It’s a verity as certain as daffodils, pansies and hyacinths blooming in April.
The 2026 high school outdoor track season started some three weeks ago, and once again Northern Kentucky is well-represented in the ky.milesplit.com state all-class polls.
Especially on the girls side. Simon Kenton is sixth, Cooper is seventh, Bishop Brossart is ninth, Dixie Heights is in a five-way tie with Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Grace M. James and McCracken County for 17th, and Campbell County is tied for 22nd with Lafayette and South Warren.
There’s no more credible local analyst than Bishop Brossart girls coach Dave Schuh, who began his 47th season in Alexandria. Talking about the Lady ‘Stangs is one of his favorite things, but what he said Thursday could maybe apply to the rest of Northern Kentucky.
“Yeah, if you can’t get a little bit excited, then it’s probably time to retire,” Schuh said. “So I still look forward to a lot of things and working with kids.”
Conner is the top local team – the Cougars are 20th of 69.
Class 3A, Region 5
Dixie Heights boys coach Stephen Saunders is still celebrating what happened on May 21, 2025 – the day the Colonels swept the boys and girls team titles.
“Of course, that was quite an accomplishment,” Saunders said. “… Of course, that was a first for Dixie.”
The Colonel boys won the region for the first time since 2011 and just the second since 1957, while the girls claimed the trophy for the first time since 2022.
Cooper senior and Wisconsin signee Paul Van Laningham is back – he won his second consecutive cross country title last fall. Outdoors, he won last year’s 1,600 and placed fifth in the 3,200.
If you’re talking about girls tossing things long distances or going airborne for a few seconds, Simon Kenton senior Alexis Howard, Cooper junior Ava Dunn and Dixie Heights junior Ari Carter are in the conversation.
Howard is 6-0 in the outdoor 100-meter dash, long jump and triple jump. Dunn is 5-0 in discus and shot put, including a personal-record 39 feet, 3 ¼-inch in the shot put at the state indoors in Louisville, and Carter is 4-2 in discus and shot put.
With 16 seniors on the roster, Notre Dame is one of the most experienced squads. Pandas coach Matt Hollenkamp says senior Kate Blettner and junior Norah Barker are the leaders.
Blettner set personal bests at the state indoors in February in Louisville – a 27.14 in the 200 and 58.88 in the 400. Barker is 2-1 outdoors with a PR 5:12.61 in the 1,600. She set two indoor PRs – a 2:18.00 in the 800 and a 5:37.84 in the 1,600.
Conner sophomore Ethan Mann is an emerging distance factor. At the Stan Steidel Invitational March 28 at Holmes, he won with a 4:26.08 in the 1,600 and the 3,200 in 9:46.06.
Class 2A, Region 4
Covington Catholic won last year’s team title over Bourbon County, 85-52.
The Colonels appear set in distance events with junior Joel Barczak and senior Joe Mayer.
Barczak ran a 2:11.40 in the 800 at the Running for A Purpose March 18 at Notre Dame and a 4:54.06 at an event Wednesday at CovCath, and Mayer covered the 400 in a PR 54.68.
Sophomore Jace Thornton and junior Will Danneman have led CovCath’s sprinters. Thornton has a pair of PRs this season – an 11.37 in the 100 and a 23.85 in the 200 – and Danneman has an 11.67 in the 100.
Class A, Region 4
Brossart senior Ava Walters is not just one of the Kentucky’s finest throwers – she’s also becoming one of America’s best.
Walters won the Stan Steidel discus (a PR 129-6) and shot put (35-5) and the state indoor shot put (a PR 42-10 ¼). She jumped on the national stage at the adidas Track Nationals March 20-22 in Virginia Beach, Virginia – her 40-7 ¾ gave her third place in the Championship division, and the 43-9 ¼ was good for 15th.
Lexington Christian defeated Brossart for the girls state team title, 117-97, and Beechwood was third with 57.
Brossart’s girls have traditionally been strongest in running events, but Schuh said that’s changed the last two years, and not just because of Walters. Junior Anna Curtzinger won the regional pole vault and was second in the state, junior Maria Everett was second to Curtzinger in pole vault and fourth in the state, and was second in the long jump.
“So our field events have been, really, pretty strong,” Schuh said.
It helps Beechwood’s girls to have senior Lily Parke on the team, and not just because she won the 800 and 1,600 at the KTCCCA Weekend Invite Feb. 14 in Louisville. She’s the defending 800 and 1,600 state champion who also finished third in the 3,200.
St. Henry’s girls were sixth in the state last year. Junior high jumper Hayden Harlan is first in the state in 2026.
Beechwood’s boys finished fifth last year. Sophomore Gannon Parke – yes, he’s Lily’s brother – won the 1,600 at the Kenton County High School Championships March 23-24 at Holmes, besting teammate Charlie Skeen by nearly eight seconds.
Bechwood senior Brody Aylor was second in the 100 and 200, junior Nathan Pabst was third in the 100, and freshman Westin Wyant was third in the 200. Senior Carson Eshelman won the discus and shot put.
Newport’s Kayden Lynn is first in boys Wheelchair 100, shot put and discus.
Walton-Verona’s Maggie Meyer is first in the girls 100 and 200 dashes.