  He came prepared with spikes and determination. Junior Rafael Alfaro has made great progress this year and could also finish in the top 15 to qualify for State.  The muddy hills were frustrating during practice, so Senior Dustin Woods graciously offered his spikes so Alfaro would have a fighting chance to qualify.

Freshman William Benes and Sophmore Wyatt Mehlberg started the day’s events running in Junior Varsity for the Buccaneers.  Benes was disappointed that he didn’t get a personal best, but he has improved immensely this season and is already looking forward to the next year.  Benes finished 9th in Division II with a time of 26:05.9. Mehlberg remained steady during his run and finished the difficult course in 33:37.9. He plugged along through the mud, attacking every puddle and bog that he faced.

Next up was the Varsity Boys.  Kalen Woods started fast and immediately took the lead for the first 800 meters.  Alfaro wasn’t far behind him and Dustin Woods came sauntering by towards the back of the pack.  After completing the first lap, K. Woods was in 12th place overall and Alfaro was in the top 20.  D. Woods was fighting the slippery hills and remained towards the back of the middle pack. K. Woods held his position and with hardly anything left to give, finished in 18:41.9, 13th place overall and in 3rd place for Division II.  K. Woods worked hard all season and dreamed of State, now his dream has come true. Alfaro was just shy of two minutes behind K. Woods. He turned it up for a sprint across the finish line at 20:25.8, giving him 9th place in Division II and a qualifying place for State.  Just under 5 minutes later, D. Woods picks up the pace to finish in 25:10.8 for 27th place.

Lastly, Katelyn Wadsworth represented the Buccaneers in the Varsity Girls race.  Wadsworth planned to take advantage of any grassy areas to avoid slipping on the mud.  We saw several varsity boys play slip n’ slide down the big hill heading into the stadium.  At the start, Wadsworth veered way to the left, away from the pack, to run on the grass. This strategy put her right in the middle of the pack, a position she was able to hold onto.  After a frustrating season of persistent shin splints, Wadsworth gave it her all and pushed through the pain for her last race. Little did she know that she qualified, just under the wire, in 14th place with a time of 26:36.3.  Wadsworth was stunned when the boys shared the news. She will spend the week recuperating for State next Saturday.

This was a whirlwind of a season.  The team grinned and bared weekend after weekend of travel.  They gave 100% at every practice and everyone showed enormous improvement from the first day of the practice.  A coach couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated and determined group of athletes. I am so proud of how far they have come from where they started and that they now see where they can go.

Kalin Woods, Rafael Alfaro, Katie Wadsworth

Swimming:  (Coach Carl Young)

Buccaneer Swimming – North Pole Invite, North Pole, September 21st

The Valdez Buccaneer Swim Team had a rough week & was not able to have our full roster attend this meet. However, we had swimmers swim Personal Best Times or PBT; and  Numerous swimmers placed in the top 6 in their races scoring the Buccaneers enough points for the swim team to place 5th overall beating Monroe & Eielson High Schools.

Swimmers who swam PBT are Abigail Sims in her 200 Freestyle with a time of 2:46.71 & 100 Freestyle with a time of 1:14.46, Marshal Lewis in his 100 Freestyle with a time of 1:16.33, Victoria Korenev in her 100 Butterfly with a time of 1:22.49, and Isaac Clubb in his 100 Freestyle with a time of 1:03.42.

Swimmers who placed in the Top 6 & scored points for VHS include:

• Victoria Korenev, 200 Indiviual Medley, 6th Place
• Grace Keller, 100 Backstroke, 6th Place
• Isaac Clubb, 200 Individual Medley, 6th Place
• Isaiah Silveira, 100 Freestyle, 5th Place
• Chase Randall, 100 Butterfly & 100 Breaststroke, 5th Place
• Calvin Gondek, 500 Freestyle, 6th place
• Jeffrey Prevost, 100 Backstroke, 1st Place

Both the Boys & Girls 200 Medley Relays placed 4th overall. The Girls 200 Freestyle Relay placed 5th overall, and the Boys 400 Freestyle Relay placed 4th overall.

The Buccaneer Swimmer of this Week goes to Abigail Sims who had an excellent meet and dropped the most time out of everyone on the team!

The Valdez Buccaneer Swim Team will be swimming at home this week! Friday’s swimming begins at 4:00 pm & Saturday’s swimming begins at 10:30 am, so come out and support your Buccaneer Swimmers!

Rifle:  (Coach Jim Larcom)

Valdez High School had their First Ever Rifle Meet on Friday, September 21st  against Lathrop High School!

The Team scores in Standing 60 Air:   Lathrop – 2233 and Valdez – 2171

The Team scores in 3×20 Small Bore:   Lathrop – 1989 and Valdez – 2055

Totals:  Lathrop – 4222 and Valdez – 4226

It was a great start for the High School Rifle Team.  Hard to believe it was so close considering how many points were scored.  The Lathrop Team and Coach were very appreciative of the warm reception them received in Valdez.

