West High boys sprint to relay history in Day 2 of state track and field championships

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Jun. 1—After running the fastest time ever in the boys high school 4x100 meter relay race at the Region III track and field championships last weekend, all eyes were on the Soldotna Stars in the finals at the 2025 ASAA state championship meet at Dimond High on Saturday afternoon.

However, the reigning state champion West Anchorage Eagles were the ones who stole the show and made history by successfully defending their title in a blistering time of 43.14 seconds.

"I've been on a couple teams with a couple different of these guys the last three years and haven't gotten real close to greatness, but our coach has been talking about it all year," anchor runner Beckett Stolp said. "Talking about getting that state record. And I think he'll be proud that we got it today."

The Eagles had their collective eyes on not just repeating as champions but soaring to new heights at the beginning of the season and were elated to do just that.

"We've been working at it, we won state last year for the 4x100 but we didn't get the state record, so our goal this year was to get that state record and we got it," said Lars Robinson, who ran the third leg.

The all-senior lineup of leadoff runner Kevin Wright, second-leg runner Ariel Sanchez, Robinson and Stolp couldn't have imagined a more rewarding way to cap off their high school careers.

"There's just no better way to go out," Stolp said. "We're all seniors here and we're going to go out as record holders for now."

[North Pole adaptive athlete Kooper Matteson continues to inspire on Day 1 of state track and field championships]

Other top takeaways and highlights from Day 2 of state

Sanchez claimed the first state title of his career earlier Saturday when he won the Division I boys long jump with a mark of 22 feet, 6 inches. He qualified for state last year but couldn't compete due to a hamstring injury he sustained at regions the week before.

"It felt good to accomplish what I should've accomplished last year, but overall I felt good about it," he said.

Bartlett senior Tyler Drake edged past top seed Wyatt Faircloth of Soldotna in the Division I boys 110-meter hurdles to secure his first-ever individual title with a first-place time of 14.83 seconds.

"I'm just so happy I was able to do this with all the other hurdlers," he said. "I consider all these other hurdlers my friends. We've been hurdling, some of us, for four years now and I'm so glad I was able to have my last race with this group of hurdlers, and of course, getting first place doesn't hurt (either)."

Last year, Drake finished just behind multi-time state champion and 2023 Gatorade Player of the Year A.J. Szewczyk of Eagle River in the event. He was glad he was able to reach the top of the podium this time around on his last ride.

"It felt good to finally get my redemption and running the same time as my PR," he said. "Running what I know is my best race felt great."

Drake was just shy of breaking the state record in the event, which he didn't expect to come close to at the beginning of the season. He said "it's a great feeling" nonetheless.

For the second year in a row, a freshman sensation was the first to cross the finish line in the Division I girls 100-meter race. Juneau-Douglas athlete Bella Connally surprised herself when she beat reigning state champion Jihsana Williams of Chugiak to claim the first title of her career, with a personal-record time of 12.46 seconds.

"It means a lot and I just know that I'm going to be getting better throughout my high seasons, knowing that there is still more work to be done to get faster," Connally said.

Her older brother James Connally runs track at Eastern Oregon University and inspired her to take up the sport.

"My goal for this season was to get my name up right next to his in our school records and I got that and I'm just so happy," she said.

In the boys Division I 100 meter race, Ketchikan senior Jason Lorig captured his third straight state title by a narrow margin of 10.82 which was just a fraction of a second ahead of Soldotna's Tyce Escott who crossed the finish line at 10.83

"I thought I had a decent start, my acceleration was good, my drive phase was really good but then I started to fall off my top end speed, couldn't hold it too long and Tyce almost got me at the end there but I pulled through and got it," he said

Lorig enjoyed the stiff competition he faced this year and even though he fell just shy of breaking his own record he set last year in the state prelims, to cap off his high school career with a third straight title is still satisfying.

"It feels really good," he said. "I've been training all year since January to get to this moment."

In Division II action, it was business as usual for Grace Christian's Robbie Annett, who cruised to a third straight state title in the boys 1600 meter race in a time of 4:22.89.

"I wanted this one really bad to make it three (in a row) so it feels good," he said.

Annett got off to a blazing start, running his first lap in under a minute, which wasn't his strategy heading into the event.

"I think it was mostly adrenaline that made me run so fast (on the) first lap, so that wasn't very fun coming through sub-60 (seconds), but I was planning to go 63 (seconds) and try to be super consistent — but that's not the way it worked out today," he said. "But that's all right, and it ended up in a good result."

