Homer area sports in brief

Upcoming events

The 2019 Kachemak Ski Marathon begins at 9 a.m. this Saturday. Bib pick up and registration starts at 9 a.m. at the Lookout Mountain Trails. The 42-kilometer and 25k courses are planned for the traditional route: `point-to-point starting at Lookout Trails and ending in the lower Baycrest Trail system. A 13k Tour will start and finish at Lookout Trails. The 42k and 25k races will start at 10:30 a.m. and the 13k Tour starts at 11 a.m. Online registration is available

Practice has started for spring sports including track and field, softball, baseball and soccer.

Basketball: The boys and girls basketball teams will compete this weekend in the Southcentral Conference Tournament in Seward, taking place today, Friday and Saturday.

In review

Basketball: The Soldotna High School basketball programs swept a Saturday Senior Night doubleheader to reach several milestones.

The Class 4A SoHi girls dominated the Class 3A Homer Mariners 66-24, then the SoHi boys prevailed in a narrow 47-46 matchup over Homer to cap the evening.

Both seniors Brittani Blossom and Aliann Schmidt were recognized for eclipsing 1,000 points in their prep career at SoHi. Blossom hit the mark Thursday against Nikiski, while Schmidt needed eight points to do it against Homer, and reached it by the 1:35 mark of the first quarter Saturday.

Schmidt finished with 19 points for the game, while Blossom had 12, Danica Schmidt notched 14 and junior Ituau Tuisaula chipped in 10. Marina Carroll led Homer with 10 points.

The Stars honored seniors Blossom, Danica and Aliann Schmidt, Kalyn McGillivray and Haley Buckbee.

On the boys side, SoHi honored seniors David Michael, Brock Kant, Tommy Wells and Wyatt Denna.

The Stars started fast and took a 13-4 lead early, then pushed their advantage to 35-23 at the end of three quarters, thanks to another stout offensive night from Jersey Truesdell, who finished with 18 points.

The Mariners rallied back in the fourth, outscoring SoHi 23-12 to nearly complete a stunning comeback, but Homer came up short in a balanced scoring effort. The Mariners were led by Eyoab Knapp’s nine points, and also got eight from Japheth McGhee and seven each from Seth Adkins, Daniel Reutov and Jonathon Raymond.

Homer 3 9 6 6 —24

Soldotna 18 18 23 7 —66

HOMER (24) — Rhodes 0, Inama 0, Bishop 0, Morris 0, Doughty 3, Todd 2, Parish 2, Anderson 0, Carroll 10, Smude 5, Hatfield 0, Sonnen 0, Dawson 2.

SOLDOTNA (66) — McGillivray 2, Buckbee 2, Leaf 0, Blossom 12, A. Schmidt 19, Bouschor 0, Tuisaula 10, Holland 0, Crosby-Schneider 5, D. Schmidt 14, Fischer 2.

3-point FG — Homer 0; Soldotna 2 (Blossom 1, D. Schmidt 1).

Team fouls — Homer 9; Soldotna 7. Fouled out — none.

Homer 4 8 11 23 —46

Soldotna 13 10 12 12 —47

HOMER (46) — Munns 0, Beachy 6, Adkins 7, Reutov 7, Raymond 7, Anderson 2, Knapp 9, McGhee 8.

SOLDOTNA (47) — Rich 6, Metcalf 0, Morrison 2, Hanson 4, Chumley 2, Truesdell 18, Kant 2, Wells 5, Rosin 0, Michael 6, Denna 2.

3-point FG — Homer 5 (Beachy 2, Adkins 1, Reutov 1, Raymond 1); Soldotna 6 (Truesdell 5, Wells 1).

Team fouls — Homer 18; Soldotna 15. Fouled out — Knapp.

Middle School sports

Cross-country skiing

The following is a re-cap by coach Mike Gracz of how the Homer Middle School Nordic ski team did last weekend at a borough-wide competition.

“The Homer Middle School Husky ski team hauled home seven top-ten medals last Friday at the Kenai Borough Middle School Championship Nordic Ski Race held at the Kenai Golf Course. Sixty-five skiers from Homer, Soldotna, Kenai, and Seward skied in the classic stride-and-glide technique over an undulating 3.6-kilometer course. The championship race was the only race of the season in the classic technique. However, conditions were nearly ideal, because both grip and glide were readily achievable on the cold snow.

“The top ten skiers in the girls’ and boys’ races each received prize medals. Homer Husky skiers hauled home seven of those medals. In the Girls’ Race, six of the top-ten places were filled by glitter-faced Huskies. Hannah Stonorov hauled home a medal for third, and Ireland Styvar took a medal for fifth. Alana Houlihan, Eryn Field, Sidney Flora, and Sylvia Clemens took medals for seventh through tenth places. Bryce Glidden, Elena Badajos, and Frida Renner were close on their ski tails in eleventh, twelfth, and fourteenth places. Lawson Alexson-Walls finished seventeenth. Courageous Nikole Drake, who just began skiing this year, graduated from the beginner race to take 24th at the full distance. Of the top ten, Kenai skiers took first, second, fourth, and sixth. Kenai phenom Jayna Boonstra again finished in first with a time faster than all but the top two boys over the same race course.

“In the Boys’ Race, Seamus McDonough hauled home a medal for tenth place, and Garrett Briscoe took twelfth. Hudson Loboy finished 28th of 40 competitors. The Homer boys were originally fired-up to attempt skiing the relatively flat course without any ski wax to grip the snow. They intended to use only their upper-body and poles to propel them along on skate skis waxed only for speed, not grip. However, just before the race began, they were persuaded to apply a dab of grip wax so that they could also occasionally employ stride-and-glide technique, which would qualify them for medals. The dab of wax wore off quickly.”

Wrestling

The Popeye Wrestling Club began its tournament season this past weekend in Seward at the Marathon Miners Wrestling Tournaments, according to a release from Jenifer Kumfer. The youth athletes wrestled in the Greco style, as well as freestyle.

The Popeye team came out of the weekend with three first-place finishers in Cameron Cook (in Greco and freestyle), Conner Cook (in Greco) and Hayden Kumfer in the girls freestyle section.

Saoirse Cook finished second in girls freestyle, while Kanin Kumfer and Brooks Mellen also finished second in freestyle. Saoirse Cook also took home a bronze medal in freestyle.

Daniel Yerly competed in freestyle for the Popeye team as well.

“We are proud of all of our Popeyes!” Jenifer Kumfer wrote.

The club will hosts its own tournament the weekend of March 15-16 at Homer High School called “Battle at the Bay – Steve Wolfe Memorial Tournament.”

The Peninsula Clarion contributed to this report.