Alaska sports notebook: Wrangell's Boomchain Loucks receives track honor, Fairbanks' Landon Hafele drafted into NHL
Jun. 29—Following a dominant high school senior season, Wrangell’s Boomchain Loucks on Friday became the first athlete in program history to be named Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year for boys track and field.
“I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know this young man for the last couple years,” Sitka head coach Jeremy Strong said in a statement. “He’s a great kid with a good heart. He seems to make connections wherever he goes. He trains in a town without a track oval and often without any training partners. He is process and goal-driven. His times and accomplishments speak for themselves. I can’t think of another athlete who has experienced his level of individual success this year.”
Loucks completed the middle-distance and distance triple crown at the Division II state championship meet by winning the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. He set a new personal best in the 800 with a time of 1:57.16, and cruised to a victory in the 1,600 with a mark of 4:19.55. His first-place time in the 3,200 of 9:37.24 nearly matched his season- and personal-best time of 9:31.78 from the Region V championships. He also ran Alaska’s fastest 1,600 time of 2026, 4:18.62 at the Liberty Twilight meet.
This award also recognizes athletes for their academic rigor and exemplary character off the track. Loucks maintained a 3.74 GPA and volunteered locally with community clean-up days and with Tech Savvy Senior, a group that provides technology assistance to elderly community members. He will compete in both track and field and cross-country for Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
Fairbanks’ Landon Hafele on Saturday became the latest Alaska-born hockey player to be selected in the annual NHL Draft when he was taken in the sixth round at 167th overall by the Winnipeg Jets.
The 18-year-old is slated to be an incoming freshman at Arizona State University and is coming off a standout season for the Green Bay Gamblers in the USHL, where he recorded 42 regular-season points in 52 games after scoring 15 goals and logging 27 assists.
“Being from Alaska, I don’t think the cold will both me too much,” Hafele said via the USHL. “With my dad being here and him pushing me to where I’m at now and getting me here, it was great to experience (getting drafted with family around).”
The University of Alaska Fairbanks men’s basketball team continued to add to its coaching staff under head coach Frank Ostanik on Friday with the hiring of Terrell Peter. He is originally from Fairbanks, where he graduated from West Valley High School and earned his undergraduate degree at UAF, and he spent the past two years as a graduate assistant coach at Washington State University.
“I could not be happier to have Terrell join our staff,” Ostanik said in a statement. “Adding a staff member from Fairbanks who already has a great deal of experience working at the collegiate level is a really big deal. Terrell has made a huge impact on the program just in the short amount of time he has been with us. Rarely do you find someone his age who is as committed, focused, and hard-working as Terrell. It’s especially refreshing to find someone who has that skill set who loves Fairbanks.”
The Alaska 529 Midseason Classic for the 2026 Legion baseball season wrapped Sunday evening when the Kenai Post 20 Twins beat the Dimond Post 21 Lynx 9-5 at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.
“Our kids played great,” Kenai head coach Robb Quelland said. “We go through a lot of adversity from having to travel, sleeping on the floor (of a church basement) for a week up here away from their homes. We’re always proud of how our kids come through and do what they need to do to win games.”
The tournament had a double-elimination format, and the finals matchup began as a back-and-forth battle that saw the lead change hands through the first couple of innings, with the game tied 5-5 at the end of the fourth.
From there, it was all Kenai as the Twins broke the tie in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single from Jackson Koetitz. in the bottom of the fifth, tournament MVP Jacob Joanis recorded his second RBI of the game on a double to extend the lead to two runs, and Matthew Shilling tacked on a two-run RBI single for the final margin of victory.
“Dimond was a tough team coming in,” Quelland said. “We saw the box scores, and they’re scoring 45 runs in three games. We’re the only team that kept them to three. They’re hitting like crazy with 15-plus hits a game, so our pitchers really had to navigate their offense.”
Their pitching strategy worked extremely well in several key moments where the Lynx could’ve retaken the lead or kept their hopes of pulling off a late rally alive.
With two outs on the board but bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning, Malakai BeDunnah held off Dimond, coming up clutch on the mound with another kill.
“He’s 5-foot-2 but he’s 6-foot-5 in his head,” Quelland said with a laugh. “He didn’t get flustered with bases loaded and came in and did his job.”
Jayden Stuyvesant closed out the game on the bump for the Twins without surrendering a single run, to secure the victory.
“We went with our guys and we knew exactly where they were going to go and what we were going to pitch them,” Quelland said. “They know their roles and just came in and did it.”
Even though they trailed 2-1 after the opening frame, Joanis’ solo home run in the bottom of the first set the tone for the Twins’ offense the rest of the way.
“Jacob Joanis is probably one of the best players in the league,” Quelland said. “He is such a calm character. He just smooth swings and it just went out (of the park) like, ‘There’s another one,’ and he never thought about it again.”
While the stands were far from packed on the rainy day, winning the tournament without having to go to an if-necessary game gives his team confidence moving forward, he said. He also acknowledged that it likely puts a target on their backs the rest of the way.
“Everyone watches scores and looks at them,” Quelland said. “They can say what they want about it, that it’s a non-league game, but it does set the tone for the season.”