2018 – 2019 Rifle Team Members are:

Senior:  Seinna Schaeffer

Juniors:  Sara Bauman, Tiffany Larcom, Ashlee Schaeffer, Colin Bourg

Sophomore:  Sydney McKay

Freshmen:   Jared Humphrey

Coaches:  Victoria Hedman & Jim Larcom

Senior – Seinna  Schaeffer

Varsity Volleyball:  (Coach Adam Sharrai)

The Lady Bucs traveled north to Delta last weekend for their first Conference games of the Season.  Just half way through the season, the Bucs took Delta Friday night, in 3 straight games 25-10, 25-17, and 25-13. They played well and looking comfortable with their teamwork.  Serving was on with Jade Watts, Carlee Fleming, Sydney Johnson, and Kendal Wesenberg all between 70% and 91%.  Carlee  Fleming served up 12 for 11 points with two Aces, while Sydney Johnson also had 2 Aces.  Sydney Johnson lead the Bucs kill ratio at 81 % for the set, flooring 13 out of 16 attempts.  Kassi Howard and Ally Sieber 9 for 7 at 78 %, while Jade Watts was 5 for 2, Carlee Fleming 1 for 1, and Maison Anderson was 2 for 2.

The Lady Bucs began Saturday a little sluggishly dropping Game One 22-25. Then they collecting themselves, finishing the next three games 25-18, 25-17, and 25-22 to finish the set with Delta.  The Lady Bucs struggled to find their rhythm and court communication, but managed to get the job done.   They are looking forward to improving their communication and court skills this week in preparation for next weekends Home matches with Hutchison.

Nice job sticking by each other when things were running a little rough and keep up your efforts—work hard Lady Bucs!  Go Bucs!

JV Volleyball:  (Coach Katie Burns)

This weekend the Valdez Buccaneer Volleyball Team traveled to Delta to compete against the Delta Huskies.  The Junior Varsity team was able to split into two teams of six athletes to play against the Huskies B and C Junior Varsity squads.

One obstacle the Lady Buccaneers faced was having different teammates playing positions that they were not as accustomed to.  Our C squad was missing both regular setters from their lineup this weekend and with only six players for the bench, this meant that every player played front and back row.  After a rocky beginning in the first set where the Bucs lost 22 to 25, this team came back in the next two sets to win the match in three sets (25-20 and 15-10).  Bekah Ambacher’s consistent serving (12 serves) changed the momentum of the game and helped this team solidify the victory for Friday night.

Their Saturday performance was even stronger.  Ambacher continued to lead the team in serves and was joined by Anna Agcaoili, each making 14 successful serves.   Marianne Prax contributed 7 serves and 4 attacks on the net that were kills.  This team swept their competition in two sets to win the match (25-19 and 25-14).

Our B squad struggled on Friday.  Our main obstacles were returning the serve, moving our feet, and making our serves playable.  Bekah Ambacher (who played with both C and B teams on Friday night) helped the team make a valiant effort at a comeback by knocking out 10 points with her consistent serves, unfortunately the team lost the match in two sets, 15-25 and 28-30.

On Saturday our team stepped onto the court with an entirely different attitude.  Passing, serving, setting up attacks, covering each other were all skills exhibited on Saturday that were missing on Friday.  The effort made a drastic difference.  The Buccaneer B Team won the first two sets 25-10 and 25-13.  Savannah Cockerham scored 9 serves with 4 kills on the net. Bim Palomar scored 9 serves with 3 kills on the net. Aly Metzger scored 6 serves with 4 kills on the net.

As this team’s coach I was proud of their determination to improve.  The team was not satisfied with their performance on Friday.  They channeled their frustration into an opportunity to get better individually and as a team.  Well done.

Football:  (Coach Lee Chadwick)

Football Weekend Recap

The football team visited the Eielson Ravens this weekend for a conference matchup. The Ravens are undefeated on the year and favored to win the State Championship.  It was their homecoming game where they honored 9 senior players. With depth and experience, we knew that Eielson would be a tough game for us from the start.

Eielson was able to quickly score points while simultaneously controlling our offensive effort. Despite a stiff defense, we scored on a counter play ran by Hayden Howard before the end of the first half. The score at the end of the first half was 52-6.

In the second half, Eielson replaced several of their starting players against which we competed more favorably.  They had difficulty moving the ball on our defense.  We also scored twice this half, one on a long run from Owen Chadwick, and another on a 1 yard run by Howard set up by a long run from Luke Baczuk. The final score of the game was 59-20.

This week we travel to Barrow for our final game of the season. The Whalers are large and fast, but have lost 3 games this year to Houston, Eielson, and Ketchikan.  We intend to compete well with them this year.

This Week in Sports:

Valdez Invitational Swim Meet:  Teams coming to Valdez are from Bethel, Cordova, Galena, Hutchison, Lathrop, Soldotna, West Valley, North Pole, Eielson, and Nome. Swimming starts at 4:00 pm on Friday, September 28th and 10:30 am on Saturday, September 29th.

Volleyball:  Home Meet vs Hutchison (Varsity only)

    Friday – 6:00 pm & Saturday – 11:00 am

Cross Country Running:  ASAA State Cross Country Meet on Saturday, September 29 at Bartlett Trails

Football:  At Barrow High School (Final Game of the Season)

Wrestling:  Parent Meeting on Tuesday, September 25th at 7:00 pm in High School Library / Practice Begins on Wednesday, September 26th at 3:30 pm