As the school year draws to a close, so too do the spring sports seasons. Track and soccer are the first two sports to wrap up.
The ASAA Division I and II soccer state championships are this Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Anchorage and Eagle River. The ASAA track and field state championships are Friday and Saturday in Palmer.
The Juneau-Douglas High School boys and girls soccer teams both qualified for the state championships. A total of 35 runners, jumpers and throwers from the JDHS and Thunder Mountain High School track and field teams qualified for the state meet.
The Region V baseball and softball tournament are also Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The baseball tournament is in Sitka this year and the softball tournament is in Ketchikan.
Soccer
Both Crimson Bears soccer teams have good reason to think they can win the inaugural Division II state championship. The boys program is 7-1-2 against Division II (small schools) opponents this season; the girls program is 8-0-1.
The teams have proved their mettle against Division I (large schools) opponents: the boys defeated Wasilla and East Anchorage while the girls took down West Anchorage, Service and East Anchorage. This shouldn’t come as a shock. After all, up until this year, that was their competition for the state tournament.
But when the tournament kicks off this week — the boys play Kodiak this afternoon and the girls play either North Pole or Palmer on Friday at 1 p.m. — both teams know there are no guarantees in this sport.
“Certainly they’ve put forth the effort in the regular to show that they’re a pretty darn good team,” JDHS girls coach Matt Dusenberry said, adding, “In soccer, you never know, nothing’s a foregone conclusion.”
JDHS boys coach Gary Lehnhart preached a similar message prior to his team’s final practice of the season Tuesday evening at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park. Lehnhart recounted each of the five consecutive state championship games the Crimson Bears appeared in from 2000-2004.
In most of the games, according to Lehnhart, the team that played better didn’t win the game.
“Often you can do everything right and the outcome isn’t there and then other times you don’t do it right and you get the luck of it all,” he said. “So there has to be that part of you that understands that. So am I telling you it’s just a roll of the dice? No, not by any stretch.”
Lehnhart laid out a few important things for his team to keep in mind, like not beating themselves and blocking out distractions. If both teams can do that, JDHS may have two new state champions come Saturday.
Boys soccer state championships
Thursday
1 p.m. Grace Christian vs. Homer
3 p.m. JDHS vs. Kodiak
Friday
9 a.m. Kenai vs. winner of Grace Christian/Homer
11 a.m. North Pole vs. winner of Juneau-Douglas/Kodiak
5 p.m. Fourth-place game
Saturday
9 a.m. Third-place game
1 p.m. Championship game
The JDHS boys (9-5-1) play Kodiak (6-1-1) on Thursday at 3 p.m. in the first round of the @ASAA_org state soccer championships. Good luck, Bears! pic.twitter.com/dFriKstVMe
— Empire Sports (@akempiresports) May 21, 2018
Girls soccer state championships
Hosted by Eagle River and Service High Schools
Thursday
5 p.m. North Pole vs. Palmer
7 p.m. Grace Christian vs. Kenai
Friday
1 p.m. JDHS vs. winner of North Pole/Palmer
3 p.m. Soldotna vs. winner of Grace Christian/Kenai
7 p.m. Fourth-place game
Saturday
9 a.m. Third-place game
11 a.m. Championship game
The JDHS girls receive a first-round bye in the @ASAA_org state soccer championships. The Crimson Bears play either North Pole or Palmer on Friday at 1 p.m. at Eagle River High School. JDHS improved to 11-1-2 with two wins over Ketchikan this weekend. You got this! pic.twitter.com/Z9dqlwo93g
— Empire Sports (@akempiresports) May 21, 2018
Track
Close to three dozen Juneau high school track and field athletes make their way to Palmer this weekend for the ASAA state track and field championships.
Juneau-Douglas High School’s girls unified 100-meter dash and unified long jump will be out to defend their respective state titles. Senior Brianna Fallis teamed up with sisters Gretchen and Ashleigh Neal to win both events at the state meet last season. JDHS and TMHS will appear in a total of five unified events at the meet. Unified events pair athletes with intellectual disabilities with partners (without intellectual disabilities) and are ranked based on the sum of the pairing’s results.
The JDHS girls team also features 2016 state cross country champion Sadie Tuckwood, who represents the Crimson Bears’ next best chance at individual state titles.
Tuckwood will toe the line in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs. The sophomore holds the fourth-fastest qualifying time (of 16) in both races at 5 minutes, 15 seconds and 11:12, respectively.
The races will mark the first time Tuckwood will run against West Valley’s Kendall Kramer and South Anchorage’s Ava Earl since the three went 1-2-3 in this year’s state cross country meet.
The JDHS girls will also compete in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays. The Neal sisters, Katie McKenna and Dezirae Jabalde will run the former. Tuckwood, McKenna, Anna Iverson and either Sosan Monsef, Linnea Lentfer or Miriam Stitz will team up in the latter. Coaches are still deciding who will fill the fourth 4×800 spot.
The TMHS girls, who won the girls 4A championship at the Region V meet, also qualified for two relays: the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.
TMHS’ Mikayla May, Mary Neal Garcia and Tzadi Hauck will compete in both the 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Audrey Welling will join them in the 4×100 and Mary Landes will join them in the 4×200.
May, Hauck and Welling all qualified for at least two other events. Welling, the runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles last season, has the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the event this year.
The TMHS boys, who will appear in a total of seven events, are led by Erick Whisenant. Whisenant, the Region V champ in the 100 and 200 meters, has the 11th fastest qualifying time in the 100 (11.56 seconds). South Anchorage’s Colton Herman has the quickest qualifying time at 11.21 seconds.
JDHS senior Arne Ellefson-Carnes qualified for both the 1600 and 3200 runs. Ellefson-Carnes has the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the 1600 and sixth-fastest in the 3200.
TMHS state team (17 athletes): Erick Whisenant, Josh McAndrews, Ali Beya, Clayton Gilbert, Josh Sheakley, Jonah Brown, Caleb Deer, Bradey Beam, Will Weinlaeder, Jakob Rosenbruch, Tzadi Hauck, Mikayla May, Hannah Deer, Audrey Welling, Mary Neal Garcia, Mary Landes and Ciara Kish.
JDHS state team (18 athletes): Brianna Fallis, Ashleigh Neal, Gretchen Neal, Gabe Canon, Lance Fenumiai, Dalton Hoy, Arne Ellefson-Carnes, Shadrach Stitz, Tim McKenna, Finn Morley, Aiden Hollingsworth, Katie McKenna, Sadie Tuckwood, Dezirae Jabalde, Anna Iverson, Sosan Monsef, Linnea Lentfer and Miriam Stitz.
Notable recent state meet results
2017: 9th, TMHS boys
2016: 3rd, TMHS girls; 8th, TMHS boys
2015: 8th, TMHS girls
2014: 2nd, TMHS girls
2013: 6th, TMHS girls
…..
2010: 8th, JDHS girls
2009: 2nd, JDHS girls
2008: 2nd, JDHS girls
2007: 3rd, JDHS girls; 5th, JDHS boys
Baseball
JDHS and TMHS play in the first round of the Region V baseball tournament at 3 p.m. today in Sitka. The winner of that game will advance to Friday’s semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, Sitka and Petersburg square off with a trip to the quarterfinals against top-seeded Ketchikan at 6 p.m. on the line. The championship game is at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Softball
TMHS and Ketchikan play in the first round of the Region V softball tournament at 4 p.m today in Ketchikan. JDHS plays Sitka at 6 p.m. The winner of that game will advance to the semifinal on Friday at 2 p.m. The championship game is at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
