CIF State Champs in Review: Servite's underclassmen power Friars to victory
One sophomore, four freshmen, account for all of team's points
The boys squad from Servite High School in Anaheim won its first team title in the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) State Track & Field Championships last Saturday, but coach Brandon Thomas was “still on cloud nine” when he was reached by phone on Wednesday.
And he had a right to be, as a Friar team that wasn’t at full strength edged Clovis North of Fresno, 33-30, for the team title in the meet at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Santa Margarita of Rancho Santa Margarita finished third with 24 points, followed by Long Beach Wilson with 23, and St. Ignatius College Prep of San Francisco with 22½.
Servite had looked to be capable of scoring more than 40 points in the state championships based on its performance in the division 3 meet of the Southern Section Divisional Finals on May 17. But sophomore Benjamin Harris, the Friars’ top sprinter, began to experience hamstring issues shortly after that, which led Thomas and his assistant coaches to keep him out of both the 4 x 100 relay and the 200 in the Southern Section Masters Meet in an effort to minimize the amount of stress on his left hamstring.
“I didn’t think he was going to make it through that meet,” Thomas said.
And when Harris advanced to the state championships with a third-place finish in the 100, scratching him from the 200 made even more sense, at least to the coaches.
“According to him, he could have run [the 200],” Thomas said of Benjamin. “I told him he wasn’t running the 200 and he said, ‘I can do it.’ I told him ‘I know you can do it, but we’re not going to have you run it to your demise.’ ”
It turned out to be a wise decision as Harris ended up running a personal best of 10.31 seconds to finish second in the 100 in the state championships.
Prior to that, an all-freshman quartet of Jace Wells, Jaelen Hunter, Kamil Pelovello, and Jorden Wells, Jace’s twin, won the 4 x 100 relay in 40.27 in the first boys’ track event of the evening and Hunter then finished second in the 400 in 46.65 before the start of various races in the 100.
Those three performances gave Servite 26 points in the team standings and the Friars’ total increased to 27 when Jace Wells finished eighth in the 200 in 21.19.
Although Clovis North led Servite, 30-27, entering the 4 x 400 relay, the final event of the meet, it did not have an entry in that race, meaning that Servite knew it could win the team title by finishing fifth or higher in the relay.
Some coaches might have played it safe at that point and instructed their team to just run for a top-five finish. But Thomas encouraged the squad of Hunter, Pelovello, and Jace and Jorden Wells to go for the win. And though they ended up going to from first place to third on the anchor leg of the historically deep race, their time of 3:09.46 was faster than 38 of the previous 42 winners had run in the state championships.
Thomas said on Wednesday that although he and his fellow coaches were not sure about the team’s chances of winning a state title after the Masters Meet, their outlook changed when they examined the entries for the other top teams.
“We weren’t sure about things at the start,” he said. “But once we took a deeper look into that, we were like, ‘You know what? We have a good chance at winning the state championship.’ ”
Depth galore: As mentioned in the previous note, the boys’ 4 x 400 relay was a particularly deep race in the state championships as Long Beach Poly ran 3:08.68 to win a contest in which the first four teams ran under 3:10 and seven squads ran 3:11.62 or faster.
The winning time by the Poly quartet of seniors Gus Armstrong and Jarrius Hill, sophomore Darieon Shufford, and junior Noah MJ Smith broke the school record of 3:09.89 that had stood since 2007 and moved the Jackrabbits to fourth on the all-time state list, with Central East of Fresno finishing second in 3:09.24 to become the sixth-fastest program in state history.
Team champion Servite of Anaheim finished third in 3:09.46, followed by Cathedral of Los Angeles in 3:09.59, Long Beach Wilson in 3:10.55, Culver City in 3:11.51, and Helix of La Mesa in 3:11.62.
Helix had a the slightest of leads over second-place Servite after freshman Jaelen Hunter of Servite ran a sparkling 45.26 on his opening leg. But Central East, Poly, Cathedral, and Servite were running 1-2-3-4 at the second exchange.
However, Servite freshman Jace Wells ran a 47.03 third leg to give the Friars a lead of nearly a half second over second-place Poly at the final exchange with Cathedral not far behind the Jackrabbits.
