The 2025 high school track and field season is about to begin in earnest in the Interior.
North Pole is hosting a “mini meet” at 11 a.m. Saturday and will host a Region 6 meet on May 3 and another on May 10. Between then, multiple Interior teams will venture to the Wasilla Invite on April 25-26.
The regular season will wrap up with a two-day regional preview at West Valley from May 16-17. The Region 6 Championships will be at West Valley on May 23-24.The state championships are at Dimond High School from May 30-31.
Several Interior teams already competed at the Russ Edwards Big C Relays on April 4-5 at the Dome in Anchorage.
In that setting, Lathrop sophomore Wilson Lawson finished runner-up in the long jump with a mark of 21 feet, 2.25 inches. He was the state-runner up in that event last spring and now as the top returner in the event, he holds the second-best mark in the state in 2025.
Lawson, who was a first-team all-state wide receiver and first-team all-conference return specialist in 2024, also helped the Malemutes to the fourth-fastest 4x100-meter relay mark in the state this season and the second-fastest at that meet, beating out 27 other teams, including North Pole (fourth place) and West Valley (sixth).
Lathrop sophomore Gabe Guffey has a top 10 mark in the shot put this season after producing a personal best of 44 feet, 3.75 inches. He finished 15th in that event at the 2024 ASAA Division I State Championship.
Also at the Dome, West Valley senior Logan Reinheller ran a significant 800-meter personal best of 2:02.33, over eight seconds faster than he ran last year en route to placing 15th in that event at the ASAA Division I State Championship. Reinheller was also part of the Wolfpack’s 4x400-meter relay team that’s fifth-fastest in the state and the only Interior team in the top 10 in that event.
North Pole senior Niko Alvarado, who placed fourth in the 400 meters at the 2024 ASAA Division I State Championship, has run 52.47 for the seventh-fastest mark in that event this season and is part of the Patriots’ 4x100-meter relay group that’s sixth-fastest in the state.
In the boys field events, North Pole senior Braeden Smith sits at sixth in the state in the discus after recording a five-foot personal best of 136 feet and 11 inches. Fellow Patriot senior Devin Cooper-Jackson, who is signed with Valley City State University, has the state’s sixth-best mark in the long jump (20 feet, 3.5 inches).
Lathrop senior Havilah Walker, who placed fourth in the long jump at the 2024 ASAA Division I State Championship, recorded a personal best of 16 feet, 7.75 inches this month to sit at second in the state in that event. She also contributed to Lathrop’s 4x100-meter relay team that has the fifth-fastest mark in the state.
Malemute girls toward the back half of the top 10 leaderboards include sophomore Solveig Finstad (800 meters), senior Valentina Krejci (shot put), junior Lilly Davidge (discus) and senior Ruby Tansy (high jump).
Izzy Kizer is the lone North Pole girl with a top 10 mark early this season. The senior sits fourth in the long jump with a mark of 15 feet, 10 inches. While competing for Valdez last spring, Kizer was the ASAA Division II state runner-up in the long jump and placed third in the 100 meters.
West Valley sophomore Sailor Waddell, eighth with a 12.98-second 100-meter personal best, is the only Fairbanks North Star Borough girl in the top 10 of the 100 meters. Her teammate, junior June Breitenbach, is 10th in the 400 meters after running a 1:01.30 personal best. Both are part of the Wolfpack’s 4X100-meter relay that ranks seventh in the state.
Also among Interior athletes, Tri-Valley junior Taylor Eddington, who won two ASAA Division II state titles last spring, has top-six marks (among D1 and D2 girls) in three different events: 100 meters, 400 meters and 300-meter hurdles.
Below is a list of the returning Interior athletes that competed at the 2024 state championships who weren’t already mentioned:
D1: Haeli Carpenter (100-meter hurdles), Zayden Nerbonne (100 meters), Elijah Johnson (200 meters, 400 meters), Jackson Mollenhauer (300-meter hurdles), Loch Johnson (1600 meters) and Marcus Champ (shot put, discus) of North Pole; Layla Fields (100 meters, 200 meters), Lucy Lhokta (triple jump), Conrad Lassey (100 meters) and Darren Benedetti (discus) of West Valley; Annebelle Foster (300-meter hurdles, long jump, triple jump), Anastasia Pletnikoff (200 meters), Alice Balash (discus) and Luke Skinner (110-meter hurdles) of Lathrop.
D2: Emma Walsh (100 meters, high jump, long jump), Kenleigh Newton (100 meters, 200 meters, 300-meter hurdles), Trinity Turiel (200 meters), Anya Simard (1600 meters), Nora Sterner (100-meter hurdles), Anya Chernich (shot put), Tristin Nicholson (400 meters, 400-meter hurdles), Asher McGlinchy (110-meter hurdles, long jump) and Luke Walter (110-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles) of Monroe Catholic; Lizz Atkins (100-meter hurdles), Piper McKenzie (300-meter hurdles, discus), Abby Sampson (high jump, triple jump), Kelly Gregor (high jump), Nehemiah Todd (100 meters) and Jamin Fowler (110-meter hurdles) of Hutchison; Iris Haas (800 meters, 1600 meters, 3200 meters), Gabi Thomas (100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles), Brady Bevard (100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters) and Anthony White (400 meters, 3200 meters) of Delta Junction; Iris Wappel (400 meters), Haylie Wahlin (100-meter hurdles), Cordell Randall (100 meters, 200 meters, high jump) and Kenneth Larsen (shot put, discus) of Tri-Valley.
