Courtesy of coaches Amber Wood & Julie Heard

Unalaska’s volleyball team is on its way to the state championships. The Raiders secured their berth this weekend at the 2A Borealis conference playoffs in Anchorage.

Coach Julie Heard says Unalaska played a solid match against Holy Rosary, before moving on to a challenging bout with Cook Inlet Academy, or CIA.

"CIA beat us the first two games, and these are matches three out of five," Heard says. "So we needed to come back and beat them the next three games to win the match. And we did that."

Unalaska volleyball and wrestling teams came home Sunday night with a tournament trophy in tow. / Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

This weekend, Unalaska’s wrestling and volleyball teams made a splash in their final tournaments before regional championships.

The girls’ volleyball squad competed at Cook Inlet Academy’s tournament in Soldotna. Coach Julie Heard says the team performed well right out of the gate, winning their first match against Holy Rosary Academy on Friday.

"And then the power went out and there was a five-hour power outage," Heard says. "We resumed play at five o’clock that night."

Unalaska sophomore Ross Enlow finished strong at the cross-country state championships this weekend. Enlow completed the 5K course in 18 minutes and 1 second, which put him in 29th place. 

He was up against 118 other runners from 1A, 2A and 3A schools at Bartlett High in Anchorage.

Enlow was the Raiders’ sole representative at championships. To qualify, he finished in first place at the cross country regional meet earlier this month.

Unalaska's cross country team in Bethel. / Credit: David Gibson

Raider runners made a strong showing at their regional cross country meet this weekend in Bethel, with one qualifying for the state championships.

Sophomore Ross Enlow clinched his place: He was the top individual finisher in the boys’ race, with a time of 20:17.

There were a total of seven regional cross-country meets this weekend around the state. The top-finishing boys' and girls' teams from each competition are moving on to state, along with the top 15 individual runners for each region.

Frank Kelty, Denise Furneaux and Phil Hanson raise the "12th Man" flag. / Credit: Ben Matheson

Unalaska has a strong connection with Seattle through the fishing and shipping industries -- and that relationship extends to football with a small but enthusiastic Seahawks fan base.

Three longtime fans cemented that bond Friday when they hoisted a "12th Man" flag at the Tom Madsen Airport. Denise Furneaux brought the flag up from Seattle, where she got it from Terry Fletcher, a former Unalaska resident.

After 4 months alone at sea, a British rower is closing in on Adak.  28-year-old Sarah Outen left Japan this April in a one-person partially enclosed boat, in an attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the North Pacific Ocean.

Outen’s latest reported position is about 167 miles from Adak.

She’s faced rough seas this summer, and had to hunker down in occasional gale-force winds.  In a satellite phone dispatch late last week, Outen says she’s had to stay alert even when sleeping. She reports waking up to a giant roll: 

Unalaska cross country runner Ross Enlow broke a school record at a meet this weekend in Palmer.

The new Unalaska boys record for 5K now stands at 17 minutes and 51 seconds, which put Enlow in 6th place.

As a team, the Unalaska boys took fifth out of 10 teams. Also scoring for the Raiders was Bryan Earnshaw, in 28th with a time of 18:56, and Michael Remolino in 34th at 19:21. He was followed by Andy Nguyen in 47th and Jerome Torres in the 54th position.

Courtesy of David Gibson

Last Saturday, Unalaska High School’s cross-country team put in a good effort against much larger schools at their first race of the season.

The Raiders originally planned to compete in Bethel against other 2A schools. But when that race was cancelled, the team decided to head to Soldotna instead to join 3A and 4A schools at the Skyview High School invitational race.

Cross-country coach David Gibson says it was a tough race for his still-new team. None of the runners placed. But sophomore Ross Enlow set a new school record, finishing the 5K race in 17 minutes and 54 seconds. Enlow broke his own previous school record, which he’d set last year with a time of 18 minutes and 34 seconds.

A sailor who shipwrecked on Akutan last year is restarting his around-the-world journey.

According to the Whidbey News-Times, 61-year-old Rimas Meleshyus left Washington on Monday, bound for the southern tip of South America. He’s sailing a San Juan 24 -- the same kind of boat he used to cross the Gulf of Alaska last summer. That vessel ended up beached in Sarana Bay on the south side of Akutan during a storm, and after waiting nine days for a rescue, Meleshyus had to abandon it.