His teammate and fellow senior, Colton Merriner, was able to successfully defend his silver medal after finding another gear to overtake Sitka's Connor Hitchcock down the final stretch, clocking in at 4:25.34.

"He said that he was going to kind of run his own race," Annett said. "Last year it was all together and this year it's been a little bit more separated but that's fine. He's running with me in workouts so I knew he had it in him, so it's super cool to see him pull that off. He wanted that one really bad."

Senior sprinter Gracie Miotke was part of a historically strong outing for the Homer girls program. She started off by winning the Division II girls 100-meter race with a personal and school record time of 12.51.

"It's super great," she said. "I have their school record in the 300 hurdles as well, so having my name up there twice is just such an amazing feeling."

The 100 meter is not her principal event as she is a hurdler by nature, so she knew winning it would take a lot of work.

"I kept envisioning in my head, 12.5," Miotke said. "I knew that was what I wanted, that's the goal I wanted to achieve, so when I got into my blocks, I just kept saying that to myself and I went out and did it."

She wasn't done making program history after the event. Miotke was on the Mariners' 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams that claimed state titles and broke more school records in the process, with marks of 1:47.21 and 50.79.

"Homer means so much to me," she said. "I've been there for my entire life, it's always supported me. My coaches are the most supportive coaches I know, they're amazing and I would not have been able to do it without all of them."

ASAA State Track and Field Championships

Division I

Girls

Team Scores

1. Chugiak 107; 2. Dimond 97; 3. Soldotna 62; 4. South 46; 5. West Valley 37; 5. Colony 37; 7. Wasilla 34; 8. West 33; 9. Lathrop 32; 10. Service 19; 10. Juneau-Douglas 19; 10. East 19

Saturday

100 Meters Finals

1. Bella Connally 12.46, Juneau-Douglas

2. Jihsana Williams 12.53, Chugiak

3. Anna Green 12.70, South

4. Layla Fields 12.71, West Valley

200 Meters Finals

1. Anna Green 26.24, South

2. Sailor Waddell 26.24, West Valley

3. Sarah Dittman 26.30, Dimond

4. Layla Fields 26.50, West Valley

400 Meters Finals

1. Alliyah Fields 57.85, Chugiak

2. Sophia Jedlicki 58.33, Soldotna

3. Leila Petersen 58.60, Palmer

4. Anna Green 59.00, South

800 Meters Finals

1. Alliyah Fields 2:16.03, Chugiak

2. Sydney Simpich 2:18.43, Colony

3. Solveig Finstad 2:18.50, Lathrop

4. Kendall Barnett 2:20.47, West

1600 Meters Finals

1. Rosie Conway 5:14.24, East

2. Hannah Shaha 5:14.83, Chugiak

3. Sydney Simpich 5:18.65, Colony

4. Hailee Giacobbe 5:19.02, Wasilla

100m Hurdles Finals

1. Nevaeh Watkins 15.59, Dimond

2. Sarah Dittman 16.10, Dimond

3. Emilia Zych 16.40, Service

4. Anna Lunoe 16.74, Service

300m Hurdles Finals

1. Avrey Campbell 47.10, Dimond

2. Hannah Bodkin 47.27, Chugiak

3. Emilia Zych 47.74, Service

4. Anaulie Sedivy 48.54, Soldotna

4x100 Relay Finals

1. Soldotna 50.14

2. Chugiak 50.54

3. West Valley 50.87

4. Dimond 51.03

4x200 Relay Finals

1. Soldotna 1:44.49

2. Dimond 1:44.61

3.West Valley 1:44.66

4. Chugiak 1:45.66

4x400 Relay Finals

1. Chugiak 4:03.30

2. Soldotna 4:04.02

3. South 4:12.68

4. Colony 4:13.86

4x800 Relay Finals

1. Soldotna 9:47.64

2. Chugiak 9:54.84

3. Dimond 10:11.88

4. South 10:15.84

Shot Put 4kg Finals

1. Layla Hays 39′10.50, Wasilla

2. Ailafo Fautanu 34′10.00, Dimond

3. Tonya Karpow 34′05.50, Colony

4. Lilly Davidge 34′03.50, Lathrop

Long Jump Finals

1. Sarah Dittman 17′10.75, Dimond

2. Havilah Walker 17′08.00, Lathrop

3. Izzy Kizer 17′00.75, North Pole

4. Izabela Sullivan 16′09.50, West

Boys

Team Scores

1. Soldotna 72; 1. Chugiak 72; 3. South 62; 4. Juneau-Douglas 47; 5. Bartlett 42; 6. West Valley 34; 7. Ketchikan 33; 8. Dimond 31; 9. West 30; 10. East 27

