Sentinel wins second in sports photography

Wrangell Sentinel reporter/photographer Caleb Vierkant won second place for best sports photo in the 2020 Alaska Press Club competition.

The photo in the March 5, 2020, Sentinel, “Wolves host Haines for last home games of the season,” features the basketball team cheering and high-fiving Hank Voltz as he walks onto the court.

Voltz, a now-graduated senior, has a heart condition that kept him from playing. He served as team manager but was brought onto the court for the opening of the final home game of his career.

Voltz went on to score the first points of the game on a three-pointer.

Radio station KSTK took first place in the Press Club’s best sound-rich feature category for its coverage of Wrangell’s boat parade Dec. 21, and a third place in best single-story reporting for coverage of a boat sinking in Union Bay, aired Nov. 19.

Vivian Faith Prescott, of Wrangell, and her daughter, Vivian Mork Yeilk’, won first place in the best columnist category for their Planet Alaska column as published in Juneau’s Capital City Weekly.