Photo courtesy of Devereaux Photography: The 2026 Lakeview track and field team.

COTTONWOOD — Established with a group of core returners on both teams, the Lakeview track and field team enters the 2026 spring outdoor season looking to compete at a high level and build on its postseason success.

“Our team motto is healthy, happy, fast, far and high, every single year. I think our kids got to be healthy and happy before we’re doing anything big,” head coach Matt Konrad said. “We’re trying to keep building some team camaraderie, just getting them to be together, enjoy being together. The bus drives together, that’s what it’s all about, it’s all about the moments … The memories are the ones that last.”

Both teams are off to a strong start to the season, both housed with a significant amount of returning, and new, talent between under and upperclassmen.

“It has been a really fun, exciting start,” Konrad said. “Our boys program and our girls program doing a really nice job. We got a lot of depth … I think we got 19 seniors on our team this year, which always leads to some fun meets. A lot of good leadership on the team team, which makes everything easier.”

Lakeview made a statement and already broke a handful of personal and school records in its meet at Redwood Valley recently on Tuesday, April 21, showcasing the potential of what’s to come as the season progresses.

The boys team took second place of 10 competing teams, and the girls finished middle of the pack in fifth.

On the boys side, senior Jackson Staab will look to be a significant leader this season, who has already put together a decorated Laker career. At Redwood, he broke his own personal record in both shot put and discus, with a 58-3 and 164-6, respectively. He also took first place in both events at the meet.

Staab also competed at the Class A State Tournament last season, and placed third in shot put and 10th in discus. To earn his spot at state, he also took a third-place finish in shot put at the Section 3A championships, and second in discus.

At Redwood on Tuesday, Thane Matthys also tied the school record in pole vault with a 12-6 and is another big leader returning this season. He tied the record that hasn’t been broken in over a decade, set by Anthony Bossuyt in 2015.

Matthys is in his junior-year campaign this season. He placed second at the section championship last season in the pole vault with an 11-8, as he is already seeing personal improvement through this season’s early start.

Another notable returner for the boys team is Broden Stensrud, who had a big postseason last year as he placed first at state in both the wheelchair shotput and wheelchair discus events. Tate Remiger is a strong distance runner also returning, as he is with the cross country team as well. He placed eighth in sections last season in the 800-meter dash.

Remiger had a first-place finish in the 1600-meter race at both the Marshall invite earlier in April and again at Redwood.

“I think strengths for boys are pretty well balanced. We got a lot of guys that can score in the sprints, the thrower, the distance and the jumps,” Konrad said. “On the girls side of things, we’re definitely probably heavier on the sprints department, but we still got some nice throwers as well … We really are pretty well balanced between all of our events, which is an exciting thing. We’re still trying to plug in kids that we can to see what else we can do.”

The girls team in particular has a lot of strength in its running events, also bringing back key players and already making strides this season.

One of Lakeview’s top runners for track, Brook Gunlogson, is back, and broke the school record at Redwood in the 400-meter race with a 1:01.12. She also took first place in the event at the meet. She broke a 20-year record that was set by Carly Doom in 2006, with a time of 1:02.03.

Gunlogson also was a part of the relay team that set a new school record at Redwood in the 4×200-meter race. Herself, alongside Hadley Kotek, Reagan Bossuyt and Addy Jorgenson ran a 1:52.04 to break the previous record of 1:53.79, set two seasons ago by Bossuyt, Gunlogson, Laia Javens and Grace Handeland.

All of the success Lakeview saw at the Redwood Invite is promising and a strong foundation for the teams to continue building on, being that it was only the varsity’s second meet of the season.

Konrad credited both the girls and boys teams for their performances at the Redwood invite, reiterating that it’s been a great start to the season for the Lakers and they hold a lot of potential.”

“A young one that is fun to watch is Addy Jorgenson. I know Brook [Gunlogson] set the record in the 400, but she [Jorgenson] took second with a nice run at [1:03.04],” Konrad said regarding some of the young depth this season. “Another good young one to watch is Gage Dimmick and the boys. He’s been doing a really bang up job in the sprints department.”

In their first meet of the season at Marshall on April 13, both Lakeview teams came in third place out of eight teams.

Among other strong returners for the girls team are Adeline Louwagie, Marisa Jacoby and Tristynn Justesen. Jacoby and Gunlogson are both seniors this year as well.

Louwagie, a sophomore, took sixth place at the section championship last season in discus, and Jacoby came in sixth for the pole vault. Justesen, an eighth grader, had a seventh-place finish in the pole vault as well.

Looking to finish higher this postseason, Lakeview boys came in 12th as a team in last year’s section tournament, and the girls placed 13th.

Lakeview is slated to host a home invitational on April 30 with six other teams for a 3:30 p.m. start.

“I’d love to see our guys take a shot at the conference title. I think they have that ability. We got close last year, didn’t quite get it, but we got a lot of depth again. There’s definitely a shot there … Girls side of things, I’d love for them to also take a shot at conference,” Konrad said regarding goals this season. “Section wise, I’d love to see us do a nice job at the subsection as a team too, and of course, advancing kids out to state. We’ve got a handful of kids that got some potential that we’re looking at.”