Swimming
VHS Swimming
Valdez vs. West Valley, North Pole, Hutchinson, Lathrop, and Bethel Regional High School
Valdez Invitational Swim Meet
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Valdez Buccaneer Swim Team hosted a wonderful Home Meet this week. Swimming Seniors Kali Peterson, Levi Clubb, and Jaelynn Adams were recognized on Saturday morning of the and spectators wished them luck as the participated in their last Home Meet of their high school career! With 5 teams visiting from our Region the Valdez Buccaneers held their own and was able to Finish 3rd overall as a team beating Lathrop, Hutchinson, and Bethel Regional High School. Relays were a big contribution to the team’s placing with both Women’s & Men’s 200 Medley Relays placing 3rd on Friday night, as well as, The Women’s 200 Freestyle Relay placing 3rd too. On Saturday morning the Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay had a wonderful race battling it out to take 2nd overall. Well done Relays!!
Individual Swimmers who place in the Top 3 were Rhain Osburn placing 3rd in her 200 Individual Medley and dropping 8 seconds setting a new best time of 2:59.26. Billi Lovell placed 2nd in her 50 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, and 500 Freestyle with a new best time of 5:48.25. She also took 1st in her 100 Freestyle. Fisher Mishmash placed 3rd in his 100 Breaststroke setting a new best time of 1:11.22. He also placed 2nd in both his 100 & 500 Freestyles, and took 1st overall in his 50 Freestyle with a new best time of 23.65. Freshmen Kinsey Mishmash had great home meet. Not only did she set all new best times in all her events the 50 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, 100 Freestyle, & 200 Individual Medley. Kinsey also took 1st place out pacing her competition in her 100 Breaststroke. Liam Roosma had a tremendous Swim Meet placing 2nd in his 50 Freestyle setting a new best time of 25.25, as well as, Placing 2nd in his 100 Freestyle with another new best time of 56.56. Liam also cut major time, dropping 14 seconds in his 100 Backstroke. With such great enthusiasm Liam has earned the honor of this week’s Swimmer of the Meet!
This Meet was the meet for setting New Personal Best Times. The Swimming Bucs set an astonishing total of 31 New Personal Best Times. Swim Team newcomers Jaelynn Adams and Weston Clupper had done especially well with Weston dropping 11 seconds in his 100 Backstroke with a new best time of 2:11.21. He also dropped 12 seconds in his 50 Freestyle with a new best time of 39.58, and dropped 15 seconds in his 100 Freestyle with a new best time of 1:39.01. Whereas, Jaelynn dropped 6 seconds in her 100 Freestyle with a new best time of 1:29.27, and dropped a whopping 16.5 seconds in her 100 Backstroke with a new best time of 1:40.15. Also, Senior Levi Clubb accomplished his season goal of breaking 30 seconds in his 50 Freestyle with a new best time of 29.77. Great swims!
I am very proud of our Swimming Buccaneers! They continue to impress me each week. We look forward to traveling to Anchorage this coming weekend to compete against the biggest swim teams in our state. Please wish your Buccaneer swimmers good luck as we continue our season.
Cross Country
Region VI Championships
Fairbanks Golf Course
September 25, 2021
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The last 9 weeks have all been for this race. The team has overcome many obstacles to show what they are made of today. After a wintery drive north to Fairbanks, we tested out the course amidst snowball fights. An easy and familiar course for the upperclassmen, but with the added challenge of lower temps and snow that clung to the soles of your shoes. The 5K course consisted of a slight uphill start down the green and curving around the edge of large pine trees. Then runners completed two large loops around the perimeter of the golf course with a couple of small hills and a wood bridge, then returned to the start. A majority of the course was on snow covered grass.
Starting off the races were the JV Boys. Freshman Jace Wadsworth represented Valdez and helped to clear the course of snow for the later races. J. Wadsworth stayed strong and remained in 24th place. He finished with the signature Wadsworth sprint and earned himself another personal best of 26:34, an improvement of 2:28.
