The capital city’s American Legion baseball went on a tear from 2017-2019, compiling an 85-16 record. Of those 85 wins, few if any were more dramatic than the two that sealed Juneau Post 25’s third-consecutive state championship at the American Legion state tournament<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The Midnight Suns came back from a 4-3 deficit in extra innings against South Post 4 in the semifinals. In the finals against Wasilla, Juneau’s defense made multiple outs with the bases loaded and the game tied at 8 in the bottom of the seventh, eventually winning 13-8 in extras.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “We told them the scrappiest team is going to win here,” Juneau coach Joe Tompkins said. “There was so much talent in this tournament — this is probably the best tournament that I’ve been to. There was not a lot of blowouts, there was a lot of one-run games, there was a lot of great baseball. Chugiak put us in the loser’s bracket, but they could’ve won it. South could’ve won it. Wasilla definitely could have won it.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Kasey Watts, Donavin McCurley and Bobby Cox were the cornerstones of the dynasty<\/a>. The team affectionately nicknamed Cox, “UPS,” after his dad’s employer, and Cox “delivered” plenty of times. The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder led the team with 14 doubles, four triples and 38 runs through the end of the state tournament.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t All three players, who played together for three seasons, aged out of American Legion baseball at the end of the season.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Tuckwood wins fourth-consecutive Region V title<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Sadie Tuckwood made Southeast running history in September<\/a>, becoming the first-ever four-time champion at the Region V Cross Country Championships. Tuckwood finished in 17 minutes, 50 seconds, at the region meet, 20 seconds faster than her previous best time on the 5-kilometer Sitka course.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t She set her previous personal best during her first Region V-winning performance (18:12)<\/a>, after which she won the state title and Gatorade Player of the Year for Alaska girls cross country.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “If you can’t set a goal or do something for yourself, do it for your teammates — that’s kind of our motto,” JDHS co-coach Tristan Knutson-Lombardo said. “And I think Sadie has really grown in that respect from her freshman year to now her senior year.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Tuckwood, a senior, signed a National Letter of Intent with the Spokane, Washington Gonzaga Bulldogs<\/a> last month, making her the first Juneau-Douglas girls runner to go Division I in nine years.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaat.at Kalé senior Sadie Tuckwood runs to her fourth-consecutive Region V Division I title at Sitka National Historical Park on Sept. 28, 2019. Tuckwood finished the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 50 seconds, over one minute faster than the rest of the field. (James Poulson | Sitka Sentinel)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Miller leads JDHS to second-consecutive state title<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t JDHS senior Malia Miller also won the Gatorade Player of the Year award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Miller was named Alaska’s best girls soccer player after leading the Crimson Bears to their second-consecutive state title<\/a>. She finished her high school career with 105 goals, a new state record.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “I wasn’t completely sure I was going to get it this year,” Miller said of the award. “I didn’t get it last year, and it was a little discouraging. I know there’s a lot of great athletes everywhere throughout Alaska so it was pretty cool to hear they gave it to me.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Miller went to Bellevue College in Washington, where she recorded nine assists this fall. That tally is tied for second in the Northwest Athletic Conference.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Juneau-Douglas’ Malia Miller, right, shoots and scores against Soldotna’s Sierra Longfellow, left, and Caleigh Glassmaker at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Field on Friday, April 26, 2019. When JDHS and Soldotna rematched in the state championship match a month later, Miller scored two more goals to finish with 105 in her career, the most in Alaska girls soccer. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire File)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Juneau Huskies capture the Chugach Conference championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t In one year, Juneau’s combined high school football team went from worst to first.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The Juneau Huskies creamed Bartlett High School<\/a> 67-24 on the final week of the regular season to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Chugach Conference. It was quite a reversal from 2018, when the Huskies were winless and finished last in the five-team conference.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The merged program went 0-8 in its inaugural season (2018) and averaged just six points per game. This year, Rich Sjoroos’ team averaged 40 points per game and went 5-4.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Juneau lost in the first round of the playoffs<\/a> to eventual state champion South Anchorage.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “Everybody that is out there for Juneau, there’s really no playoff experience there,” Sjoroos said at the time. “So to get a game under their belt now is really going to build us for next year, and the fact that almost every kid is coming back, I think they’re going to be pretty motivated and hungry to avenge anything like that that happened this year.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Honorable mentions: <\/strong>Hall of famer<\/a> Justin Dorn claimed a triathlon championship<\/a>, Chad Bentz inducted into Alaska Sports Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \u2022 Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t A look back at the year’s highlights. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":56884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":11,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-56883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home2","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56883"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=56883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Juneau-Douglas](\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/19928142_web1_regionvxcountry092819_37.jpg\")
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