Numerous Foothill League track and field stars put on an impressive showing at the CIF Finals this past weekend at Moorpark High School.
Canyon got its first-ever top three finishes at CIF after the boys’ team finished second in Division 2 while the girls finished third. The Castaic girls earned a sixth-place finish in Division 3, while both Golden Valley teams notched top-10 finishes.
Canyon brought home a pair of CIF champions in Mikaela Warr and Jordehn Gammage.
Warr became a sectional champion after winning the girls’ 100-meter dash in a flash of 11.49 seconds, breaking her own school and Foothill League record. Warr’s time also topped the 2024 leaderboard, as her 11.49 was the fastest wind-legal time in the state this season.
“Canyon has a pretty illustrious track history but that’s the first CIF title we’ve ever gotten in the 100, boys or girls,” Canyon coach Chris Jackson said in a phone interview. “For us, that’s very special, and to do this with a Foothill League record, along the way, it just helps recognize that this is something special in our league. We’re very excited about that. Mikaela has been feeling good this week and she still feels good. She’s very excited that this year, she gets to compete, she gets to be CIF champion.”
Freshman Emoni Wright was just behind her senior teammate and finished fifth in 12.24 seconds. Wright, Warr, Briana Bartone and Alaya Graves-Hogains also finished second behind Calabasas in the girls’ 4×100-meter relay in 46.53 seconds.
Canyon’s 4×400-meter relay team of Bartone, Wright, Graves-Hogains and Keziah Webster set a new school record in the event, after finishing second in 3 minutes and 52.07 seconds. The relay team topped the school record that has stood for over 20 years, set by a team featuring Olympian Alysia Johnson.
Warr also set a new school record in the 200-meter dash with a mark of 23.88 seconds. Warr finished third in the 200 while three other Lady Cowboys finished the CIF championship race in under 25.5 seconds. Warr currently owns three school records.
Gammage, a junior, topped the Division 2 hurdle competitions with lights-out showings. The junior raced to finishes of 14.22 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and 37.89 in the 300.
“(Gammage has) felt good this week,” Jackson said. “He has just been on fire with his training. He has been able to come through and really build on his speed. His trail leg is coming down even nicer, which I don’t know if everyone follows that, but he is really coming through and he looks sharp. He has been on.”
Trailing Gammage was Golden Valley senior Antonio Moore, who finished with a bronze medal in both events.
Bringing home another multitude of CIF championships was Castaic’s Meagan Humphries. The Texas commit defended her titles in the long jump, triple jump and 200 meters.
Humphries won the 200 in 24.12 seconds, leaped 18 feet and 5 inches in the long jump while hitting a huge 38-foot, 8.5-inch mark in the triple.
Humphries will compete at the CIF Master’s Meet next weekend for a shot at her fourth-straight state meet appearance.
Golden Valley junior Kiera Donovan defended her CIF title over the weekend after her 143-foot, 8-inch bomb of a throw in the discus finals. The CIF championship throw was just an inch off from the school record Donovan set three weeks ago at the Foothill League finals. The junior also finished fourth in shot put with a heave of 38 feet, 7.5 inches.
On the boys’ side of throws, the races were tight with huge heaves from the best athletes in the section. Canyon senior George Stansell finished in the top three of both throwing events.
Stansell sent a silver-medal throw of 161 feet, 8 inches in discus, nearly 10 feet further than his league-title and CIF prelims throws. The Sacramento State commit also finished third in shot put with a 50-foot, 3.5-inch heave.
Canyon’s Nathan Hernandez finished fourth in the boys’ pole vault, clearing 13 feet, 7 inches.
Valencia sophomore Brian Bonner set a personal record in the Division 1 hundred-meter dash with a time of 10.56. Bonner hit the mark at both CIF prelims and finals, and earned a bronze medal.
Bonner, Bryton Cole, Ronald Bruner and DeAndre Kermah also set a new Foothill League record in the 4×100, after a 41.54-second finish at prelims. The team finished in 41.56 seconds at the CIF finals and brought a bronze medal back to Valencia.
In jumps, Golden Valley junior Addae Ma’at finished third in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 9.5 inches. Ma’at just beat out West Ranch senior Davaid Farag, who flew 21 feet, 4 inches.
Ma’at also took bronze in the triple jump, hitting a 45-foot, 4-inch mark, while Farag finished eighth with a mark of 42 feet, 0.5 inches.
Castaic senior Regan Thompson brought home a bronze medal in the girls Division 3 high jump after clearing the 5-foot, 6-inch bar. Thompson’s jump tied the leading mark but one miss knocked the UC San Diego commit to third.
Thompson also ran alongside Pyper Ormes, Laura Bosque and Mallory Palm in the girls 4×400 team that finished sixth overall, setting a new school record with a mark of 4:02.43.
Castaic senior Laura Lazzarotto-Bosque also entered the school record books after she finished fifth in the Division 3 eight-hundred-meter run, with a new program record time of 2:16.12.
West Ranch’s Avery Prestridge also finished third in the high jump in Division 2, as the Wildcat freshman cleared the 5-foot, 4-inch bar. Prestridge had an impressive showing for a freshman in Division 2, as she also earned a bronze in the girls 300-meter hurdles with a time of 44.95 seconds.
Most of the athletes mentioned have now qualified for the CIF Master’s Meet, where divisions won’t matter and athletes will battle it out with the best in the section for a shot at the state meet.
“We can still improve and still get better,” Jackson said. “As the competition increases, their times improve. When we combine all the divisions together, next week at Masters, we’re gonna run harder because we’re gonna be going head to head with the best in Southern California. So we’re very excited about that. We’ve been looking forward to this all year.”
The state meet has been the ultimate goal for most of these athletes, including the bulk of the Cowboys who are aiming to return to Clovis.
“Last year we left our scent at the track state meet,” Jackson said. “This year, it’s time to leave our mark.”