After the JV girls, Division II Boys were up. Finally, all boys were outfitted in spikes, which helped to grip the slick grass, but gathered snow in big clumps. After the gun, Senior William Benes and Sophomore Rafe Caruthers started off. Caruthers slowly began to pull forward, passing Benes. Juniors Cole Wadsworth and Jason Smilie weren’t far behind with C. Wadsworth slightly in front. Three quarters of the way around the first loop, Benes pulled in front of Caruthers and began to pass runners. Caruthers stayed strong and kept sight of Benes. C. Wadsworth fought his way in front of a pack of Monroe runners with Smilie a few seconds behind. As the runners moved towards the finish line, Benes used his strength to pull ahead while Caruthers continued to chase him. Simile pulled in front of C. Wadsworth and began picking off runners. All runners pushed hard
to the finish line with Benes in 8th place at 20:05, a season best; Caruthers in 11th place at 20:19. Barely making the 15th position, Simile finished in 16th with a season best of 21:20 after passing multiple runners on the home stretch to the Finish Line. C. Wadsworth was seconds behind with a season best of 21:35 in 19th place.
Finally, Freshman Morgan Hamilton and Sophomore Anika Palomar run a combined Division I and II race. The course is mostly cleared of snow by now and Hamilton is sporting brand new neon spikes. Another exciting race as Palomar stays towards the head of the pack for most of the race. Spending most of the race battling for fourth place, Palomar slowly slips into a comfortable 6th place with a personal record of 24:28, thirty-one seconds off her last best time. The power of the neon shoes and Hamilton’s pure determination kept her firmly in 9th place for the entirety of the race and earned her yet another phenomenal personal record of 26:08, almost a whole 3 minutes off of her last best time.
For the third year in a row, Senior William Benes will be representing Valdez at State, along with Sophomore Rafe Caruthers, and Junior Jason Smilie will join as an alternate. For the second year, Sophomore Anika Palomar earned a spot at state and will be joined by Freshman Morgan Hamilton. These incredible athletes will face off against the state’s best runners at Bartlett High School on October 9th.
J.V. Volleyball
Valdez Invite
Sep. 24-25
Valdez vs. Monroe Catholic
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – This past weekend the Lady Bucs Junior Varsity Team had a unique opportunity to play many new roles on the court. With only half of the team able to travel this weekend, the six members that did travel had a lot of fun game experience.
On Friday night the sets all ended within a few point spread, the final set ending at 25-27. Denali Woods was on fire as an offensive threat at the net, with a 38% kill rate and over 30 attacks. She also had a personal record for serving with 14 serves in the match. Bella Smelcer and Rachel Berkley were also aggressive attackers at the net, and Marcedes Taylor, Jaimie Crisp, and B. Smelcer made huge contributions in the match with their serving. Monroe Catholic took the match (1-3).
On Saturday our team came out fired up and ready to play. The first set was another nail-biting battle that ended in favor of the Rams (25-27). In the next two sets the team just couldn’t quite get their stride, and Monroe sealed the weekend with two more wins (15-25 and 16-25). Alina Kockentiet was able to play both back row and front row this weekend and had 7 attacks from outside on Saturday.
Each member of the team set personal goals for the week to come and are looking forward to next week’s match against Delta.
Go Bucs!
Varsity Volleyball
Valdez Varsity Volleyball vs. Monroe
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – This weekend the girls had their first conference games of the season against Monroe. On Friday, the girls played great. They executed their plays and kept great attitudes throughout each set. They finished the match winning 3-1. Scores for each set: 25-15, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21.
Saturday’s match was a little tougher for the girls but they really pulled together as a team and came out on top. The girls all had some great plays over the weekend. One area that the team is showing a lot of improvement in is coverage of hitters. They had some amazing saves throughout the match. They ended the match 3-2 and scores for each set: 25-22, 22-25, 22-25, 25-22, 17-15.