LEXINGTON, KY — During the 2026 track and field season, the Cooper Jaguars named their team MVP award after senior distance star and University of Wisconsin commit Paul Van Laningham.
“Paul is the G.O.A.T… No one’s gonna compare to that ever. We dealt with Cam (O’Hara) earlier in the year at quarterback, and we have one of the best quarterbacks in Kentucky, but now Paul’s the best in the nation. You’re not gonna see another kid like that,” Cooper head coach Jeff Wurtz said.
In the pouring rain, Van Laningham splashed his way to back-to-back 1,600-meter state titles before taking second place in both the 800-meters and 3,200-meters. He scored 26 of Cooper’s 45 points as the Jaguars took third place in the Class 3A team race, their highest-ever finish.
Even after winning back-to-back cross country state titles, Van Laningham’s best event on the track has been the 1,600-meters. He set a state meet record of 4:08.25 in 2025 by leading from the front. This year, he has run with the pack for the first three laps before dropping a ridiculously fast kick to win. He did the same to St. Xavier’s Nick Sanders on Saturday afternoon.
Before heading off to college, he will compete in national meets sponsored by Hoka, Brooks and Nike, chasing Covington Catholic graduate Will Sheets’s one-mile state record of 4:03.35. He even thinks he can go under four minutes.
“Just try to win the heat that I get put in. Brooks will be a fast race, too. The goal is to win Brooks, win Hoka, and the state record will most likely happen,” Van Laningham said. “It was a heck of a four years and I really had a lot of fun with my teammates.”
Pole vaulter Corey Freihofer produced Cooper’s second state title of the day, winning with a clearance of 14 feet, 6 inches. He had a precarious start to the competition. Coming in at 13-6 and taking his first jump in the rain, he slipped on the approach and flailed onto the mat, thankfully not seriously injuring himself but forcing a postponement until the weather passed.
“I was really confident. As I was going down the runway, I felt my hands get a little slippery, but I decided to just go up with it,” Freihofer said.
Back on the runway, he cleared 13-6 with ease, took two attempts to clear 14-0, then nailed his winning jump of 14-6 on the first try.
With the win in hand, he attempted 15-3, a number he kind of picked at random, even with his school record standing at 14-8. He came close, but knocked the bar down three times.
“We knew Corey would do well. It was just a matter of, which Corey is gonna show up? Was he going to no-height on us? Once he hit that first one, we were like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be a good day.'” Wurtz said.
Wurtz is in his first year as the head coach with Eric Van Laningham stepping down after this season. He primarily coaches the throwers and was over the moon when his son, Jacob, recorded a sixth place finish in the discus and Carson Clark earned three valuable points in the shot put.
“Those boys stepped up today because it’s a sophomore and a junior, so I’m extremely excited,” Wurtz said. “I still hold Dixie (Heights’s) record at 151 feet in discus and I’ll never hear the end of it when my son beats me. He threw 146-11 today.”
Outside of Van Laningham, Ryle brought home the only other running title of the day. In an absolute downpour, Parker Wilson, Nathan Verax, Cruze Sauley and Bredyn Elder got the baton around the track safely to win the 4×200 meter relay in 1:29.72.
“You couldn’t even see where you were running. We were running blind pretty much the entire time,” Verax said.
Alexis Howard, Ari Carter return to the top of the podium in field events
Simon Kenton senior Alexis Howard saved her best for the literal final moments of her high school career. The Bellarmine signee had already won this years’ long jump title, the second of her career, but trailed George Rogers Clark’s Teigh Yeast by four inches in the triple jump heading into her final attempt.
“I was supposed to scratch my last two jumps but I decided that I was only gonna scratch one of them, and I’m really thankful that I did,” Howard said.
On the final jump of the competition, Howard uncorked a 39-foot jump, winning by almost 11 inches.
She had an equally good start to the meet, earning a new long jump personal best of 19 feet, 1.25 inches on her first attempt. That distance held up as she passed on three of her final five attempts, beating Yeast and North Oldham’s Sophia Shenk to earn a second gold medal to with the one from her sophomore year.
