The Rewind: West High earns cross country, tennis titles and Alaskan open water swimmer gets closer to making history

Oct. 2—Welcome to The Rewind, a weekly digest that puts a spotlight on the biggest stories and best performances from Alaska's world of sports.

The final week of the 2023 Alaska high school football season featured blowouts as well as some nail-bitters at all three levels of competition. On the college sports scene, the University of Alaska Anchorage volleyball team split two home conference matches last weekend while the hockey team got its season underway with an exhibition contest. On the national stage, an Alaskan swimmer has one big event left to join a prestigious club, a former prep standout led her collegiate squad to victory over her hometown team, two local hockey studs helped their junior team stay undefeated and a former prep star recorded a career-first in Division I football.

Headlines and highlights

The 2023 Alaska high football regular season came to a close last weekend, and West High ended it as the team began it, with a dominant show of force. The Eagles absolutely overwhelmed Service in what was supposed to be the game of the week on their way to securing the Cook Inlet Conference title and the top seed in the playoffs with a shutout victory. They did so on the strength of a punishing 141-yard rushing performance from senior running back Davis Iloilo, who led the team with three scores. The West defense dominated from start to finish, recording three interceptions and nearly reaching double figures in sacks.

"It feels really good to have the one-seed, but we know the second season is where crazy stuff happens," West coach Tim Davis said. "We're focused on one game and one play at a time."

[West football claims CIC crown and top seed with shutout of Service in regular-season finale]

In other prep football regular season finale action, Bettye Davis East won the annual Boot Game over rival Bartlett courtesy of a last-second, goal-line stand in which senior Austin Johnson reeled in an interception in the end zone to seal the victory.

Palmer edged Wasilla in the annual Potato Bowl in Division II and Barrow avenged its season-opening loss by defeating defending Division III champion Homer. After blowing out Eielson on Saturday, Nikiski earned a spot in the first ever 9-man football championship and will face undefeated Seward for the third time this season this weekend.

Three-time reigning Cook Inlet Conference flag football champion Dimond bounced back in a big way in the final week of the regular season after suffering its first loss the prior week to West. The Lynx shut out Eagle River last Tuesday and pulled away from South on Thursday in what began as a back-and-forth contest. Dimond outscored its opponents by a combined 85-13 and heads into the postseason as the top seed.

The 2023 high school tennis postseason got underway with regional tournaments across the state over the weekend. Defending state champion West won its sixth-straight Region IV championship on Saturday thanks to depth and a strong showing in the finals where the Eagles were represented in all but one division.

Eagles swept all three of the doubles titles, which included a pair of long-time friends in Cyrus Clendaniel and Will Sedwick, who have known each other since childhood. The duo played doubles together as freshmen and are back together with a goal of winning another state title.

"I've looked forward to playing with Cyrus again," Sedwick said. "I knew that when my senior year came, I was going to play with him. We both knew that we'd be playing boys doubles and that we'd have a chance at winning."

[West tennis cruises to 6th straight regional title with depth and strong showings in the finals]

The 2023 high school cross-country postseason was in its first week of action as well and saw usual suspect and reigning Division I state champion Chugiak dominate on the girls side. But the Mustang that crossed the finish line first surprised herself. Sophomore Hannah Shaha continued the upward trajectory that she's been on all season by recording another sub-20-minute mark run with her first-place time of 19 minutes, 23 seconds to earn the region crown.

"I was hoping to get top 5, but I didn't think I was going to do what I just did and to win it by that much," Shaha said. "I was surprised when I turned around and there was no one there."

[Sophomores surprise at Region IV Cross Country Championships]

In the boys division, West completed a title hat trick for the school's teams by winning the team regional title after having five finishers in the top 15 to edge South for first place with its top finisher being Blake Hanley, who came in third.

