Stuttgart’s Anna Konon and Ramstein’s Iliana Echard battle for the lead during the second leg of the girls’ 3,200-meter relay at the DODEA Europe track and field championships on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Stuttgart went on to the win the event in 9:57.91, about three seconds faster than Ramstein. Kendall Cancel, Pasha Miletich and Lydia Pound were the other runners for Stuttgart. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – A slew of new champions earned their first DODEA Europe title in track and field on Thursday, including a freshman distance phenom, the son of a Spanish air force pilot, and a senior shot putter who never threw far enough to make the podium until this year.
Leading the way on the track were Stuttgart freshman Anna Konon and SHAPE senior Dario Delgado Vitores.
They each nabbed two gold medals in the first day of competition against the best track and field athletes in DODEA-Europe.
Konon, the DODEA-Europe cross country champion in the fall, helped the Panthers edge Ramstein in the girls’ 4x800 meter relay and later in the day ran a personal record 11 minutes, 48.62 seconds to win the 3,200-meter run. In the latter, Konon crossed the line about 10 seconds before Ramstein’s Rose Thompson, who was also runner-up to Konon in cross country.
Delgado Vitores was the only other athlete to win multiple titles Thursday, coming from behind to take first in the 1,600 meters and breaking two minutes in the 800, while pulling along three other runners under the mark in what was one of the fastest half miles in recent DODEA track history. Last year, for instance, no one ran under two minutes in the race.
The son of a Spanish air force pilot, Delgado Vitores is having a memorable first year on the DODEA-Europe track and field circuit.
It’s his first time in the American system and running against athletes from other schools, he said. In Spain, students join track and field clubs and “we don’t compete with our schools,” he said.
“It’s so much different than the European style and I like it way more,” he said.
After a conservative start in the 1,600 where he was sixth after the first lap, Delgado Vitores turned on the burners at the bell and passed Vicenza’s Mitchell Horrigan and Ramstein’s Adden Lowe to win in 4:28.06.
“It’s a long race, so I have time to catch up,” he said. “That’s what I did. The last lap, I saw that they were tired and that I could attack.”
Delgado Vitores also came from behind to take the 800, which turned into a four-man sprint to the finish down the final stretch. The SHAPE senior ran a 1:58.71 to edge Wiesbaden’s Luke Jones, who clocked 1:59.16. Kaiserslautern’s Collin Higgins and Ramstein’s Adden Lowe were inches behind, in 1:59.35 and 1:59.86, respectively.
Higgins, who ran 2:06 last year at Europeans while running for AFNORTH, was thrilled when he heard he and three other runners broke two minutes. The pace felt fast, he said, including the final stretch. “I tried to slingshot at the end. When you’re in the last 100 meters, then you’re just driving as hard as you can,” he said.
Kai Lewis of Stuttgart won the boys high jump competition at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships with a jump of 6 feet, 1 inch on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Elizabeth Agudzi-Addo won the girls discus competition at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships with a throw of 102 feet 7 inches on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Fredrick Boateng of Boateng of Naples won the boys long jump competition at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships with a jump 20 feet 8¾ inches on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Sawyer Ter Horst of Brussels won the boys shot put competition at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships with a throw of 43 feet 10¼ inches on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
The winning teams of the girls 4x800 meter relay pose with their medals at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships, May 22, 2025. 1st place Stuttgart High School: Lydia Pound, Anna Konon, Pacha Miletich, Kendall Cancel; 2nd place Ramstein High School: Iliana Echard, Mya Loringer, Rose Thompson, Caroline Swinson; 3rd place Kaiserslautern High School: Alexandra Beck, Hazel Sanders, Mia Rodriguez, Jaiyana Jacobs; 4th place Wiesbaden High School: Clara-Isabel Curtis, Annastasia Berghammer, Emmah Wetherwax, Natalia Bergdorf (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Zion Thompson of Wiesbaden High School placed second in the boys long jump at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships on May 22, 2025, with a jump of 20 feet 6 inches. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Rylee Baker placed second in the girls discus competition at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships with a throw of 98 feet 9 inches on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
No European records fell on Thursday, but Stuttgart’s 3,200-meter relay team of Konon, Kendall Cancel, Pasha Miletich and Lydia Pound came close to a European and school record. They ran 9:57.91, two seconds slower than the 2012 record, set by Stuttgart (called Patch then). Konon opened up a 50- to 60-meter lead on the second leg, which was just enough to allow Pound to hold off a surging Carol Swenson from Ramstein by three seconds on the final leg.
“It was really hard,” Pound said of her two laps. “My hands were tingling. I could hear (Swenson) behind me catching up. It was great that my teammates set me up so well to be in the lead.”
In the field events decided Thursday, two returning champions prevailed: Stuttgart sophomore Kai Lewis in the high jump and Ansbach junior Elizabeth Agudzi-Addo in the discus.
Lewis said even though he won with the same height of six feet, one inch that he did as a freshman, he did so with a heavier frame this year after putting on 30 pounds for football.
“It feels great,” he said of a consecutive title. “I guess I just got to go for a three-peat next year.”
Unlike Lewis, triple jump champion Alanna Donahue is brand new to the event. She qualified last weekend doing the triple jump for the first time at the Kaiserslautern invitational, she said.
“I was practicing the triple jump in my living room,” she said. “I went to my coach and asked if I could try it.”
On Thursday, the Wiesbaden sophomore leaped 37 feet, 6 inches to win.
“I am very surprised,” she said.
In the long jump, Naples senior Fredrick Boateng, in his first time competing at Europeans, went from the fifth seed to champion with a mark of 20 feet, 8.75 inches, nearly three inches better than runner-up Zion Thompson, also a senior, of Wiesbaden.
The shot put also had a new champion but not a newcomer. Brussels’ Sawyer Ter Horst stood atop the podium after two years of barely breaking into the top 10. The senior is throwing about 10 feet farther on average than he did last year, he said.
“I was able to make some changes to my form that really helped me get a lot more power underneath myself,” he said. “I’ve been working hard for this and I finally got it. It feels good.”
The final day of competition begins Friday at 11 a.m. at Kaiserslautern High School.
The winners of the boys 1600 meter run at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships, May 22, 2025. Mitchell Horrigan of Vicenza High School, 2nd place, left; Dario Delgado Vitores of SHAPE International High School, 1st place; Adden Lowe of Ramstein High School, 3rd place; Jackson Balfrey-Boyd of Stuttgart High School, 4th place. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Stuttgart’s Anna Konon and Ramstein’s Iliana Echard battle for the lead during the second leg of the girls’ 3,200-meter relay at the DODEA Europe track and field championships on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Stuttgart went on to the win the event in 9:57.91, about three seconds faster than Ramstein. Kendall Cancel, Pasha Miletich and Lydia Pound were the other runners for Stuttgart. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Leo Schell of Kaiserslautern High School placed second in the boys high jump at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships on May 22, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Tristan Neago of SHAPE International High School placed third in the boys long jump at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships on May 22, 2025, with a jump of 20 feet 5 inches. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
The winners of the girls triple jump at the 2025 DODEA European Track and Field Championships, May 22, 2025. Kenya Tucker of Hohenfels High School, 2nd place, left; Alanna Donahue of Wiesbaden High School, 1st place; Zenobia Davis of Kaiserslautern High School, 3rd place; Danica Johnson of Ramstein High School, 4th place. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