Saturday

100 Meters Finals

1. Jason Lorig 10.82, Ketchikan

2. Tyce Escott 10.83, Soldotna

3. Finley Hightower 11.16, Juneau-Douglas

4. Beckett Stolp 11.16, West

200 Meters Finals

1. Tyce Escott 22.43, Soldotna

2. Jabari Johnson 22.68, Chugiak

3. Malachi Coski 22.86, Dimond

4. Niko Alvarado 23.30, North Pole

400 Meters Finals

1. Henry Vail 50.03, Ketchikan

2. Matthew Varney 50.28, Chugiak

3. Logan Reinheller 50.39, West Valley

4. James Innes 50.84, Soldotna

800 Meters Finals

1. Nick Iverson 1:57.57, Juneau-Douglas

2. Luke Shaw 1:58.09, Eagle River

3. Jarrett Jackson 1:59.73, Dimond

4. Miles Grimes 1:59.97, Kodiak

1600 Meters Finals

1. Nick Iverson 4:22.29, Juneau-Douglas

2. Vebjorn Flagstad 4:29.55, South

3. David Penfield 4:30.75, Chugiak

4. Luke Shaw 4:31.05, Eagle River

110m Hurdles Finals

1. Tyler Drake 14.83, Bartlett

2. Wyatt Faircloth 15.06, Soldotna

3. Isaiah Douyon 15.08, South

4. Malachi Coski 15.90, Dimond

300m Hurdles Finals

1. Isaiah Douyon 40.04, South

2. Matthew Jackson 40.81, East

3. Tyler Drake 40.97, Bartlett

4. Malachi Coski 41.13, Dimond

4x100 Relay Finals

1. West43.14

2. Soldotna 44.17

3. West Valley 44.40

4. North Pole 44.45

4x200 Relay Finals

1. Chugiak 1:29.17

2. West Valley 1:30.82

3. Lathrop 1:31.81

4. Service 1:32.10

4x400 Relay Finals

1. Soldotna 3:28.87

2. West Valley 3:29.06

3. Chugiak 3:29.13

4. Dimond 3:29.28

4x800 Relay Finals

1. Kodiak 8:09.98

2. Soldotna 8:13.13

3. Wasilla, 8:26.15

4. South 8:28.94

Discus 1.6kg Finals

1. Benjamin Hiestand 158′07.00, Chugiak

2. Tyler Cage 148′02.00, Chugiak

3. Oschaun Easaw 146′07.00, Lathrop

4. George Lane 142′10.00, East

Long Jump Finals

1. Ariel Sanchez 22′06.00, West

2. Tyler Drake 22′01.00, Bartlett

3. Wilson Lawson 21′06.75, Lathrop

4. Isaiah Douyon 21′02.50, South

Division II

Girls

Team Scores

1. Homer 107; 2. Sitka 87; 3. Grace Christian 57; 5. Seward 45; 6. Tri-Valley 40; 7. Unalakleet 37; 8. Redington 28; 9. Delta Junction 24; 10. Kenai Central 22