However, Poly’s Smith, who had been a surprising non-qualifier in the 400 after running 46.55 this season, overtook Servite freshman Jorden Wells, Jace’s twin, at the start of the backstretch and the Jackrabbits went on to win the race by a solid margin as Smith clocked 46.03 on his anchor carry.
“My main thing was just getting my team the win,” Smith said in a video interview posted on youtube.com by Youth Runner Magazine. “Unfortunately, I didn’t make it in the [400] and that was pretty disappointing to me. But I knew I couldn’t focus on that because I knew that these guys wanted the record. I knew they wanted to win. So my goal was just to finish off strong and get that win and hopefully run under 3:09, which we did. So I’m proud of us.”
Streak grows: While the Servite High boys squad edged Clovis North for its first-ever team title in the state championships last Saturday, Long Beach Wilson’s girls posted their third consecutive victory with a 46-point total that left them well ahead of Moore League rival Long Beach Poly and Santiago of Corona, which tied for second 28 points.
Jurupa Valley finished fourth with 27 points, followed by Carlsbad with 25.
Wilson, which became the first girls squad to win three consecutive titles since Poly won four in a row from 2008-11, won its sixth title in program history.
The Bruins were led by seniors Kaylin Edwards and Loren Webster.
Edwards accounted for 16½ points as she finished second in the 300-meter low hurdles in 40.61 seconds and third in 100 hurdles in 13.79 before teaming up with junior Brooke Blue, senior Alene Washington, and sophomore Saniah Varnado to win the 4 x 400 relay by more than four seconds with a 3:36.75 clocking.
Webster accounted for 10 points when she won her second consecutive title in the long jump after she posted a personal best of 21 feet ¼ inch (6.40 meters) in the fifth round.
Wilson’s other points in individual events came from Varnado, who placed sixth in the 300 low hurdles in a personal best of 41.84, and fellow sophomore Shirayah Lewis-Williams, who finished fifth in the 800 in a personal best of 2:09.42.
Lewis-Williams also ran a 2:11.46 anchor leg on a Bruin quartet that finished fourth in the 4 x 800 relay in 8:59.02. The other relay team members were senior Elisa Rodriguez, sophomore Riley Jones, and junior Kimani Tindal.
“I think it means we’re going in the right direction,” Wilson coach Neil Wilson said in a presstelegram.com post. “I want to continue to grow… I do want four.”
Maximizing its opportunities: The Santiago of Corona girls team scored all 28 of its points in the 1,600, 3,200, and 4 x 800 relay as junior Braelyn Combe won the 1,600 in a personal best of 4:35.64, senior Rylee Blade placed second in the 3,200 in a personal best of 9:50.51, and Combe and fellow juniors Taylor Davis, Nicole Samson and Kinsley Whitecavage won the 4 x 800 relay in 8:49.01.
Combe had run a personal best of 4:39.73 in the 1,600 while finishing second to Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura in the 1,600 in the state meet last year, but she bettered that mark by more than four seconds last Saturday when she ran 4:35.64 while winning a scintillating homestretch duel with senior Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery in Santa Rosa.
With the temperature at 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 Celsius), senior Jordin Lieberman of Murrieta Valley in Murrieta was nearly three seconds ahead of the field when she came through 400 meters in 66.88, But Thomsen moved into the lead shortly before she passed 800 meters in 2:19.83 and the race for first place was down to her and Combe when the senior came through 1,200 meters in 3:30.17.
Thomsen continued to lead Combe around the first turn and down the backstretch, but Combe tried to move past her entering the final curve. However, Thomsen did not let her by and the two of them basically ran stride for stride for the final 175 meters of the race before Combe outleaned Thomsen at the line to finish five hundredths of a second in front of her.
Combe then came back to run a 2:07.43 anchor leg in the 4 x 800 relay when she overtook senior Anne Elise Packard of JSerra Catholic of San Juan Capistrano heading into the final curve before giving Santiago a three and a half-second margin of victory as Serra placed second in 8:52.68.
Santiago had been in seventh place after Davis ran 2:16.07 on her opening leg and Samson’s 2:12.18 split had put the team in third behind Serra and Buchanan after the second leg. Whitecavage followed with a 2:13.32 carry that gave the Sharks the smallest of leads over Serra.
Packard moved past Combe in the first 50 meters of the final leg, but Combe never fell too far behind and then sped away from her in the final 200 meters of the race.
