Thursday saw the kickoff of the 2015 NYO games on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, and events continued through the weekend and saw several western Alaska athletes take home top honors.
On the first day of competition Gambell’s Apaay Campbell took first in the girls’ kneel jump, with a height of 55.25 inches. The win marks Campbell’s sixth first-place finish for the event, one of the few NYO champions to accomplish such a feat. For the boys, Evan George of the Lower Kuskokwim School District took first with a jump of 60.75 inches.
Friday’s toe kick saw Bethel’s Haley O’Brien take third for the girls, while Galena’s Derrick Black took fourth for the boys. Also on Friday was the one-hand reach, where another Bethel athlete, Sophie Swope, took fourth for the girls. Unalakleet’s Makiyan Ivanoff took fourth for the boys.
Two western Alaska boys took the top spots in Saturday’s one-foot high kick, Makiyan Ivanoff took first with a height of 110 inches. Also placing from BSSD was Cameron Okbaok in third with a height of 106 inches.
It was a similar result for the boys in the Indian stick pull, with strong finishes for Pilot Station’s Dominic Greene, who took second, and BSSD’s Eric Fitka, who took fifth.
Setting a new high school record in the seal hop was SigFurd Dock from the Lower Kuskokwim School District, whose 188-foot hop beat out second-place Derrick Black of Galena by more than 25 feet. Dock’s first-place leap also breaks the record of 171.5 feet set in 2009 by Nome’s Calvin Bell.
Overall the LKSD team took first, beating out teams from Unalaska and the Mat-Su Valley.
Makiyan Ivanoff took home the Sportsmanship Award for the boys, while Seward’s Masha Hart took home that honor for the girls. Former WEIO champion and BSSD coach Nick Hanson took home the “healthy coach” award.
