Spring is one of the most abundant sports seasons at the high school level in terms of action, with multiple team sports seasons in session for both boys and girls. With the 2023-24 academic year now a few weeks in the rearview, let’s take a look back at the final stretch of that year through the numbers that defined Fairbanks North Star Borough teams.
A pair of Fairbanks athletes won individual track and field state titles in 2024, and they were split evenly with one representing boys, one girls, one at the ASAA Division I level and one in Division II. West Valley senior Curtis Beck won the D1 boys 400-meter title (a year after finishing as the runner-up) while dipping under 49.5 seconds for the first time. Meanwhile, Monroe Catholic sophomore Emma Walsh took the DII girls high jump crown by clearing five feet (5’0”).
Despite compiling better records in each of the three previous seasons from 2021-23, North Pole High School’s baseball team recorded its best state tournament result in school history this year by finishing as the Division II state runner-up.
The Patriots went 13-7-2 this spring, riding a four-game win streak to the state title game before a lopsided loss to Soldotna. That runner-up result ties for the best state tournament finish of any Fairbanks area team in any sport throughout the 2023-24 academic year.
Similarly, the West Valley High School girls softball team recorded its best state tournament finish in 13 years, finishing third. The last time the Wolfpack placed that highly was in 2011, when they won three of their five state tournament games.
The 2024 iteration of the ‘pack won just two of its six games at the state tournament, but winning its first two consolation bracket games allowed West Valley to play eventual state runner-up Chugiak for a chance to advance to advance to a state championship series against East Anchorage.
The Wolfpack had tied for last at the state tournament in each of the three previous seasons and seemed headed toward that again after three consecutive losses (all by at least eight runs) to open the 2024 state tournament. They rectified that with consecutive wins behind 19-run efforts, both of which were the most any team scored at the softball state championships in Fairbanks this year.
Another Interior team, Delta, finished third at the Division II softball state championships.
The West Valley baseball team also had a first dating back to 2011: that was the last time they recorded double digit wins before 2024. The Wolfpack didn’t surpass the 3rd-place finish they recorded 13 years ago when they went 11-1, but they tallied 12 wins in 21 games this season, recording two ties and losing their final three games. They were also the only Interior representative at the Division I state tournament, beating out Lathrop.
This season marked the first time Lathrop High School’s girls soccer team has beaten West Valley twice in a season since before 2011 (as far back as the team’s MaxPreps results go). After a scoreless tie in their first matchup of the season, Lathrop topped West Valley twice (by one score each time).
The Malemute girls have generally had success against their crosstown rivals in recent years — they went 1-1-1 against the Wolfpack in 2023 and 1-0-1 in 2022 — but this marked a new peak of sorts for the Malemutes considering that West Valley beat them in the third-place state tournament game in 2023, when Lathrop had a better record than this year.
West Valley had higher seeding than Lathrop entering the 2024 postseason, but the Malemutes’ second win over the Wolfpack this season came in the first round of the state tournament and helped the Malemutes finish fifth to match their result from 2023.
Among local soccer teams, that was second only to the West Valley boys (who placed fourth).
While she played for Delta rather than a Fairbanks team, Nadia Chernich attends Monroe Catholic High School (which didn’t field a softball team this year). The departing senior ranked eighth nationally with an .800 batting average and was second in the state with eight home runs this season. She also averaged close to two runs (1.9) and hits (1.6) per game across 32 games appearances.
Chernich’s contributions helped the Huskies finish 24-8, their best record in recent memory and their fourth consecutive season with at least 19 wins. She’ll head to Division I Southeastern Louisiana in the fall.
Senior striker William Good’s scoring was integral to North Pole recording its first victory at the ASAA Boys Soccer State Championships of the 2020s. Good’s total of 17 goals this season ranked third in the state and was seven more goals than the next-highest Interior boys soccer player (his teammate, Niko Alvarado) posted.
Even more impressive, Good scored a combined 43 goals between his three years of varsity soccer.
Contact Gavin Struve at gstruve@newsminer.com or 907-459-7544. You can follow him on Twitter/X @gavinstruve
