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Juneau athletes experienced a gold rush - with plenty of silver and bronze, too - on Saturday, the final day of competition at the 2004 Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Carly Craig became the second Juneau girl to win a gold ulu in snowshoeing - leading a 1-2-3 Southeast finish in the girls' 7.5-kilometer race - while a number of Juneau athletes on volleyball and indoor soccer squads won team gold ulus.
Southeast athletes mine gold at AWG 030704 sports 3 The Juneau Empire Online Juneau athletes experienced a gold rush - with plenty of silver and bronze, too - on Saturday, the final day of competition at the 2004 Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Carly Craig became the second Juneau girl to win a gold ulu in snowshoeing - leading a 1-2-3 Southeast finish in the girls' 7.5-kilometer race - while a number of Juneau athletes on volleyball and indoor soccer squads won team gold ulus.

Southeast athletes mine gold at AWG

Craig wins snowshoe race; volleyball and indoor soccer teams claim titles

Juneau athletes experienced a gold rush - with plenty of silver and bronze, too - on Saturday, the final day of competition at the 2004 Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Carly Craig became the second Juneau girl to win a gold ulu in snowshoeing - leading a 1-2-3 Southeast finish in the girls' 7.5-kilometer race - while a number of Juneau athletes on volleyball and indoor soccer squads won team gold ulus.

The Alaska boys and girls volleyball teams each won gold ulus in five-game victories over the host Alberta North squads. The Alaska girls successfully defended the gold ulu they won at the 2002 Games in Greenland, while the boys had finished fourth in 2002 before rebounding for this year's gold.

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"It was incredible volleyball to watch," Alaska boys coach Phil McMurray of Juneau reported by e-mail. "The boys played so well, especially under pressure."

Margaret Sekona of Juneau scored three goals to lead the Alaska juvenile female indoor soccer team to a 4-2 win over Alberta North in Saturday's gold ulu game, while Juneau's Greta Thibodeau had an assist to help the Alaska intermediate female squad win a gold ulu with a 2-1 win over Alberta North.

The Alaska juvenile male indoor soccer squad won a silver ulu on Saturday, and the Alaska junior male and junior female indoor soccer squads each claimed a bronze ulu on Friday.

In Saturday's 7.5-kilometer girls snowshoe race, Craig - a sophomore cross-country runner at Juneau-Douglas High School - and Juneau junior Megan Bush flip-flopped their finishes from the earlier 5K race.

Craig - who won silver in the 5K - covered the 7.5K course in 44 minutes, 12.95 seconds to win the gold ulu, while Bush - who won 5K gold - claimed the 7.5K silver ulu in 44:49.79. Christine Hansen of Haines completed the Alaska sweep by winning the bronze ulu in 45:48.33.

In the boys' 10K snowshoeing event, Juneau's Tristan Knutson-Lombardo, a JDHS junior, claimed his third silver ulu of the Games with a second-place finish in 46:26.04. Yukon's Rodney Hulstein claimed his third gold ulu of the Games by winning in 46:04.66.

Tyler Dinnan, a sophomore at JDHS, claimed the bronze by finishing in 46:37.06.

The all-Southeast Alaska snowshoe contingent - which also included Wesley Dinnan and coaches Guy Thibodeau and Merry Ellefson - finished the games with three gold, six silver and five bronze ulus.

In the final ulu count, which is unofficial host Alberta North was first with 129 total ulus, while Team Alaska was close behind with 127 - 43 golds, 41 silvers and 43 bronzes.

Northwest Territories was third with 104 ulus, and Yukon was fourth with 103. Rounding out the ulu standings were Greenland with 46, Nunavut (45), Yamal-Russia (29), Magadan-Russia (26), Sami-Scandinavia (23) and Nunavik-Quebec (14). Nunavut won the Hodgson Trophy for best overall team sportsmanship.

Volleyball

Adam Peterson of Juneau recorded 16 digs, nine blocks and seven kills and was named MVP as the Alaska boys posted a 17-25, 25-19, 25-21, 17-25, 15-9 win over Alberta North in the gold ulu match.

"His back-row digs and incredible blocking were amazing," McMurray said of Peterson by e-mail.

Juneau's Collin Rielly had 12 digs and eight kills in the final, while Bryan Diebels of Juneau posted eight kills and six digs. Jason Hemphill of North Pole - one of two non-Juneau players on the Alaska team - had 15 digs and 14 kills.

Robert Hickok, Brett Rielly, Dmitriy Stepanov and Evan Thibodeau of Juneau, along with Golovin's Dwight Amaktoolik, round out the gold-ulu squad.

The Alaska girls - including Juneau's Julie Heard - beat Alberta North 21-25, 25-12, 26-28, 25-19, 15-13 in the gold-ulu match. No statistics were available.

In the semifinals, Diebels and Hemphill used some strong serving to overwhelm Northwest Territories 25-8, 25-16, 21-25, 25-13.

"They reeled off thunderous jump serves that no one on NWT even touched," McMurray said of his two players. "We scored over 10 straight points in the first game from ace serves."

Peterson also was named MVP of the semifinal match, and McMurray said at the time he was proud of the whole team whether they won gold or silver in the final.

"They have played really well as a team and as individuals, and it's been particularly enjoyable watching their camaraderie build as they've experienced these Games together," he said.

The Alaska girls swept their semifinal match over Greenland 25-17, 25-9, 25-12 on Friday, but no stats were available.

Indoor soccer

Sekona's hat trick led the Alaska juvenile female indoor soccer squad - coached by Juneau's Gary Lehnhart - to its gold-ulu-clinching win over Alberta North. The team also included Juneau's Kayla Walton and Lindsey Kato.

On Friday, Sekona scored once in Alaska's 2-1 semifinal win over Yukon. Sekona finished with six goals in the Games.

Greta Thibodeau threaded a pass to teammate Maryanne Hoke of Anchorage for a goal midway through the second half of the Alaska intermediate female squad's gold-ulu win over Alberta North. Juneau's Laura Flynn also was on the team, which beat Northwest Territories 6-2 in Friday's semifinals.

Colin Flynn of Juneau scored six goals over the final two games as the Alaska juvenile male squad claimed a silver ulu. Flynn - whose 10 total goals tied for the Games lead in all divisions - scored all four of his team's goals in Friday's 4-2 semifinal win over Northwest Territories. He added two more scores on Saturday, but Alaska fell to Yukon 4-3 in the final. Juneau's Nils Domke also was on the team.

Alaska's junior male squad - including Matthew Walton of Juneau - fell to Yukon 3-2 in Friday's semifinals, but rebounded with a 3-2 win over Magadan in Friday night's bronze-ulu game. Alaska needed two overtimes and a shootout to down the Russian team.

Monica Daugherty of Juneau scored a goal as the Alaska junior female team beat Northwest Territories 3-1 in Friday night's bronze-ulu game. Juneau's Jessy Post also was on the team, which earlier on Friday lost to Yukon 4-2 in the semifinals.

Basketball

The Alaska junior male basketball team defeated Northwest Territories 69-61 on Friday to claim the bronze ulu. Sitka's Keith Stedman, who plays on the team, did not score in the game, and finished with 28 points total for the Games. Arne Erickson of Hoonah coached the team.



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