Sports

The Service High School Cougars and South Anchorage Wolverines battle tomorrow (Saturday, 10/22/11) for the statewide football trophy for Alaska’s largest schools. The 2 p.m. game will be streamed on the Alaska School Activities Association website.

A Juneau man will be the head referee for the game. After officiating at Juneau football and soft ball games for 31 years, Guy Warren is retiring. ASAA has given him the privilege to sport the white cap, leading the team of officials at the state championship game.

Rosemarie Alexander joins Warren in a look back at his career as an official.

The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears ended their football season Saturday in a huge loss to the Service High School Cougars.

The Cougars scored the first touchdown within the first 15-seconds of the game, on a 90-yard kick-off return. From then on, they dominated the Bears, winning 64 to 21 in the large schools semi-finals. They will play South Anchorage next week for the championship title.

Small and medium-division schools played for the statewide title this weekend, with Nikiski beating Barrow on a score of 52 to 21 for small schools. Kenai won the medium schools championship over Homer. The score was 26 to 14.

Dr. Janice Sheufelt had no idea she could win an ultra-cycling event. After years of competing in short bike races, she just started long distance training in the last year.

“I figured, well, I’m doing all this training, it would be a good year to do an ultra – ultra meaning extra-long distance bike race,” says Sheufelt.

She found the Furnace Creek 508 on the Internet. Despite its name, the course is actually 509 miles. It starts just outside Los Angeles, and stretches through Death Valley and the Mojave Desert, before curving back to the finish line near Joshua Tree National Park. It crosses ten mountain passes and has a total elevation gain of over 35-thousand feet.

To prepare Sheufelt biked around Juneau – a lot.

“To the end of the road, and then up Eaglecrest, out Thane, out North Douglas, and then to the end of the road and back,” she says.

By the end of the summer, she figured she’d been up to Eaglecrest 56 times this year. She also did a couple 24-hour rides in Washington, where the roads aren’t as hard to come by and the weather isn’t so wet.

“I did one 16-hour overnight training ride in Juneau, but the second eight hours it just poured rain the whole time – this was in July. And that was just miserable,” says Sheufelt.

Instead of a bib number, contestants in the Furnace Creek race pick a totem, or animal, to represent them. As they go through each checkpoint, riders shout out their animal’s name, and that’s how race officials keep track of everyone. Sheufelt, who’s half-Tlingit, chose “wooshkeetaan” as her animal.

“Of course, no one knew what wooshkeetaan was, but by the end of the race everyone was just calling me the Alaska shark,” she says.

Sheufelt had no idea she was doing well in the race until the second to last checkpoint. That’s when her support team, which consisted of husband Jim, daughter Megan, and friend Peter Apathy from Sitka, told her she was in second place in the women’s field and tenth overall.

“And I was like, ‘Oh come on, really?’” she says.

Really. And at the last checkpoint, Sheufelt’s team found out she was only 15 minutes behind leader Seana Hogan, a well-known ultra-cyclist and six time winner of the Race Across America.

“They didn’t tell me that, because they wanted me to just keep riding my own race and not change anything,” she says.

Going up a hill during that last leg, Sheufelt she caught a glimpse of a rider she didn’t recognize.

“It turns out it was her [Hogan],” Sheufelt says. “And she was stopped momentarily and her crew was tightening some bolts on her bike or something. And, I rode by her and she did a big double take and yelled something at her crew, and then I knew the race was on.”

Hogan would give chase, but finish 12 minutes behind Sheufelt, who was the only solo female racer who had never competed in the Furnace Creek 508 before.

“My goal was just to finish, so I was completely shocked to win the race,” Sheufelt says.

Beating out world class competition in her first ultramarathon hasn’t gone to her head. The win qualifies Sheufelt for the Race Across America, but she says, “I definitely know I am not doing that. Because that takes a minimum of nine days, and that’s a bit much.”

The 45-year-old – who’s administrator of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s Ethel Lund Medical Center – says she may do another race similar to Furnace Creek, though, including the Fireweed 400 in Southcentral Alaska.

The Juneau Douglas Crimson Bears football team narrowly won a defensive battle in their first playoff game Saturday, edging the East Anchorage Thunderbirds 7-6 at Adair-Kennedy Field.

With all-state senior starting quarterback Philip Fenumiai sidelined with a leg injury, the Bears were forced to turn to freshman backup Brady Mallinger.