“I was definitely relieved because my jumps either go, I win on my first jump or scratch my first jump, do terrible on my second one and then hit something on my third,” Howard said.
In the midst of the high jump, Howard took seventh place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.47 seconds.
Also earning redemption after a runner-up finish in 2025 was Dixie Heights junior Ari Carter. She threw a new discus personal best of 133 feet, 5 inches to beat last year’s champion, Aleigha Sullivan from Lafayette. She is now the first in her family to win more than two state titles, claiming the middle school gold medal as an eighth grader.
“It took a lot of work because last year was not my best season, but I’m proud of what I did this year,” Carter said.
She attributed her eight wins to finally having a healthy offseason. Carter has struggled with compartment syndrome, even having surgery at one point to alleviate the pressure that caused stress fractures in her lower legs. She also wasn’t bothered by nerves during the competition. As she watched her competitors get in their own heads, she took deep breaths and stuck to the technique that has worked for her all year.
The other top result from the field events was Cooper’s Ava Dunn taking second place in the shot put. She nearly matched her school record of 41 feet that she threw at the regional meet, but Central junior Tamari Oliver’s mark of 42-9.75 was just too much.
Which Northern Kentucky Class 3A track and field athletes finished on the podium?
Girls 4×800 meter relay: 5. Ryle (Sadie Chalfant, Aubrey Poore, Stella Carpenter, Hailey Chalfant); 8. Highlands (Sydney Houlihan, Isla Meyn, Ella Taylor, Eva Lang)
Boys 110-meter hurdles: 6. Jackson Miller, Simon Kenton
Girls 100-meter dash: 7. Alexis Howard, Simon Kenton
Boys 100-meter dash: 6. Vinnie Lane, Dixie Heights
Girls 4×200 meter relay: 5. Campbell County (Mariah Burton, Hailey Roomes, Kaylie Scales, Kendall Wallace)
Boys 4×200 meter relay: 1. Ryle (Parker Wilson, Nathan Verax, Cruze Sauley, Bredyn Elder)
Girls 1,600-meter run: 5. Norah Barker, Notre Dame; 6. Stella Carpenter, Ryle
Boys 1,600-meter run: 1. Paul Van Laningham, Cooper; 3. Ethan Mann, Cooper; 5. Grant Holbrook, Campbell County
Girls 4×100 meter relay: 5. Cooper (Chris Nowak, Olivia Haswell, Lyric Hooper, Carys Colgan); 8. Dixie Heights (Alayna Hocker, Vivian Brewer, Tatjana Andracenko, London Williams)
Girls 400-meter dash: 6. Mariah Burton, Campbell County
Boys 300-meter hurdles: 6. Jordan LeRoy, Cooper
Girls 800-meter run: 3. Avery Vanlandingham, Conner; 7. Lila Dunlevy, Campbell County
Boys 800-meter run: 2. Paul Van Laningham, Cooper; 3. Nicholas Kopp, Dixie Heights; 5. Drew Carskadon, Dixie Heights
Girls 3,200-meter run: 8. Stella Carpenter, Ryle
Boys 3,200-meter run: 2. Paul Van Laningham, Cooper; 6. Ethan Mann, Conner
Boys 4×400 meter relay: 2. Dixie Heights (Drew Carskadon, Thompson Hall, Brennan Simpson, Nicholas Kopp)
Girls discus: 1. Ari Carter, Dixie Heights
Boys discus: 6. Jacob Wurtz, Cooper
Girls shot put: 2. Ava Dunn, Cooper
Boys shot put: 6. Carson Clark, Cooper
Girls long jump: 1. Alexis Howard, Simon Kenton
Girls triple jump: 1. Alexis Howard, Simon Kenton
Girls pole vault: 4. Emma Naylor, Campbell County; T-5. Leah Boggs, Campbell County; T-5. Emily Smith, Ryle; 7. Sabrina Lemma, Notre Dame; 8. Ava Pugh, Notre Dame
Boys pole vault: 1. Corey Freihofer, Cooper
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cooper earns highest-ever finish at KHSAA Class 3A track state meet
Reporting by Brendan Connelly, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
