Girl power on the ice, and on the mat.
A basketball star who’s true to her school, and a cycling phenom who keeps schooling the competition.
And an Alaska Winter Stars hat trick.
Six people and one team are the winners of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame’s 2026 Directors’ Awards, presented annually in recognition of the best in Alaska sports. They’ll be honored at a June 3 ceremony at the Anchorage Museum.
Leading the way is Winter Olympics silver medalist Gus Schumacher of Anchorage, who became the third American man in history to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing.
Schumacher, 25, is one of four people honored with Pride of Alaska awards as the year’s top athletes. The others:
- Kristen Faulkner of Homer (adult woman), a cyclist who won three gold medals at the recent Pan-Am Games in South America.
- Sobina Clendaniel of Seward (youth girl), who in the last calendar year has collected three medals at three national wrestling tournaments.
- Jack Leveque of Anchorage (youth boy), who won state and national championships in cross-country skiing.
Schumacher and Leveque are among three winners connected to the Alaska Winter Stars ski club of Anchorage — the other is Jan Buron, the club’s founder and head coach.
Buron won the Joe Floyd Award, which honors someone who has made a significant and lasting contribution to Alaska through sports.
The final two winners are UAA women’s basketball player Elaina Mack of King Cove and the Kenai Ice Hawks girls 12U hockey team. Both received the Trajan Langdon Award, which rewards sportsmanship, leadership and inspiration.
Mack, the adult-division winner of the award, showed loyalty to her school last summer when UAA’s coaching staff and most of its players chose to leave for a Division I school. She stuck with the Division II Seawolves and, as the only returner this season, led them to a winning record.
The youth award went to the Ice Hawks, a team of players 12 years and younger, became the first all-girls team to win a championship in the co-ed 12UB Alaska State Hockey Tournament.
Among this year’s seven honorees, three are repeat winners.
Faulkner and Leveque won Pride of Alaska awards last year, and Schumacher is the first four-time winner. Schumacher won the men’s Pride of Alaska award in 2024 and 2020 and was the boys winner in 2018.
Winners will be honored on the same night as the induction of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. The event is open to the public.
That group, announced in December, includes three individuals — adventurer Dick Griffith of Anchorage, basketball player Butch Lincoln of Kotzebue and bowler Sean Rash of Anchorage — and two moments — the triple-overtime state basketball championship game between East and Bartlett in 1993, and Ephriam Kalmakoff’s record-setting Mount Marathon victory in 1928.
The inaugural class of the Hall of Fame was inducted in 2007. Directors’ Awards were established in 2012, with three youth categories added in 2018.
Directors’ Awards are decided annually by a vote of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame’s board of directors.
Winners are selected from a large pool of nominees that come from coaches, school administrators and other members of the public, as well as from members of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame selection panel and reporters for the Alaska Sports Report.
After the field is narrowed to about 60, the nine-member board of directors plus Hall of Fame executive director Harlow Robinson determine three finalists and the winner in each of the seven categories.
“Alaska is a big state,” said Robinson. “Every year our challenge is to make sure every worthy candidate is considered and every year we come away from the process in awe of of how many talented athletes we have across our state from a wide range of sports.”
Gus Schumacher, Pride of Alaska (men)
Schumacher turned in the best cross-country ski season by an American man in decades, one that will be remembered forever for a gutsy, silver-medal performance at February’s Winter Olympics in Italy.
Schumacher teamed up with Ben Ogden of Vermont to claim second place in the team sprint, a two-person, six-lap relay race.
He skied the final lap, which started with juggernaut Norway holding a narrow lead in a tight lead pack of at least six teams, including the United States.
He was up against Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, whose jaw-dropping uphill speed had already earned him four gold medals and world-wide fame.
When Klaebo made his trademark uphill move, only Schumacher had the guts to go with him.
The medal was the third in Olympic history for the U.S. men. The first came 50 years earlier when Bill Koch won a silver medal; the second came eight days earlier when Ogden won silver in the classic sprint.
Schumacher’s medal was part of a stellar season that included three World Cup medals and a seventh-place overall finish in the World Cup standings — the highest ranking for an American man since the Koch era.
Kristen Faulkner, Pride of Alaska (women)
A two-time Olympic gold medalist in 2024, Faulkner demonstrated patience and resiliency after a season-ending injury in 2025.
Successful shoulder surgery was followed by rehab that kept the two-time U.S. road racing champion off the road for several weeks.