Head Coach Rich Sjoroos kept the offense simple for Mallinger, sticking to the ground for most of the game. The Crimson Bears only touchdown came on a two-yard run by Lah Fafita in the first quarter. Adam Soto kicked what would prove to be the decisive extra point.

East scored its only touchdown in the second quarter on an eleven yard pass from quarterback Jesse Vanilau to Tyler Rowles. But the extra point failed.

Both teams sputtered offensively in a scoreless second half.

The Crimson Bears take on top-ranked Service next Saturday in the semifinals of the state’s large-school division. The undefeated Cougars got a scare from the Palmer Moose in their opening round playoff game Saturday. Service needed a late touchdown run from quarterback Amu Aukusitino, and a game clinching interception from Alan Busey to squeak past Palmer, 34-32.

South Anchorage will take on West in the other semifinal matchup.

Meanwhile, an injury-plagued season is over for Thunder Mountain.

The Falcons lost their opening round playoff game to Homer Friday night 46-6 in front of a home crowd. It was the first time Thunder Mountain had hosted a playoff game. Unfortunately it came against the Mariners, who earlier this season trounced the Falcons 84-20.

The score was closer this time, but the result was the same. Thunder Mountain’s only touchdown came in the second quarter when quarterback Camden Thomas hit Ben Jahn for a 15-yard scoring strike. A two-point conversion attempt failed.

Homer running back Dyllan Day had three touchdowns for the Mariners, who will take on Kenai next Saturday in the inaugural championship game for the newly formed medium-school division.

The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears secured a home playoff game, but came in second as leaders of the Railbelt Football Conference in this weekend’s closing game of the regular season.

The Bears beat the Lathrop Malemutes 53 to 8 Friday night in Fairbanks. It was the win they needed to clinch a quarterfinal contest in Juneau.

But the Bears were tied with Wasilla for number one seed in the Railbelt. When Wasilla beat Palmer by one point Friday night – 23 to 22 – it put Wasilla at the top and Juneau second. As the clock expired, the Warriors kicked a 30-yard field goal to take out the Moose.

The Crimson Bears finished the regular season with seven wins and one loss – to Wasilla. For the season the Bears accumulated a total of 373 points, more than any other team in the Railbelt, and allowed only 95 points by opposing teams.

They play the East Anchorage High School Thunderbirds next weekend in the capital city in the state championship quarterfinals for large schools. The Cook Inlet Conference team finished the regular season with four wins and four losses.

The Railbelt’s West Valley and Wasilla are also in the quarterfinal contests.

The Thunder Mountain Falcons on Friday lost to the Renton High School Indians, on a score of 42 to 6.

The Renton, Washington team traveled to Juneau for the non-conference game.

The Falcons are now three wins and five losses for the season. But they’re at the top of the small Southeast Conference and will host the Homer Mariners from the Northern Lights Conference next weekend in the first-ever playoff game on Falcon’s field. Earlier this season the Falcons lost to the Mariners by a score of 84 to 20.

The Thunder Mountain Falcons are the Southeast Conference champs in high school football. The Falcons beat the Ketchikan Kings 30 to 12 on Saturday in Ketchikan.

After a slow start to the season – and losing their first four games – the Falcons have won three contests in a row, putting them at the top of the small conference of three schools: Thunder Mountain, Sitka and Ketchikan. The Falcons are assured a playoff game in Juneau in two weeks, against a Northern Lights Conference team.

In Juneau on Saturday, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears beat the Fairbanks’ West Valley Wolf Pack by a score of 29 to 8. The Bears have five wins and one loss, and still have one more regular-season game.

The Wolf Pack came to Juneau with just one loss for the season and the crowd expected a tougher contest than it turned out to be. Defense was the key: the Crimson Bears’ line totally stifled the Wolf Pack’s running game, which has been the centerpiece of their offense this season.

Head Coach Rich Sjoross says the Bears defense was tenacious.

“We benefited from getting in the backfield, disrupting their timing,” Sjoross says.

Juneau must win the last regular season game to secure a home play-off for the quarterfinals. The Crimson Bears play Lathrop, another Fairbanks team, next week at Lathrop.

“If we beat Lathrop, we’re guaranteed a home playoff game, absolutely,” Sjoross says. “If Palmer beats Wasilla and we beat Lathrop then we’re the conference champions.”

Juneau plays in the large schools’ Railbelt Conference. The quarterfinals pit a Cook Inlet conference team against a Railbelt team.