A painter, a Swiftie, a fan of Korean TV dramas: Here are 8 Alaska high school track and field athletes to watch

The Anchorage Daily News caught up with some of the best track and field athletes from around the state at the annual Big C Relays. The list includes a pentathlete who enjoys classic sci-fi, an elite distance runner who’s also a “Swiftie,” and a group of athletes who would love to harness the power of flight.

Eric Bushnell

School: Bettye Davis East

Grade: 12

Event(s): Pentathlon, shot put and discus

Favorite series to binge watch: “Star Trek” (Original Series 1966-69), “Battlestar Galactica” (Original Series 1978), “Miami Vice” (1984-89), “Knight Rider” (1982-86).

“My parents raised me on that,” Bushnell said. “It’s quality stuff.”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: Old school hip-hop, Bollywood, Michael Jackson, Aaliyah, M.I.A.

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: Painting, particularly London underground scenes and Air Jordan 1s

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “Mainly the community,” Bushnell said. “I get to hang out with kids from other schools and just have fun. I’ve been doing it since sixth grade.”

Favorite superhero or villain: Superman and Darth Vader because of their signature theme songs

Favorite superpower: Flight

Campbell Peterson

School: Chugiak

Grade: 12

Event(s): 1600 and 3200

Favorite series to binge watch: “I don’t really watch shows but my favorite movies are ‘The Hunger Games,’ ” Peterson said.

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: Taylor Swift, and “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift is a go-to hype song before a race.

“I like hype music,” Peterson said. “I feel like I start to overthink too much when I listen to slower stuff while I’m warming up, so I generally have stuff with a good beat.”

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: “I like writing. I journal a lot, and I’ve written a few short stories before, so that’s something I like to do,” Peterson said.

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “My dad has always been a runner so that kind of inspired me to do it,” Peterson said. “I’ve been running since I was in seventh grade. I really just love it because it helps me get better as a person and I really love the competition.”

Favorite superhero or villain: Batman. “He’s dark, mysterious and pretty cool and stealthy,” Peterson said.

Favorite superpower: Flight. “I think that’d be super cool,” Peterson said. “If humans had wings, we could fly wherever we want and that’d be awesome.”

Seamus McDonough

School: Homer

Grade: 12

Event(s): 800, 3,200 and sprint medley relay

Favorite series to binge watch: “I don’t watch a lot of shows but when I get the time, it’s ‘Better Call Saul,’ ” McDonough said.

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: “I like every type of genre, but I love me some Bill Withers though,” McDonough said.

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: “I’m usually pretty busy with homework and school, but I like to go on adventure runs/hikes where I just out to the middle of nowhere through the trees in Homer.”

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “This is my second year in track,” McDonough said. “I had been doing cross country running throughout high school and I was getting pretty good, so I decided it’s time to do track as well.”

Favorite superpower: Telekinesis. “As a runner it’d be pretty cool to have super speed, but that would take all the competitiveness away from it, so I’d have to go with the ability to levitate things,” McDonough said.

Olyvia Mamae

School: Bettye Davis East

Grade: 12

Event(s): 100m, 100m hurdles, Swedish medley

Favorite series to binge watch: “Physical: 100.″ “It’s about people in Korea seeing who has the best physique,” Mamae said. “I like anime and Korean dramas.”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: “I usually like music playing in the background but I don’t really listen to it,” Mamae said. “It’s kind of just there so I don’t drown myself in my thoughts.”

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: Playing video games and sleeping. “I play a lot of Valorant and a lot of Overwatch,” Mamae said.

Favorite superhero or villain: The Joker and Harley Quinn. “I used to love Storm from the X-Men growing up,” Mamae said. “Her being able to control weather was pretty cool to me.”

Favorite superpower: Telekinesis, “so I don’t have to get out of my bed and could just move things to me,” Mamae said.

Cody Tirpack

School: South

Grade: 12

Event(s): 100m, 400m, 4x400 relay, long jump

Favorite series to binge watch: “Black Mirror”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: “I like everything except I’m not a really big country guy,” Tirpack said. “I listen to Playboi Carti.”

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: Playing video games. “I play Rainbow Six Siege a lot,” Tirpack said.

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “I did soccer all my life. In eighth grade I did hurdles and broke my collarbone, so I decided not to do track for a while,” Tirpack said. “Soccer was getting a little annoying, so junior year I started track and I really enjoyed it.”

Favorite superhero or villain: Deadpool. “He’s funny and I like watching the movies,” Tirpack said.

Favorite superpower: Regeneration

Peyton George

School: Lathrop

Grade: 12

Event(s): 4x100, 100x100x200x400 relay, 400m

Favorite series to binge watch: “Ted Lasso”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: Drake and Rod Wave. “I like listening to chill music to vibe on my own,” George said. “If it’s the right occasion, I’ll listen to hype music to lock in for my event.”

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: Hanging out with family and girlfriend

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “I started my sophomore year and what made me want to do it was my mom and seeing her do good in track growing up,” George said. “She’s my biggest inspiration.”

Favorite superhero or villain: The Flash and Thanos. “I like the Flash because he’s fast and Thanos because he has a great determined mentality,” George said.

Favorite superpower: Teleportation. “You could be anywhere at any time and move at any speed,” George said.

Deshawn Rushmeyer

School: Bettye Davis East

Grade: 12

Event(s): Long jump, high jump, 100m, relays

Favorite series to binge watch: “The Walking Dead.” “It’s always been my favorite show,” Rushmeyer said. “I like to be able to watch something that is not real but gets me pumped up and prepared for it if it ever comes.”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: Rap. “Pooh Shiesty is my favorite rapper of all time,” Rushmeyer said. “He just gives me my flow to keep on moving. My next favorite rapper is Kodak Black.”

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: Hanging out with friends and family. “I’m a very friendly person and being able to hang with my friends is one of the main activities I like to do,” Rushmeyer said.

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “My pops is the main reason why I do track and field,” Rushmeyer said. “He was a phenomenal high school runner ... I’ve been doing track almost my whole life practicing with him, going to the gym, and even going to the football field to work on track.”

Favorite superhero or villain: Batman. “The mindset that he has and the story behind him is just thrilling to me and something I like watching and reading,” Rushmeyer said.

Favorite superpower: Flight. “I’d be able to fly anywhere, go see my friends, if my mom gets mad at me I’d be like, ‘OK, try to catch me,’ and would be out the window,” Rushmeyer said.

AJ Szewczyk

School: Eagle River

Grade: 11

Event(s): 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 4x400 relay

Favorite series to binge watch: “Suits.” “It’s nine seasons of awesomeness,” Szewczyk said. “I’m rewatching it and am on season seven. The last series I binge watched was ‘Outer Banks.’ ”

Favorite hype music genre, song or artist before an event: Country. Go-to song is “Outskirts” by Sam Hunt.

Favorite non-sports leisure activity: “I work at a pool that has a hot tub, so even when I’m not on the clock, I just like to go there and chill in the hot tub,” Szewczyk said.

Reason for doing track and field and for how long: “I started in seventh grade doing hurdles, and I found out that I was kind of good at this so I stuck with it,” Szewczyk said.

Favorite superhero or villain: “Definitely Ironman because he snaps,” Szewczyk said.

Favorite superpower: Flight. “Probably fly like Superman because I feel like if people see you’ve got wings, they’ll think ‘Hey that’s funky,’ but if they see you levitate they’re like, ‘Hey that’s cool,’ ” Szewczyk said.