She returned to action in February as a member of Team USA at the Pan Am Games track cycling championships in Chile.
The event marked her return to the track for the first time since the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she didn’t disappoint. She won golds in the team pursuit and the individual pursuit.
In March, she added another Pan Am gold medal by winning the time trial at the road continental championships in Colombia.
Faulkner races professionally for the EF Pro Cycling team.
Jack Leveque, Pride of Alaska (youth boys)
Leveque excelled at the state, national and world stage, showing for the second straight season that he’s one of the top young skiers in the country.
A junior at Service High, he won both individual races at the state high school cross-country championships to repeat as Alaska Skimeister.
He earned three medals in three races at the U.S. Junior National championships in Wisconsin, taking gold in the 5K classic and the mixed relay and silver in the classic sprint.
At the U.S. Nationals in New York, he placed 14th in the 10K classic, a result that put him in the bronze-medal position on the podium for racers 18 years and younger.
At the World Junior Championships in Norway, he grabbed 10th place in the 10K classic — perhaps his greatest result of the season.
In a competition for the world’s best skiers ages 20 and younger, Leveque was the youngest skier to finish in the top 25 — a 16-year-old surrounded by skiers 2-4 years older than him.
Leveque was born in 2009. The 10K race featured 102 skiers, and only 11 were born in 2009 or later. All but three of those 11 finished lower than 45th.
Even skiers a year older couldn’t beat him — Leveque finished four spots ahead of the fastest skier born in 2008.
Sobina Clendaniel, Pride of Alaska (youth girls)
The 16-year-old from Seward is making a name for herself at the national level, with three medals in three major tournaments.
Earlier this month at the USA Wrestling women’s national championships, Clendaniel proved dangerous in two age groups and two weight classes.
She claimed bronze in the U17 57kg division, placing third in a field of 85.
She tested herself by wrestling in the U20 59kg division, placing fourth in a field of 51, most of them older and more experienced.
Those results followed a silver-medal performance at the U17 Pan-Am Team Trials in March. Her other medal at a national tournament came at last summer’s high-profile U.S. Marine Corps Junior National championships in Fargo, N.D., where she finished third in the U16 125-pound weight class.
The bronze medal in Fargo earned Clendaniel an invitation to spend a week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. She returned from that trip to win the Alaska high school championship at 126 pounds and cap a 20-0 season with the Seward Seahawks.
Jan Buron, Joe Floyd Award
Buron produces champions. Dozens and dozens of them over a couple of generations of coaching.
He came to Alaska in 1992, and quickly became a key component of the Anchorage cross-country scene. He founded the Alaska Winter Stars in 1997 and became the head coach at Service High in 1998.
Since then, Alaska Winter Star athletes have won more than 50 gold medals at the U.S. Junior Nationals and Service High athletes have won more than 30 Alaska Skimeister awards and more than 25 state team titles.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard has honored him four times as the coach of the year — in 1999 and 2010 as the domestic coach of the year and in 2019 and 2020 as the international coach of the year.
Buron has helped several athletes reach the Olympics, and this year his star pupil — Gus Schumacher, who trained with Buron for 14 years — won a historic silver medal at the Winter Olympics.
Elaina Mack, Trajan Langdon Award (adult)
Be true to your school. The decades-old Beach Boys hit is the theme song for Mack’s record-setting senior season with the Seawolves.
At the end of the 2024-25 season, UAA’s coaching staff and most of its players left for the NCAA Division I ranks. She could have followed the crowd, but she chose to stay in Alaska — a rare show of loyalty in the age of the transfer portal.
The standout from King Cove is just the second Class 1A player to play for the Seawolves, and she steadily proved her worth.
She went from a seldom-used bench player to a two-time honorable mention all-conference pick.
As a senior, she captained an all-new UAA team to a 16-11 record while carving her name into the school record book. In a November win over Northwest University, Mack tied the single-game scoring record with 41 points and set the record for most 3-pointers in a game with 10.
For her career, Mack finished 14th on the UAA’s all-the scoring list with 1,128 points. She ranks third in 3-pointers with 237 and first in 3-pointers per game with 2.1.
She did all that while also remaining true to her schoolwork. Mack is on track to add a degree in applied technologies leadership to the degree in kinesiology she already possesses.
Kenai Ice Hawks, Trajan Langdon Award (youth)
Girl power decided the championship of a co-ed state hockey tournament this year.
The Kenai Ice Hawks, a 12-and-under girls team, became the first all-girls team to win an Alaska State Hockey Association co-ed state tournament.
