AOTW: Joshua Caleb is the fastest Seawolf of all-time, and he’s just 17

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - After working a shift at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus, Joshua Caleb bikes to a nearby track to warm up and run some sprints.

But it may have been quicker for him to run to his next destination, because Caleb is the fastest Seawolf of all time, with pieces remaining from shattered record books to prove so.

But his dream was never to break records, but to simply have the opportunity.

“It was my number one dream to come to the U.S.,” Caleb said while putting on his spikes at Wendler Middle School. “Not just come to U.S., but to run really fast and improve my times and I am living to my dream now.”

Caleb was born and raised in a small village called Okrika in southern Nigeria, landing at UAA through a recruiting agency called Scholarbook, giving opportunities for international athletes to compete at the collegiate level in the United States.

”It is pretty tough because we have no track,” Caleb said of his upbringing in Nigeria. “At first I didn’t use spikes, I used barefoot to run. The first time I used spikes it felt weird.”

He arrived in January of 2024, seeing snow for the first time when he stepped off the plane.

”We’re always kind of fishing everywhere, we recruit the world,” UAA Track & Field Head Coach Ryan McWilliams said. ”[Caleb] is really quick to disarm you and get you feeling comfortable with who he is and he’s comfortable with who he is talking to, so we kind of hit off right away and was just lucky enough to convince him to come up to the cold.”

”When I stepped my foot in Alaska, it was really cold, like freezing,” Caleb added. “I was like ‘oh no, I didn’t think I was going to survive in this place’, but I made it, it is pretty cool, I like it.”

”[Ryan] asked me if I have a warm jacket, I was like, ‘yeah’, but he knew it wasn’t enough so he brought some for me.”

On the other side of the world in a completely new environment, Caleb quickly found a new home in Alaska.

”One day he was this new guy that nobody knew and then day two, he was everybody’s best friend,” McWilliams said.

Although he didn’t speak much English at the time, Caleb let the results speak for themselves at his first collegiate track meet in February.

In his introductory race, he ran 6.73 seconds in the 60 meters, 0.01 seconds off the 10-year conference record.

”We both kind of looked at each other like, ‘Oh man, this is going to be really fun,’” McWilliams said of Caleb’s debut performance.

One week later, Caleb broke that record when he ran a 6.70 at the GNAC Indoor Championships. At the very same meet, he broke the conference record in the 200-meter with a time of 21.18 seconds.

Later that season, he shattered a 13-year-old GNAC record in the 400-meter with a time of 46.73.

Oh, and he did all of that at just 17 years old.

”The future is going to be interesting, going to be fun to watch with him,” McWilliams said.

Caleb was rightfully named the GNAC Male Athlete of the Year, the first freshman to earn the honor in the conference’s history. He also flirted with the GNAC outdoor records in both the 100 meters and 200 meters, clocking in a 200 time of 21.04 seconds, tying him for the second-fastest mark in GNAC history. He was also named the GNAC Freshman of the Year while winning numerous weekly awards.

When he is not re-writing the record books, Caleb studies computer science at UAA. With academics always at the forefront, he graduated high school a year early and has accomplished all of this before celebrating his 18th birthday.

”Everything I do ... I do it with all of my heart because I know I can do it, I don’t doubt myself.” Caleb said.

His next dream is to become an Olympian and help his family back home in Nigeria.

“It might not be now, it might not be this year or next year, but I know me being in U.S. and doing track, I know I want to be rich and support my parents, help them, that is my dream is to help my parents,” he said.

It’s a dream Caleb is on track to accomplish.

“He’s got this attitude where he is never afraid to do something he has never done before,” McWilliams said. “I think he has multiple avenues by which he can pursue getting there and plenty of time and talent to work with in order to make that dream come true for him.”

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