Gavin Struve - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - December 27, 2023
The past year brought a number of impressive feats from Fairbanks teams and athletes, both against national competition and locally.
This short list — an unordered subjective measure intended to highlight local athletic achievements rather than elevate some over others — is not exhaustive and focuses more on team sports. Some feature narrow victories and others blowouts, while some were more unexpected than others, but all were impressive. Here, then, are five of the biggest Fairbanks sports performances of 2023.
UAF rifle team wins the NCAA title
The Nanooks won both rifle disciplines, the smallbore and air rifle, to win NCAA Rifle Championships in March in convincing fashion. The distance between UAF and runner-up TCU was greater than the difference between the Horned Frogs and sixth-place Nebraska.
The Nanooks also produced an individual national champion — Ryan Kissell — who won the air rifle individual title. While the 2023 title marked UAF’s 11th national championship in rifle, it was the program’s first since 2008 following a 10-year stretch starting in 1999 in which they won all but one national title.
Nanooks produce two cross country All-Americans for the first time
In 2022, the UAF women’s cross country team sent three individuals to the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships, and all three finished among the top-100 individuals. The Nanooks arguably topped that feat this fall with two All-Americans, Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham. After the duo placed 8th and 43rd in 2022, respectively, they finished 23rd and 36th in 2023 (the top-40 individuals earn All-American honors).
Kramer earned UAF’s highest finish ever in 2022 and helped the Nanooks finish with multiple cross country All-Americans for the first time in program history in 2023, as Fordham’s year-over-year improvement and poise on the championship stage helped seal the deal.
Lathrop dominates West Valley in the Dog Bowl
While Lathrop High School’s football team was unable to win a third consecutive ASAA Division II state title, the Malemutes did deliver one of the more dominant performances of the year, let alone the fall season.
One week after escaping North Pole — who lost to West Valley — by one score, Lathrop bludgeoned its biggest rival with a 71-20 win. The game started competitively through two drives but hardly ended that way as it became one of eight victories for the Malemutes en route to a state runner-up finish.
“We wanted to come out and play great ball,” head coach Luke Balash said postgame. “This is a big game for our community, so to come out and put on a show was special.”
Goldpanners win the Midnight Sun Game
This may be more about the spectacle of the event than the victory itself, but one of the Goldpanners’ biggest triumphs during a successful 2023 season was its Midnight Sun Game win over the Michigan Monarchs.
It was just one win amid nearly three dozen in a 32-9 season, but it was almost certainly the most memorable for the players and community. While Fairbanks citizens enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance the event usually carries, they also received a decisive 5-1 victory.
West Valley and Monroe Catholic boys reach 2nd round of 4A March Madness Alaska
In just their second year at the ASAA 4A level, the Monroe Catholic boys basketball team fared admirably against much larger schools, winning their first game in the eight-team state championships and finishing 5th. The Rams lost by just one score to both West Valley and West Anchorage in their final two games of a 21-7 season.
The Wolf Pack, meanwhile, finished as the state runner-up and tallied a 26-2 record, ultimately losing the state final to East Anchorage by five points. During a four-year stretch in which the Wolf Pack averaged just two losses per season, that was the furthest they advanced in the state championships.
What’s more, West Valley produced the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, Stewart Erhart Jr., who won the honor the previous season as well.