“This is something that’s never been done before,” coach Chris Chambos told KSRM radio. “For these girls to go through a coed tournament — where most teams are overwhelmingly boys — and come out on top, it’s incredible.”
The Ice Hawks scored the winning goal with less than 55 seconds left in the championship game to claim the 12UB state title.
They beat the tournament-favorite Nikiski Ice Dawgs 3-2 in the title match, stopping a team that had steamrolled through five previous tournament games by outscoring opponents 39-18.
A member of the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association, the Ice Hawks grinded their way through their first five tournament games, going 4-1 while outscoring opponents 12-8.
“These girls made history,” Chambos said. “It’s a huge win for girls hockey in Alaska.”
Pride of Alaska
Men
2026 finalists — Gus Schumacher, Jeremy Swayman, Andrew Kurka
Winners
2026: Gus Schumacher
2025: David Norris
2024: Gus Schumacher
2023: Jeremy Swayman
2022: Scott Patterson
2021: Dallas Seavey
2020: Gus Schumacher
2019: Keegan Messing
2018: Andrew Kurka
2017: David Norris
2016: Dallas Seavey; Soldotna football team (co-winners)
2015: Erik Flora
2014: Trevor Dunbar; Eric Strabel (co-winners)
2013: Mario Chalmers
2012: Alaska Aces
Women
2026 finalists — Kristen Faulkner, Sayvia Sellers Kendall Kramer
Winners
2026: Kristen Faulkner
2025: Kristen Faulkner
2024: Alissa Pili
2023: Alissa Pili
2022: Clair DeGeorge
2021: Rosie Brennan
2020: Ruthy Hebard
2019: Caroline Kurgat
2018: Kikkan Randall; Roxie Wright (co-winners)
2017: Morgan Hooe
2016: UAA basketball team; Allie Ostrander (co-winners)
2015: Allie Ostrander
2014: Kikkan Randall
2013: Nunaka Valley softball team
2012: UAA basketball team
Boys
2026 finalists — Jack Leveque, Zane Gerlach, Deuce Alailefaleula
Winners
2026: Jack Leveque
2025: Jack Leveque
2024: P.J. Foy
2023: Finnigan Donley
2022: Obed Vargas
2021: Tristian Merchant
2020: Hayden Lieb; Aeyden Concepcion (co-winners)
2019: Jersey Truesdell
2018: Gus Schumacher
Girls
2026 finalists — Sobina Clendaniel, Katie Rowekamp, Reine Soule
Winners
2026: Sobina Clendaniel
2025: Layla Hays
2024: Emily Robinson
2023: Sayvia Sellers
2022: Lydia Jacoby
2021: Lydia Jacoby
2020: Hailey Williams
2019: Kendall Kramer
2018: Alissa Pili
Joe Floyd Award
2026 finalists — Jan Buron, Ed Conway, Dale McClements-Kephart
Winners
2026: Jan Buron
2025: Dane Ferguson
2024: Doug Keil
2023: Kathleen Navarre
2022: Beth Bragg
2021: Richard Knowles
2020: Cristy Hickel
2019: Brush Christiansen
2018: Jim Mahaffey
2017: Ma’o Tosi
2016: Dennis Sorenson
2015: Mike Friess
2014: Dick Mize
2013: Don Dennis
2012: Steve Nerland and Don Winchester
Trajan Langdon Award
Adult
2026 finalists — Elaina Mack, Paige Drobny, Joe Dugan
Winners
2026: Elaina Mack
2025: Rebecca McKee
2024: Tyson Gilbert
2023: Vanessa Aniteye
2022: Hannah Halverson
2021: Billy Strickland
2020: Israel Hale
2019: Andy Beardsely and Larsen Klingel
2018: DaJonee Hale
2017: Damen Bell-Holter
2016: Laci Effenberger
2015: Aliy Zirkle
2014: Marko Cheseto
2013: Paul Tandy
2012: Chugiak High School football team
Youth
2026 finalists — Kenai Ice Hawks, Kipnuk basketball team, Daniel Rodgers
Winners
2026: Kenai Ice Hawks girls 12U team
2025: Jackson Snaric, Homer
2024: Petersburg boys basketball team
2023: Geremu Daggett and Colton Merriner, Grace Christian
2022: Jeremy Lane, Point Lay
2021: West Anchorage Legion baseball team
2020: Houston High football team
2019: South High boys basketball team
2018: Brenner Furlong, Soldotna