Valley athletes earn state NYO gold

WASILLA — After a runner-up finish last year, Frank Kelly is the king of the Eskimo stick pu ll.

The Susitna Valley student was one of three athletes from the Mat-Su squad to win individual events during the three-day Native Youth Olympics senior games at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Kelly bested fellow Mat-Su competitor Matt Grothe to win the Eskimo stick pull event. Grothe, a Valley Pathways student and a member of Mat-Su’s B team, also finished second to Kelly in the event during the Valley’s regional competition in early April.

Ashley Hoglund and Jesse Kurtz also won NYO gold for Mat-Su’s A team. Hoglund gave Mat-Su a sweep in the Eskimo stick pull, beating Dillingham’s Sara Schroeder, the defending state champion, in the girls’ class. Hoglund, a Houston High student, was third in state last year.

Kurtz finished first in the boys’ scissor broad jump, with a mark of 34 feet, 10.5 inches. The Colony High student beat the runner-up, Mt. Edgecumbe’s Isaiah Waghiyi, by nearly eight inches.

Kurtz was also fourth in the Alaskan high kick.

Madeline Ko, a Colony High School student, competing with the Fairbanks-based Tanana Chiefs, won three events and set a world record. Ko used a mark of 29-6.25 to set both NYO and world records in the girls’ scissor broad jump. The prior mark of 28-9.25 was set by Anjelica Whitley in 2005.

Ko also finished first in the one-foot high kick and the two-foot high kick.

Eight members of the Mat-Su A team placed in the top 5 of their respective events. Two athletes, Kurtz and Teeana Nikolia, placed in two events. Nikolia, a Houston High student, was fourth in the girls’ one-hand reach and fifth in the knee jump. The Mat-Su B team had five athletes place in the top 5.

The Valley-based Knik Tribal Council also had three athletes place in the top 5 of their respective events. Tyler Smith-Turpin was third in the boys’ Eskimo stick pull, Mark Donlon finished fourth in the boys’ wrist carry and Brandin Esceleda was fourth in the boys’ Indian stick pull.