Chugiak

The Cook Inlet Conference Basketball Tournament continued Thursday night at West High School with two minor upsets in girls action.   Sixth seeded Bartlett took down West, 46-33 behind 17 points from Bobbi Britt. The Golden Bears advance to face South in the semifinals. The day's other girls game was a close one, with fifth seeded Chugiak edging East, 36-35. The Mustangs will meet top seed Dimond in the semifinals. Form held in the boys tournament, with Dimond easily defeating South, 60-36.

After enduring a winless 2009 season, the Dimond High School football team is off to a 2-1 start under rookie head coach Chris Borst. The recent successes make the Lynx believe they can contend for a playoff spot in the Cook Inlet Conference. Friday's game against Chugiak should provide a good indication of whether or not the Lynx are ready to make that step; both teams are 1-1 in league play. “I'm looking forward to it, we've been working pretty hard -- I just hope we got what it takes,” said Dimond linebacker Andre Toliver.

West High School's first experience in softball's state tournament Friday was a head-on collision with an Alaska titan. West and Chugiak won Friday's openers, setting up a CIC clash in the winners' bracket semifinals. Scoreless in the 5th inning, the Eagles' Jazmin Smith hit a bouncer to short. The throw by Mollie Mathis was low, enabling the first run of the game to score. But then the Mustangs kicked the ball around some more, with Taylor Donovan coming in ahead of a wild throw home to make West's tally 2-0. Chugiak drew even in the 7th inning, with a bunt down and a runner on second base while Pauline Tufi chucked it into right field.

Blowing up ice - that's exactly how crews are clearing ice jams in Chugiak caused by the devastating September flooding . Due to dropping temperatures, houses along Aurora Borealis Road are now surrounded by ice as a result of Peters Creek flooding. Statewide Blasting and Perforating Service has been detonating dynamite placed underneath the ice. They hope this will cause the water to drop to normal levels - and ice that is surrounding those homes will in turn recede back into Peters Creek.

UPDATE: As of 7:30 p.m. Saturday, MEA said power is back up. A spokesperson said the outage happened when the weight of ice on a tree caused it to fall, and took a segment of the power line down with it. Crews are working to fix a power outage in the Chugiak and Peters Creek area. Wes Lindsey, a spokesperson for the Matanuska Electric Association said power has been off since about 5 p.m. Saturday. Lindsey said about 200 people are without power. Crews are on the scene making repairs.

This state tournament classic was elevated by the Lynx having to play down a player for most of the game after a red card was issued to one of their players early on.  Down 1-0 in the final 10 minutes of regulation, Dimond forced overtime on a goal by Sam Castle.  In soccer, overtime consists of two 20-minute halves, and the Mustangs quickly surged ahead once more on a free kick goal by All-American Kelly Cobb.  Later in OT, Dimond tied it...

Kelly Cobb of Chugiak is just the latest Alaskan athlete to find success at the international level. As the starting forward on the U.S. U-20 Women's National Team, Cobb scored a goal and added an assist Tuesday March 8th in a 2-0 victory to over Norway to conclude the team's participation at the La Manga Ten Nations Tournament. The U.S. ladies handled themselves quite well over the course of the event with a record of 1-0-1. Prior to the women's 2-0 win over Norway the U-20 gals fought to a 0-0 draw with England.

The top seeded teams for this week's ASAA state soccer tournament will be the two schools that are combining to host the event. The Chugiak girls and Dimond boys earn the tournament's high seeds based on their victories at last week's Cook Inlet Conference tournament. The Mustangs will face Wasilla in Thursday's quarterfinal round, while the Lynx boys will face Service. Following Thursday's quarterfinal round, the rest of the winner's bracket will be contested at Dimond, culminating in Saturday's title games.

The Alaska Schools Activities Association has unveiled the first round matchups and quarterfinal times for the state boys and girls soccer tournaments that are being co-hosted by Chugiak and Eagle River High Schools this week. A quick glance at the draw reveals that all four boys region champions are in the same half of the bracket. In the girls tournament, powerhouse schools Dimond and South will hook up in the quarterfinals. ASAA Boys Soccer Quarterfinals--Thursday Juneau vs. Colony, 3:45 ( Eagle River )

WEST over @Bartlett                35-0 SOUTH over @Chugiak             41-3 JUNEAU over @Colony              21-20 @PALMER over West Valley       26-7 HOUSTON over @skyview          33-26