Records fall to Valley athletes

HEATHER A. RESZ

Frontiersman

ANCHORAGE — Two Wasilla athletes set new records this past weekend at the 2011 Native Youth Olympics Games Alaska at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.

Alice Strick’s 78-inch strike set a new NYO record for the two-foot high kick and a world record.

Bernard Clark set a new NYO record and tied a world record Saturday with a 69-inch effort in the one-hand reach.

Strick also dominated the one-hand reach and one-foot high kick events.

Pressure from Valdez eighth-grader Marian Wamsley pushed Strick to match her own record of 91 inches in the one-foot high kick.

Clark and Strick were among dozens of Mat-Su Borough School District students in grades sixth through 12 who competed April 29 through May 1 with more than 500 athletes from across Alaska.

First- and second-place winners at the borough’s regional contest hosted by Houston Middle School last month earned a chance to compete at the three-day state event.

Also taking first place at state were Wasilla’s Forrest Strick, who hung on for 542 feet, 2.5 inches to win the wrist carry, and Wasilla’s Paulina Valencia, who won the Indian stick pull.

Second-place winners were Houston’s Phillip Pease in the Eskimo stick pull and Wasilla Middle’s Wigberto Gonzalez in the seal hop. He hopped 94-inches.

Houston’s Gabe Melin finished third in the wrist carry, hanging on for 505 feet, 9.5 inches. Wasilla’s Adia Miles finished fourth among female competitors in the wrist carry, hanging on for 286 feet, 8 inches.

Wasilla’s Tyler Larimer took fifth place in the Eskimo stick pull and Burchell’s Chelsea Morrow placed fifth in the one-hand reach.