Castaic track star Meagan Humphries added more hardware to her trophy case in another historic weekend for the Coyote senior.
Humphries won a national title in the pentathlon at the Nike Indoor Nationals in New York City last weekend.
The Texas commit notched the seventh highest score in United States track and field history as she racked up 3,813 points in her first full indoor pentathlon.
Humphries won both the high and long jump events with marks of 5 feet, 6.5 inches and 19 feet, 4.75 inches, respectively.
The Castaic senior also finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles with a mark of 8.93 seconds. She ranked sixth in shot put with a 29-foot, 9.25-inch throw and finished the 800-meter run in eighth place in 2 minutes, 25.12 seconds, a personal record for the future Longhorn.
“This was definitely one of my biggest achievements so far,” Humphries said via text message. “Despite making it to state in multiple events several years in a row, I’m still yet to actually win a single event. Coming out on top at a meet this prestigious and competitive felt so incredible. I’m so proud of what I’ve been able to do so far, especially considering how new I am to the world of the multis.”
Humphries was satisfied with all these incredible marks but still feels like there’s plenty of room for improvement.
“I have been dealing with an injury since earlier that week so I’m surprised I did as well as I did,” Humphries said. “I’m happy with my overall score, but I definitely could have done better in a lot of my events. I’m pretty satisfied with how long jump went and I PRed in the 800 so there’s not much I can say about that. However, I feel I could have done better in hurdles, shot put and high jump.”
Humphries has expressed her desire to be a pentathlete for a few years now. The Coyote believes her experience running from event to event at high school invitationals has helped her prepare for becoming such a diverse athlete.
“I definitely feel like my experience with doing so many events has helped me prepare for this,” Humphries said. “I feel like the aspect of going from event to event makes me feel more confident in a way. It’s like I’m in my element because that’s how I’ve been competing for so long.”
The senior was honest about locking into every event with so many things to remember on top of thousands watching.
“I have a bad habit of rushing through things and not taking the time to allow myself to focus on the event at hand,” Humphries said. “That really came back to bite me in shot put, hurdles, and most importantly, high jump. I’ve always been taught that when it’s time for me to compete, I really have to focus and make everything I do count. However, as someone who gets distracted very easily, this has always been a struggle for me. Not taking time to truly focus had a huge effect on my performance in high jump, as I missed a few bars I should have been able to clear easily.”
Humphries had to take a few more jumps than she would’ve liked but still cleared the 5-foot, 6.5-inch bar to tie with Colorado commit Ava Goetz for first.
The Texas commit tried to keep her mind off the scoring throughout each event, citing her focus on the event at hand as well as her Kryptonite — math — as the reasons. Whatever score Humphries finished with was the final and she accepted it as there was a new event to focus on.
“Shot put is without a doubt my weakest link but even my performance in that event didn’t bother me,” Humphries said. “I wasn’t really concerned with my placement up until the 800 rolled around. I’m by no means a mid-distance runner and I’m also bad at math so I wasn’t sure how that event would affect mine and everybody else’s overall scores. But up until that event I was pretty confident in myself.”
Humphries showed no fatigue and returned to Foothill League action with a new PR in the 100-meter hurdles race. The senior won the event at Castaic’s dual meet with Canyon in 14.33 seconds.
Humphries has towering goals for this season. The pentathlete has done well in her three state meet appearances but is still looking for her first win in any of her specialty events.
Staying healthy and focusing on the event at hand will be key for Humphries as she aims for a fourth state appearance and first state gold medal before heading to Austin.
