Track & Field

CHICAGO (June 28, 2023) — In its 38th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Chesney Peterson of Stanton County High School is the 2022-23 GatoradeKansas Girls Track & Field Player of the Year.

Coach Chuck Fessenden’s 1985 Almena-Northern Valley football team featured multiple sophomores in key roles. The Huskies returned senior running back Shane Baird, who tallied 1,573 rushing yards as a junior. Northern Valley lost in state title games in ’82-’83 and posted a 10-2 record in ’84.

If you blink, you may in fact miss Sheridan Rodriguez. The multi-sport athlete, who plays both volleyball and track, spends time between practice, class and sleep, working at Ross in Garden City. Rodriguez’s obsession with perfection explains a lot of things, like her 4.0 GPA.

Heading into her sophomore year at Garden Plain High School, Brooke Hammond has already made quite an impression on high school track in the state. Records have fallen and state gold medals are already at three.

Distance dominant and right on track. That’s the position the St. James Academy girls track team finds itself as it enters Class 5A regional action. The past three seasons, co-head coach Greg Bomhoff’s girls ended matters as runners-up at the 5A Kansas state track and field championships.

Olathe Northwest’s Maddie Righter came into the season as the favorite in 6A to win the state championship in both the high jump and long jump. Teammate Jaleesa McWashington is Righter’s closest competition in the long jump. McWashington is also the top returning state medalist in the triple jump.

Aubree Dewey’s energy and enthusiasm carries over into every sport she plays. Dewey is perhaps most well known for her success with the Plainville basketball team, but in the fall she succeeds in cross country and now in the spring she is one of the state's top track athletes.

Update: Another meet, another record for spring covergirl Madison Lueger. Marysville Advocate sportswriter Julie Perry reported earlier this week that the Centralia senior extended her school record in the javelin yet again, this time throwing 157-2 at Tuesday's meet at Nemaha Central.

Check out the digital edition of the first ever Spring Sports Preview and find sponsor locations with free hard copies here. The magazine is available free thanks to the support of advertisers across Kansas. *This is the first issue of the all new Spring Sports Preview.

Here’s the first look at the cover of the new Kansas Pregame Spring Sports Preview, the new release from Kansas Pregame, with coverage of baseball, softball and track & field.