On the prep volleyball scene, undefeated Wasilla was in town for the annual Spiketacular Volleyball Tournament at West High School and won all nine of its abbreviated matches against teams from all around the Last Frontier. The tournament victories increased the Warriors' winning streak to a whopping 35 in a row. The Warriors especially enjoyed going up against teams from the Cook Inlet Conference, which has produced 19 of the previous state champions.

"It's been fun to see the other teams," Wasilla coach Katie Oxspring said. "We hadn't seen them since August at the Chugiak Invite. It's always fun to see the Anchorage teams and even teams from down in the Peninsula and Juneau."

['Great for Alaska volleyball': A loaded Cook Inlet Conference is as competitive as it's been in years]

Oxspring believes that the key to her team's success this season has been "staying disciplined and confident."

"That's the biggest thing that we talk about all the time," she said. "Not to have a big rise or fall but to have a steady pace going in and then to go up from the start so not starting too high or too low."

The second week of the prep riflery season saw South triumph over East 7-0 to remain unbeaten. The Wolverines were led by Cora Anderson with a score of 287-17x while the Thunderbirds' sharpest shooter was Samuel Woolley with a team-high score of 257-6x.

On the college scene, the UAA volleyball team went 1-1 last week in a pair of conference matches on its home court. On Thursday, the Seawolves swept Montana State University at Billings, outscoring the Yellowjackets by 10 or more points in all three sets. On Saturday, they fell in four sets to Seattle Pacific University in a tightly contested match. The leading scorers for the team this past week were senior Nicole Blue with 23 kills and junior outside hitter Bethany Tuchardt with 22 over the course of the two contests.

The UAA hockey team opened its 2023 season with an exhibition bout at home Friday night and comfortably defeated Vancouver Island University. Senior forwards Matt Kinash and Matt Allen each scored a pair of goals to lead the Seawolves in scoring as the hometown team starts off its second season since being fully reinstated on the right foot.

"As a group it was a good opportunity for our freshmen to get some game reps and for some guys to try and build some chemistry," said head coach Matt Shasby in a statement. "We see we have some things to focus on this week in practice to be ready for next Saturday. We really appreciate Vancouver Island for making the trip."

Alaska stars shining Outside

Anchorage's Jordan Iverson officially finished two-thirds of her quest to complete the Triple Crown of open water swimming last month. The former Service standout completed the 20.7-mile Catalina Channel swim on Sept. 21. She started at 10:20 p.m. from Catalina Island and finished 13 hours and 5 minutes later after reaching shore at Smugglers Cove in California. Earlier this year, Iverson completed the first leg of the Triple Crown when she swam 28.5 miles around the island of Manhattan, New York, known as the 20 Bridges Swim.

"The English Channel will be my last swim that I need to finish, to join an elusive group of just over 300 swimmers worldwide who have completed the Triple Crown, and will be the first Alaskan," Iverson said in an email. "I hope to attempt the English Channel during my window of June 21-28, 2024."

[This Anchorage swimmer is on a quest to complete the grueling open water triple crown]

Anchorage's Brooke Dexter was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Offensive Player of the Week last Monday. The former West High standout is a redshirt junior outside hitter at Simon Fraser and helped lead the Red Leafs to a pair of victories to earn the third weekly honor of her career. One of those wins came in a 3-0 sweep over her hometown team UAA in which she recorded 11 kills, nine digs and an ace.

Anchorage's Mac Swanson and Camden Shasby combined to record four assists on the trio of goals that were scored by the undefeated Fargo Force in the team's 3-0 win over the Omaha Lancers on Saturday. The two Division I commits are three games into their second year in the USHL and will look to continue being key contributors for the Force this season. Last year, Swanson made the all-rookie team after recording 12 goals, 43 assists and 55 total points in 57 games.

Anchorage's Edefuan Ulofoshio recorded his first career touchdown as a member of the University of Washington football team Saturday. The former South High standout returned a gift of an interception that was thrown right to him 45 yards to the house to give the Huskies their first points in an eventual 59-32 victory over the University of California on Sept. 23.