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1 week ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
On the eve of their first Midnight Sun Game against an Anchorage team since 1996, the Alaska Goldpanners opened a series against a fellow Alaska Baseball League founding member, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, with a 5-1 win and a show of defensive dominance. The Goldpanners’ pitching staff showed out, relenting a home run to the Glacier Pilots’ second batter of the game and shutting them out from there.
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1 week ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
With the 2024-25 academic year now in the rearview, let’s take a look back at the final stretch of the year through five numbers that defined Fairbanks North Star Borough spring sports teams and athletes. West Valley is the only school to finish in the top half of the Alaska Division I boys soccer state tournament field each of the last four years. Colony has done so for the past three years but finished fifth in 2022.
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1 week ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
The Alaska Goldpanners closed a six-game series against the San Diego Waves with a split after losing Monday. The ‘Panners (now 6-3 overall) went scoreless through the first five innings before momentarily drawing close with a three-run seventh inning. The Waves (7-4) answered with their best offensive frame, a four-run eighth inning, en route to a 9-5 win that saw the Goldpanners field five pitchers. “This series was good for us,” Goldpanners field manager Carlos Gonzales said postgame.
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1 week ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
One week after the final prep sports competitions of the 2024-25 academic year, it’s time to reflect upon how every Fairbanks-area team fared. North Pole had the lone state title-winning team in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, as the Patriots won the first-ever flag football state title. However, Fairbanks also produced a handful of state runner-up squads: Lathrop football, West Valley boys soccer, West Valley hockey, West Valley boys nordic skiing and West Valley girls nordic skiing.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
One of the biggest stars of Alaska's first-ever flag football state championship team has signed to continue competing collegiately. Tiahna Guzman, a 2025 North Pole High School graduate, will attend Bryant & Stratton College in Wisconsin next year and join the Bobcats’ flag football program. Guzman is headed to the two-year junior college after playing a critical role for the Patriots’ 15-1 squad that ranked No. 8 nationally in 2024.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
Samuel Zielke ran away from the field to become a first-time Jim Loftus Mile champion in his first appearance in the race, while Melanie Nussbaumer not only defended her 2024 Jim Loftus Mile women’s division title but also improved upon her own meet record. Zielke, who’s in the Army and new to Fairbanks, led the field through a fast first lap and separated himself during the second lap.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
The 2025 spring sports season concluded this past weekend, and the summer college baseball season just began, making now an optimal time for an Anchorage sports check-in. We’ll recap the spring sports postseasons for Anchorage teams and look at the baseball season in progress. Anchorage prepsAnchorage has now produced 15 consecutive D1 softball state champions. South Anchorage defeated Chugiak for the 2025 state title a year after going 0-2 at the 2024 Softball State Championships in Fairbanks.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
Seven Fairbanks-area soccer players were named to the Alaska Soccer State All-Tournament teams for their efforts at the state championships in the Mat-Su Valley late last month. That marked almost double the amount of Interior athletes selected to the 2024 Alaska Soccer State All-Tournament teams (four). The final ballots acquired from ASAA on Tuesday feature four teams (Division I girls, Division I boys, Division II girls, Division II boys) with 12 players apiece voted on by coaches.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
The Brian Young Invitational was the final in-state event for Alaska's prep track and field athletes this year, and many of the Interior’s top competitors made the trip down to Kodiak for the two-day meet on Friday and Saturday. The postseason all-star meet annually held one week after the ASAA Track and Field State Championships returned to its usual home at Kodiak High School’s Joe Floyd Track after being held at West Valley High School last year.
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2 weeks ago | 
newsminer.com | Gavin Struve
The Alaska Goldpanners clinched a weekend series win by beating Kingsmen Baseball for the second time in as many nights at Growden Park, winning 6-1 on Saturday. For the second night in a row, the Goldpanners recorded just over half as many hits as their opponent but led for the vast majority of the game. They were outhit 7-to-4 Saturday. “These guys are just getting back into it and some guys can’t handle wood [bats] right now,” Goldpanners field manager Carlos Gonzales said postgame. “It’s tough.
