Alexis Howard won one event on her first attempt and another on her last.
Simon Kenton’s senior thus wore two gold medals around her neck at Saturday’s Class 3A track and field meet at the University of Kentucky. She won the long jump with an opening 19 feet, 1 ¼ -inch leap and the triple jump in 39-0 on her sixth and final.
The difference between Howard having two state titles instead of one state was 10 1/2 inches in the triple jump – George Rogers Clark’s Teigh Yeast jumped 38-1 ¼ on her fifth attempt. Howard had led most of the day with her opening 37-9 ¼.
“It was raining,” Howard said. “I wasn’t really used to the rain yet, but I feel like on my last jump I had gotten there.”
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
In the long jump, because Howard uncorked her 19-1 ¼ on the first try, she could afford the three passes, a foul and an 18-9 leap on her fifth attempt.
After the triple jump win, Howard talked about her legacy.
“I feel like I definitely put a big legacy,” she said. “I have a lot of the titles at school, and I did really good at track. I’m proud of myself and going out with a bang.”
One-timers
Three Northern Kentucky individuals and one relay team won individual events.
On the track, Cooper’s Paul Van Laningham won the boys 1,600-meter run in a 3A-record 4 minutes, 10.56 seconds, and Ryle’s Bredyn Elder, Nathan Verax, Cruze Sauley and Parker Wilson captured the boys 4×200 in 1:29.72.
With implements, Dixie Heights’ Ari Carter took the girls discus title placard with a 133-5, and Cooper’s Corey Freihofer won the boys pole vault at 14-6.
Van Laningham, who’s headed for the University of Wisconsin, finishes as one of the state’s finest runners. Saturday’s win was his sixth state title – two in cross country from 2024-25, two indoor (1,600 in 2025 and 3,200 this year,) two outdoor 1,600s, and four runner-ups.
“I think (the 1,600) is my favorite race,” Van Laningham said. “You know, there’s such an honor in winning this race; I think it’s a perfect four-lap race.”
What you also noticed was Van Laningham’s sense of humor – like his description of the heavy rain during the 1,600.
“It was definitely a pool party,” he said.
Van Laningham finished second in the 800 and 3,200. He said a cramp in the final 800 meters of the 3,200 bothered him.
“I don’t think I did enough, but I did my best,” Van Laningham said.
‘A pretty big deal’
Carter won her second discus title in three years (she won as a freshman in 2024) and atoned for last year’s second-place finish.
“I think that’s a pretty big deal,” Carter said. “I’m the first one in my family to get more than two state titles because I won middle school state, my eighth-grade year.”
Carter won on her second throw – a good thing because she fouled on two of her last four.
‘A weird jump’
Freihofer has come a long way from finishing seventh as a freshman two years ago – he missed just once in four attempts from opening at 13-6 to his winning 14-6.
But it was a miss that didn’t count that scared people. A minute or two before officials halted the pole vault because of the rain, Freihofer’s hands slipped as he planted. (Freihofer was not injured.)
“On the runway, standing there, I for sure felt my hands starting to get a little slippery, but I just decided to go up with it,” Freihofer said. “It was a weird jump, for sure; I think I was able to land fully in the pit, so that was really beneficial.”
Verax favorably compared Saturday with the Raiders football team reaching the 2024 Class 6A finals (a 42-23 loss to Louisville Trinity).
“But this time, we actually pulled it off,” Verax said. “It’s just a great feeling.”
Wilson led off, Verax was second, Sauley was third, and Elder anchored. Elder said runner-up Frederick Douglass would be the Raiders’ main competitor because the Broncos “had a faster PR (personal record) than us” and “ran better than us in regions.”
But Elder edged Frederick Douglass’ Kaden John by 0.17 to get the win.
“We all run very good in all conditions, and we know that,” Elder said. “Now we know that we’re the better team.”
Cooper boys finish third
Male beat Trinity in an all-Louisville boys battle, 57-51, while Cooper rejoiced by finishing third with 45 points – a pretty good finish for first-year coach Jeff Wurtz. He said former Jaguars coach Eric Van Laningham told him it could be the first time a Northern Kentucky team’s ever finished that high in 3A.
While Paul Van Laningham’s 26 points and Freihofer’s 10 were the obvious reason, Wurtz thinks you should also praise Carson Clark and son Jacob Wurtz.
“We had Carson Clark in shot put finish sixth; didn’t expect that,” Coach Wurtz said. “We had Jacob Wurtz (my son) finish sixth in discus; didn’t expect that. This one’s a team effort through and through.”
Here’s where other Northern Kentucky athletes finished in the top eight:
Second place: Ava Dunn, Cooper, girls shot put, 40-10; Van Laningham, boys 800, 1:51.90, and boys 3,200, 9:09.75; Dixie Heights (Drew Carskadon, Thompson Hall, Brennan Simpson, Nicholas Kopp), boys 4×400, 3:21.17.
Third: Ethan Mann, Conner, boys 1,600, 4:15.21; Avery Vanlandingham, Conner, girls 800, 2:18.62; Nicholas Kopp, Dixie Heights, boys 800, 1:53.72.
Fourth: Emma Naylor, Campbell County, girls pole vault, 10-0.
Fifth: Ryle (Sadie Chalfant, Aubrey Poore, Stella Carpenter, Hailey Chalfant), girls 4×800, 9:45.88; Emily Smith, Ryle, girls pole vault, 10-0; Leah Boggs, Campbell County, girls pole vault, 10-0; Campbell County (Mariah Burton, Hailey Roomes, Kaylie Scales, Kendall Wallace), girls 4×200, 1:45.25.
Norah Barker, Notre Dame, girls 1,600, 5:11.54; Grant Holbrook, Campbell County, boys 1,600, 4:17.67; Cooper (Chris Nowak, Olivia Haswell, Lyric Hooper, Carys Colgan), girls 4×100, 50.72; Carskadon, boys 800, 1:54.90.
Sixth: Jackson Miller, Simon Kenton, boys 110 hurdles, 15.10; Carson Clark, Cooper, boys shot put, 48- ½; Jacob Wurtz, Cooper, boys discus, 146-11; Vinnie Lane, Dixie Heights, boys 100 dash, 11.03; Carpenter, girls 1,600, 5:14.57; Mann, boys 3,200, 9:26.04.
Seventh: Howard, girls 100, 12.47; Sabrina Lemma, Notre Dame, girls pole vault, 10-0.
Eighth: Highlands (Sydney Houlihan, Isla Meyn, Ella Taylor, Eva Lang), girls 4×800, 9:55.32; Ava Pugh, Notre Dame, girls pole vault, 9-6; Dixie Heights (Alayna Hocker, Vivian Brewer, Tatjana Andracenko, London Williams), girls 4×100, 51.36; Jorden LeRoy, Cooper, boys 300 hurdles, 40.54; Carpenter, girls 3,200, 11:18.84.
Oldham County edged Woodford County, 59-55, for the girls team title.
For complete results, visit khsaa.org (bit.ly/4uuZVGP).
