One of the most heavily coveted athletes in the country has announced her college destination.
Castaic senior Meagan “Jumphries” Humphries announced her commitment to the University of Texas on social media. Humphries made the announcement official on Monday, after she signed her letter of intent to Texas at Castaic High School.
Humphries signed her letter alongside tennis standout Ian Ramirez, who committed to Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.
Humphries will join the 2023 NCAA outdoor national champion Longhorns after graduating in 2024 but brings vast championship experience to a loaded Texas program.
“I chose the University of Texas because I truly believe it was the best fit for me,” Humphries said via text message. “It was really important for me to go somewhere where I wouldn’t be the best athlete in my event group. As a freshman I want to learn ‘how to be a pro,’ so to speak, from the upperclassmen, and not have all the pressure of leading the team, or being the best athlete on the team. I definitely won’t have that problem at Texas. They’re the defending national champions and have what I feel is the best program in the country.”
Humphries made history last season as the first individual athlete to win four events at the CIF Southern Section Finals. The junior brought home titles in the 200-meter dash, long jump, triple jump and high jump. She also finished top-five in her four competitions at the state competition.
The CIF champ met Texas jumps coach Jim Garnham at the 2023 Arcadia Invitational. Humphries was somehow not on the coach’s radar. Garnham was quickly made aware of his future commit.
“I met coach Garnham at Arcadia and he is so fun and so positive,” Humphries said. “He didn’t know who I was but saw me competing at the meet and came over to introduce himself afterwards. He made a great connection with me and my family, and it was great communicating with him throughout the recruiting process.”
Humphries had her official visit to Texas over a month ago and has since visited other schools in her final five. The Coyote track star announced her top five school choices back in August on social media, announcing she would be attending one of Texas, Oregon, Texas Tech, USC or Miami.
Texas was the senior’s second stop as she made official visits to all of her final five schools. Humphries said that, a few days after returning home from Austin, she missed it and had a strong feeling she’d be a Longhorn.
A diverse athlete, the future Longhorn hopes to compete in heptathlon. Humphries will become teammates with one of the top heptathlon athletes in the country, Kristina Blazevia, a five-time All-American who just finished third overall in the NCAA Outdoor Championship Heptathlon. The Coyote will also train with Leo Neugebauer, another five-time All-American, who just won the decathlon national title.
“One of the things that really appealed to me about Texas was the high level of talent that I would be training with,” Humphries said. “Not only would I be training with the best sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers on the team (who are among the best in the country), I would also get to train with some of the former Texas athletes who turned pro like Julien Alfred and Rhasidat Adeleke, who did well at the recent World Championships. They say that iron sharpens iron and that training group at Texas is amazing.”
The 2023 season was up in the air for Humphries at one point as she was one of several athletes to transfer out of Golden Valley after some coaching changes.
“Last season started off like a nightmare, but ended like an absolute dream,” Humphries said on her transfer season. “Everyone at Castaic was really nice and immediately made us feel welcome. I was happy to reunite with my friend Regan Thompson who had been one of my best friends ever since we competed together on our local youth track team called the Santa Clarita Storm.”
“After sitting out the first half of the season due to transfer rules, the second half couldn’t have gone much better than it did. Week after week, I began to hit better marks and more schools started reaching out to me. When things appeared to be falling apart earlier that school year, I never would have imagined it would end with a history-making season and signing with the No. 1 track program. It’s still unbelievable to me. But it showed me the value of hard work.”
Texas head coach Edrick Floreal and Garnham also further motivated Humphries into extending her track and field goals well past what she can accomplish in college.
“Before my visit to Texas I never really considered competing in the Olympics or as a professional athlete, but the coaches believe that’s possible for me, so I’m excited to learn from them and see what happens,” Humphries said.
Humphries has a full season of high school track and several titles to defend ahead of her. The star won multiple league and CIF in an orange and white jersey and will now get to compete in the same colors for the next four years.
The future Longhorn but has a few goals before heading to Austin. After a chaotic schedule of college visits, she’s aiming to get back into peak shape so she’ll be able to break a few more Foothill League records this season.
Humphries currently holds league records in the 4×100-meter relay and triple jump. She cleared the league record in the high jump of 5. feet, 10 inches in the winter season and will aim to do so again this regular season. The senior will enter the 2024 season with personal records just shy of her former Golden Valley teammates’ league records. Humphries is closing in on breaking Kylee Davis’ long jump record of 20 feet, 4.5 inches and is just a tenth of a second away from Adonjiah Currie’s 23.45-second finish in the 200.
The CIF champion is lastly looking to leave her mark yet again on the state meet. However, this year she’ll be fighting for every chance to stand tallest on the podium in Clovis.
“I really want to get as many league records as I can,” Humphries said. “However, the final goal is to have my best performance so far at the state finals. I’ve been a state runner-up three times, so I’d finally like to win a few titles before wrapping up my high school career. It would also be nice to upgrade that team bronze from last year and score enough points to hopefully bring home a team title to Castaic. At the end of my high school career, I would like to be remembered as possibly the best track and field athlete to come out of the Foothill League.”