Saturday

100 Meters Finals

1. Gracie Miotke 12.51, Homer

2. Taylor Eddington 12.90, Tri-Valley

3. Molly Evans 13.02, Homer

4. Ourea Busk 13.05, Unalakleet

200 Meters Finals

1. Taylor Eddington 26.17, Tri-Valley

2. Ourea Busk 27.26, Unalakleet

3. Molly Evans 27.45, Homer

4. Hope Jackson 27.51, Grace Christian

400 Meters Finals

1. Ourea Busk 58.11, Unalakleet

2. Taylor Eddington 59.99, Tri-Valley

3. Tagan Rinner 1:00.87, Grace Christian

4. Olive Jordan 1:01.31, Seward

800 Meters Finals

1. Clare Mullin 2:13.58, Sitka

2. Tagan Rinner 2:21.94, Grace Christian

3. Iris Haas 2:25.88, Delta Junction

4. Isabella Eller 2:26.31, Unalakleet

1600 Meters Finals

1. Clare Mullin 5:17.61, Sitka

2. Iris Haas 5:25.60, Delta Junction

3. Olive Jordan 5:27.41, Seward

4. Marina Dill 5:29.61, Sitka

100m Hurdles Finals

1. Hope Jackson 16.14, Grace Christian

2. Maddie Haas 16.17, Seward

3. Jenna Houck 16.80, Mountain City Christian

4. Mia Bukala 17.54, Redington

300m Hurdles Finals

1. Taylor Eddington 45.10, Tri-Valley

2. Natalie Hall 48.71, Sitka

3. Maddie Haas 49.07, Seward

4. Mia Bukala 49.17, Redington

4x100 Relay Finals

1. Homer 50.79

2. Sitka 52.97

3. Kenai Central 54.12

4. Tri-Valley 55.78

4x200 Relay Finals

1. Homer 1:47.21

2. Sitka 1:50.37

3. Grace Christian 1:50.64

4. Mountain City Christian 1:53.76

4x400 Relay Finals

1. Homer 4:07.33

2. Unalakleet 4:19.55

3. Seward 4:20.27

4. Grace Christian 4:23.18

4x800 Relay Finals

1. Homer 10:04.19

2. Sitka 10:11.81

3. Seward 10:23.46

4. Su Valley 10:40.52

Shot Put 4kg Finals

1. Jieaya Siatini Williams 38′00.25, Mountain City Christian

2. Kate Matthew 32′09.75, Mountain City Christian

3. Anya Chernich 32′05.75, Monroe Catholic

4. Elise Brady 31′04.25, Sitka

Long Jump Finals

1. Sophie Tapley 16′11.75, Kenai Central

2. Reilly Sue Baker 16′05.25, Homer

3. Hope Jackson 15′11.25, Grace Christian

4. Jenna Houck 15′10.50, Mountain City Christian

Boys

Team Scores

1. Sitka 94; 2. Grace Christian 91; 3. Mountain City Christian Academy 80; 4. Valdez 48; 5. Seward 40; 6. Homer 32; 7. Kenai Central 31; 8. Petersburg 28; 9. Monroe Catholic 21; 10. Redington 20

Saturday

100 Meters Finals

1. Ronan Bickling 11.27, Seward

2. Calder Prussian 11.32, Sitka

3. Austin Barnard 11.48, Su Valley

4. Sahli Howard 11.51, Mountain City Christian

200 Meters Finals

1. Calder Prussian 22.96, Sitka

2. Cordell Randall 23.26, Tri-Valley

3. Ronan Bickling 23.40, Seward

4. Aidan Jackman 23.77, Kenai Central

400 Meters Finals

1. Orson Hoogendorn 50.78, Nome-Beltz

2. Calder Prussian 51.36, Sitka

3. Lukas Underhile 51.77, Mountain City Christian

4. Brady Bevard 53.19, Delta Junction

800 Meters Finals

1. Robbie Annett 1:55.91, Grace Christian

2. Colton Merriner 1:56.87, Grace Christian

3. Lukas Underhile 1:59.68, Mountain City Christian

4. Boomchain Loucks 1:59.77, Wrangell

1600 Meters Finals

1. Robbie Annett 4:22.89, Grace Christian

2. Colton Merriner 4:25.34, Grace Christian

3. Connor Hitchcock 4:27.97, Sitka

4. Boomchain Loucks 4:32.28, Wrangell

110m Hurdles Finals

1. Rowan Olney-Miller 16.73, Sitka

2. Delen Byrd 17.06, Kenai Central

3. Chris Jones 17.09, Grace Christian

4. Asher Mcglinchy 17.22, Monroe Catholic

300m Hurdles Finals

1. Tristin Nicholson 42.74, Monroe Catholic

2. Rowan Olney-Miller 42.82, Sitka

3. Tait Ostrom 42.99, Homer

4. Liam Pettit 43.93, Mountain City Christian

4x100 Relay Finals

1. Valdez 45.35

2. Mountain City Christian 45.64

3. Sitka 46.20

4. Kenai Central 46.25

4x200 Relay Finals

1. Mountain City Christian 1:34.68

2. Valdez 1:36.41

3. Grace Christian 1:36.57

4. Monroe Catholic 1:37.04

4x400 Relay Finals

1. Mountain City Christian 3:34.14

2. Grace Christian 3:34.55

3. Sitka 3:34.95

4. Seward 3:39.50

4x800 Relay Finals

1. Homer 8:25.47

2. Sitka 8:37.00

3. Mountain City Christian 8:43.62

4. Grace Christian 8:51.35

Discus 1.6kg Finals

1. Zach Martel 138′09.00, Redington

2. Erik Thynes 132′06.00, Petersburg

3. Kaden Duke 128′11.00, Petersburg

4. Kyle Petersen 128′05.00, Valdez

Long Jump Finals

1. Andrew Baczuk 19′04.25, Valdez

2. Cole McLaughlin 19′03.50, Sitka

3. Ashton Clarkson 18′06.75, Grace Christian

4. Kendall Ulroan 18′06.25, Nome-Beltz

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