While Susitna Valley’s Crowley Classic commanded all of TALKEETNA famous’ attention this past weekend, there was far more happening in the Parks Highway sporting world. In fact, anyone who attended the Crowley Classic on Saturday, probably noticed that there were cross country ski races of considerable size unwinding on the same campus. The Matanuska-Susitna Bourough Ski Championships were held at Susitna Valley High School on Saturday, February 13th. Laura Wright produced a story for KTNA Talkeetna, which is worth a look and listen:
Matanuska-Susitna Borough Ski Championships
In addition, Laura Wright took the following photographs and passed them along.
Top-Ten finishers (Boys)
(9 of the) Top-Ten finishers (Girls)
Tight race from start to finish
Kimberly Del Frate, Amanda Delfrate and Shannon Stough are pictured above. All ski for the Palmer High School team. Amanda Delfrate edged out her twin sister near the finish, with a time of 25:14.1 minutes.
Davis Dunlap of Palmer High School won the Boys’ race by two-thirds the length of his foot, or .4 seconds, if you prefer a more orthodox presentation of results. Side by side at the finish, but second to the line was Dunlap’s teammate Duney Strickland. Schyler Knopp of Colony High School finished just .5 seconds behind Strickland to take third. Laura Wright recommends an article on the Frontiersman website that has all of the results and the Boys’ photo finish. The link is below.
Frontiersman coverage of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Ski Championships
Thank you Laura for the photographs, information, and the story on KTNA. While ski obsessed at times, Laura has other hobbies, which include the production of a photo blog, Talking About Talkeetna. <-link
Hockey:
Elsewhere on the Parks Highway, at the Menard Memorial Ice Arena to be exact, the Greatland state high school hockey champion was crowned. Last week, TALKEETNA famous brought you some of the action and the final results from the Greatland Regional Qualifier. I would have loved to cover the Championships, but couldn’t bear the thought of missing the Crowley Classic. Thanks to Roben Shreeve, I was able to stay abreast of the action that was unfolding in Wasilla. Roben’s son Sterling Shreeve delivered a hat trick in Tri-Valley’s semi-final game against Delta Junction. Below are two links to the Anchorage Daily News’ coverage of the Greatland state hockey championships. If you read them in the order that they are presented, you can experience a little suspense as the semi-finals give way to the championship and third place games.
Semi-finals
Championship and third place game
More Basketball:
On Saturday night, after the conclusion of the Crowley Classic, I happened to run into the Wasilla Lakes varsity boys basketball team on the way home from a tournament in Anderson. The Wasilla Lake Rams finished second in the tournament, losing to Kenny Lake in the final game.
The Wasilla Lake Rams have played twice in Susitna Valley this year, including the inaugural game in the new Susitna Valley High School gym. I learned many things as a high school basketball coach, one of which is that life on the road with high school athletes is a blast. The food can be less than exceptional, but the company is top notch. That said, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all high school coaches for their commitment and work. It is a labor of love, not prosperity.
Wasilla Lakes Rams
The Wasilla Lake Rams play at home this Friday night against the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors. If the Susitna Valley Rams have the night off, I might just get on the road and bring you that game via TALKEETNA famous. I’m a fan of both teams. No matter what may happen, TALKEETNA famous will cover the Wasilla Lake Rams and the Tri-Valley Viking Warriors at least two more times, as both teams will be competing in the Central Interior regional tournament, all of which will be covered by TALKEETNA famous. That regional tournment runs from March 3rd through March 6th, and will be held at Tri-Valley High School in Healy.
Anderson Tournament Results:
Uwe Hoffmann, the Athletic Director at Anderson School, kindly sent me the following results from Anderson’s basketball tournament this weekend.
Girls Bracket:
Thursday, February 11th
Tok 41 Birchwood 27
Kenny Lake 54 Fairhill 40
Friday, February 12th
Tok 35 Kenny Lake 33
Birchwood 50 Fairhill 29
Kenny Lake 40 Birchwood 23
Saturday, February 13th:
Tok 38 Fairhill 22
Girls Champion: Tok
Second Place: Kenny Lake
Boys Bracket:
Thursday, February 11th:
Birchwood 40 Tok 38
Kenny Lake 54 Anderson 10
Friday, February 12th:
Wasilla Lake 49 Fairhill 23
Tok 57 Anderson 13
Kenny Lake 57 Birchwood 21
Wasilla Lake 63 Tok 45
Fairhill 33 Anderson 6
Saturday, February 13th:
Birchwood 51 Tok 31
Birchwood 37 Fairhill 28
Kenny Lake 62 Wasilla Lake 47
Champion: Kenny Lake
Second Place: Wasilla Lake
Third Place: Birchwood
Anderson’s tournament is formally known as the Sportsmanship Tournament, so the tournament’s top honors are the Team Sportsmanship Awards. And the winners were…and still are…
Boys: Anderson
Girls: Fairhill
Anderson’s team is a co-ed team that played in the boys bracket. Cheers to the Anderson team and school for keeping the basketball program going through a period of limited participation, and congratulations to their team for the honor bestowed. Thank you, again, to Uwe Hoffmann for taking the time to email the above information, and for taking a sports rag called TALKEETNA famous seriously.