Blade, winner of the last two state division 1 cross country titles, pushed the pace from the start of the 3,200, but Thomsen was close behind her when Blade came through the 1,600 in 4:57.85 and when she started the bell lap in 8:41.96.
Thomsen was then able to overtake her on the final lap while on her way to a personal best of 9:48.98.
Staying focused: Junior AB Hernandez accounted for all 27 of fourth-place Jurupa Valley’s points in the girls’ team standings in the state championships.
Hernandez had the five longest marks in the triple jump, was the only girl in the high jump to clear the winning height on her first attempt, and had the second-best mark in the long jump. But because she is a trans athlete, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) had a unusual scoring system in place for the events in which she competed and she ended up tying for first place in the triple jump and high jump and tying for second place in the long jump.
The scoring system was designed to award Jurupa Valley points based on how Hernandez finished, however her placings could not be used to displace other athletes.
Therefore, if she placed first in an event such as the triple jump, both she and the cisgender athlete who placed second would tie for first place and each of their teams would be awarded 10 points.
That led her to tying for first place in the triple jump and high jump, and tying for second place in the long jump.
The CIF came up with the system after certain groups, as well as President Donald Trump, had expressed opposition to Hernandez participating in the state meet because she was transgender. Trump had written in a social media post that he was “ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow her” to take part in the state championships, even though she had been participating in meets all season.
With the revised scoring system in place Hernandez and Kira Gant Hatcher of St. Mary’s College High in Berkeley were each awarded 10 points in the triple jump after Hernandez had a best of 42-2¾ (12.87) and Hatcher had a top mark of 40-5 (12.31).
Hernandez was one of three girls who tied for first place in the high jump, as Lelani Laurelle of Monta Vista in Cupertino and Jilene Wetteland of Long Beach Poly all cleared the winning height of 5-7 (1.70).
Although Hernandez made that height on her first attempt and Laurelle and Wetteland did so on their second attempts, they were tied for first place in the results.
Hernandez’ wind-aided mark of 20-8¾ (6.31) in the long jump was the second best of the competition behind the 21-¼ effort of Loren Webster of Long Beach Wilson, but she tied for second in the official results with Brooke White of River City in West Sacramento, who had a best of 19-4¼ (5.89).
Despite the microscope under which she found herself competing, Hernandez set personal bests in the high jump, triple jump, and long jump, as her No. 2 mark of 20-5 (6.22) in that event topped her previous best of 20-1½ (6.13).
In a story posted on theguardian.com on Thursday, Hernandez was quoted as saying “Track is everything to me. Track is my little baby. It’s crazy that I can say that I’m a state champion for something I love so much. It’s an honor.”
Productive day: Junior Wyland Obando paced the Long Beach Wilson boys to a fifth-place finish in the team standings in the state championships by winning the 800 in 1:51.24, anchoring the 4 x 800 relay team to a fourth-place finish in a time of 7:38.30, and running the second leg on a 4 x 400 squad that finished fifth in 3:10.55.
Obando was in seventh place when senior Adam Divinity of Redondo Union in Redondo Beach led the field through the first lap in 55.52 seconds and he was still in seventh as Divinity led a tightly-bunch lead group of nine runners down the backstretch. But Obando had moved into fifth place at 600 meters and he was in fourth with 100 meters left before moving into second midway down the straightaway and then edging past sophomore Lucas Alperts of Jesuit in Carmichael with about 20 meters to go.
Alberts clocked 1:51.32 in second place and he was followed by junior Alden Morales of JSerra Catholic in 1:51.60. Divinity finished fifth in 1:52.10.
Obando’s victory followed a runner-up finish in last year’s meet.
“Today I was thinking about just striking in the last 150,” Obando said in a the562.org post. “I know I have to be fast to stay with everyone so I thought I’d just outkick them at the end.”
Obando produced splits of 1:54.24 in the 4 x 800 relay and 50.05 in the 4 x 400 and seemed particularly proud of the team’s school-record time in the latter event as it included splits of 46.18 from senior Charles Chatman, 48.27 from senior Ky’Zir Burroughs, and 46.06 from sophomore Kaedyn Burroughs.
“It means so much to us,” Obando said. “We’ve been breaking it all year so to get it down to 3:10 is unbelievable.”
