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Editor’s Note: As 2025 comes to a close, Asheville Watchdog staffers take you back and inside their most memorable stories and news events of the year.
I wasn’t paying very close attention to the press conference, I’ll admit. The news, on a morning in late August, was that the University of North Carolina Asheville would host the next two NAIA outdoor track-and-field championships — good for the university and the tourism bureau, but not an Asheville Watchdog story on its own. I was mostly focused on the backs of the heads in the audience, particularly a blonde bob atop a Bulldog-blue jacket. Just in case anything interesting happened…