Alaska sports notebook: Local hoops star Da’Zhon Wyche is coming home for senior season; Coleman Nash named GNAC track athlete of the week

The University of Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball team is losing one local product and prolific scorer with the transfer of junior Tobin Karlberg but will be gaining one back with graduate transfer Da’Zhon Wyche.

While the former Grace Christian star Karlberg will be taking his talents to southern California to play for Division II Point Loma Nazarene University, Wyche, who starred at West High School from 2013-2016, is bringing his back to Alaska.

The school hasn’t officially announced the transfer yet, but Wyche said he plans to fill out the appropriate paperwork when he returns to the state after the semester.

One of the most productive basketball players in state history, Wyche was 4A Player of the Year at West High in 2015 and 2016.

Wyche has racked up a combined 1,498 points between his time at the junior college and Division II levels with Laramie County Community College in Wyoming and Texas-Tyler respectively. He has also recorded 449 career assists at the two schools.

Nash earns weekly honor for record-setting finish

The UAA track team dominated and had several personal and program record-setting finishes at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic in San Francisco last weekend.

Sophomore Coleman Nash had a historic finish in the 5,000 on Friday when he ran a personal best of 13 minutes, 53.33 seconds, which was the second-fastest time in NCAA Division II and second all time in program history behind only former national champion Micah Chelimo who recorded a time of 13:41.99 in 2014.

His speedy finish earned him GNAC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week honors and means that the top-five performers in the men’s 5,000 in GNAC history are all Seawolves.

Several other Seawolves shine and set records in San Francisco

On Saturday, several of Nash’s teammates broke three meet and two school records.

Josh Wagner won the men’s 110 hurdles in a meet record time of 14.47 and placed fourth in the 400 hurdles in 55.21. Tylantiss Atlas won the 400 in a meet record time of 56.13.

The women’s sprint medley relay (200-200-400-800) team of Kaitlyn Backman, Mette Van der Meer, Joei Vidad and Atlas finished first in a meet record time of 4:13.76.

Elena Cano finished second in the 100 hurdles in a school record time of 14.15 and came in second in the 400 hurdles in a personal-best mark of 1:00.16.

Mette Van der Meer increased the school record in the pole vault to 11-6.5 to tie for sixth place.

Tanner Murphy earns top 10 finish at Junior World Championships

In just his first year of eligibility, Tanner Murphy of the Alyeska Ski Club placed sixth in the Ski Cross Junior World Championship in Veysonnaz, Switzerland. At 17 years old, he was the youngest member of the U.S. team and finished first among all Americans in the event. With his finish, Murphy will be eligible to start in World Cup events next season. The next event he will be competing in is the U.S. Nationals in Copper Mountain, Colorado, on April 10.

“The track was incredible for a junior event,” U.S. World Junior/Alyeska Ski Club coach Morgan Haymans said in a statement. “It was the same track they used for the World Cup race with small modifications made to the start section and a few of the rollers. It had one huge jump right after the start section and two long roller sections that suited Tanner well. Tanner skied well in training and was competitive with the top athletes. He qualified fifth in the time trial and then we knew for sure he had a shot at doing well. Every heat was a battle for Tanner, some of which came down to a photo finish to see who would advance to the next round.”

Alaska’s Annisa Boots and Bailey Brunnhoelzl win national girls hockey title

After spending the last year living in Detroit, Michigan, as members of the Little Caesar’s AAA Hockey Club, Annisa Boots and Bailey Brunnhoelzl of Alaska won the Girls U19 Tier 1 National Championship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday. Brunnhoelzl assisted Elyssa Biederman for the first score of the game as the team went on to win 4-1.