Valley athletes medal at Arctic Winter Games

WASILLA — A pair of local Native Youth Olympics standouts combined to win nine medals for Team Alaska during the Arctic Winter Games earlier this month in Northwest Territories, Canada.

Madi Ko, a 2017 graduate of Palmer High School, earned five medals in the open female class. Colony High junior Kaiden Jimenez struck gold three times, and brought home four medals.

Ko, who was named the 2017 girls’ Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman/Mat-Su Seahawkers Student-Athlete of the Year, won a gold medal in the two foot high kick and the triple jump. She also earned bronze in the Alaskan high kick, sledge jump and one foot high kick.

Jimenez, also a standout on the Knights football team, won gold in the one foot high kick, two foot high kick and triple jump. He also grabbed a silver medal in the Alaskan high kick.

Trillium Kell of Palmer scored silver in the Alaskan high kick.

A pair of Palmer area skiers also medaled.

Katey Houser of Palmer skied to gold in the midget female 3x3.25 relay and bronze in the 3.75-K relay.

Gavin Block, a member of the Colony Knights ski squad, earned bronze in both the 750-meter spring and 3x3 relay.

A pair of Valley skater helped Team Alaska win the junior female division in hockey. Mikayla Lantto and Leah Lund each scored to lead Team Alaska to a 3-2 win over Northwest Territories in the gold medal game.

Team Alaska’s bantam male and midget males earned bronze. Wasilla High sophomore Lucas Gudz scored twice to lead the Team Alaska midget male squad to a 5-4 win over the Yukon Territory in the bonze medal game. The bantam team beat Nunavut 3-2 in the bronze medal game.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at frontiersman.com/sports.