A win and a personal best: Senior Jack Stadlman of Temecula Valley High in Temecula did not run as fast as he had hoped he would in the boys’ 400 meters in the state championships, but he wrote in a text on Sunday that he was feeling good about winning the 400 in 46.02 seconds and placing a close second in the 200 in a personal best of 20.82.
Stadlman had run personal bests of 10.73 in the 100 and 21.62 in the 200 last year while focusing on those events during his first season of competitive track. But he ran a stunning 45.69 in the 400 on March 1 of this year after having clocked 49.06 in his only effort at that distance last year.
After winning the Arcadia Invitational in 45.92 and the division 1 title of the Southern Sectional Divisional Finals in 46.27, his goal was “to run 45 low or 44 high” in the state final. But he bounced back from any disappointment he felt about his 46.02 time in the 400 with a 20.82 clocking in the 200 that left him a scant three hundredths of a second behind junior Prince Buchango-Babalola of St. Ignatius College Perp in San Francisco.
That followed a winning effort of 21.00 in his qualifying heat on Friday that had bettered his previous personal best of 21.03.
The USC-bound Stadlman wrote in his text that “it was a great finish, didn’t finish with perfection but through all the hurdles I’m happy with the ways things finished.”
Productive double: Senior Leo Francis accounted for 16 of third-place Santa Margarita’s 24 points in the boys’ team standings in the state championships by winning the long jump with a wind-aided leap of 25-¾ (7.63) and placing third in the 200 in a personal best of 20.84.
Francis was in fourth place with a best of 23-3½ (7.09) as he prepared for his fifth-round attempt in the long jump. But his wind-aided leap of 25-¾ (7.63) vaulted him into first place and he ended up finishing an inch and a half in front of fellow senior Nicolas Alexis of Elsinore High in Wildomar, who placed second with a wind-aided 24-11¼ (7.60).
The 20.84 clocking by Francis in the 200 bettered his previous best of 20.99 and came in a tight race in which junior Prince Buchango-Babalola of St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco placed first in 20.79, senior Jack Stadlman of Temecula Valley in Temecula finished second in 20.82, and junior Jaden Jefferson of De La Salle in Concord was fourth in 20.86.
“On my first three jumps, I was doing all right,” Francis said in a youthrunnermag interview posted on youtube.com. “My third jump got me into the finals… That fifth jump, I just let it all out.”
Tight finish: Junior Jayden Rendon of Carson won the boys’ 300-meter intermediate hurdles in the state championships when he finished a miniscule five thousandths of a second in front of Kingston Waring of Culver City.
Both athletes were credited with personal bests of 36.50 in a race in which Lucas Schneider of Thousand Oaks finished third in 36.94, also a personal best.
Waring and Rendon had been the fastest two qualifiers from Friday after they had won their heats in 36.73 and 36.94, respectively.
Rendon’s victory followed his fifth-place finish in the 110 high hurdles earlier in the meet, when he ran a wind-aided 13.95, and it came 10 years after Justin Collins of Carson had won the state title in the 300 intermediates with a time of 36.67.
Quite a run: When senior Aja Johnson of Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks won the girls’ shot put in the state championships, it marked the fourth consecutive time that she had placed among the top two finishers in that event.
Johnson had finished second in the state championships as a freshman in 2022 before winning the title in 2023 and placing second last year.
Her top mark of 45-5¾ (13.86) last Saturday gave a narrow victory over second-place Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel in Aliso Viejo, who had a best of 45-5¼ (13.84). But Johnson had five of the top seven puts in the competition as her second-best mark measured 45-3 (13.79) and her third best was 45-2 (13.76). She also had two puts of 44-6¾ (13.58).
Johnson had preceded her victory in the shot put by placing fourth in the discus with a throw of 152-8 (46.53). Massey won the event with a best of 163-9 (49.91).
Johnson had thrown a personal best of 158-10 (48.41) in winning the discus last year after she had placed fourth in the event in the 2023 state championships with a best of 154-3 (47.01).
“It’s really meaningful,” Johnson said in a youthrunnermag interview posted on youtube.com. “It’s my last meet as a Notre Dame student and I didn’t take it lightly. I really wanted to show up for my school and I think I did, although it wasn’t the outcome I completely wanted. I’m still very grateful for it.”
What a tandem: While the majority of this column is focused on the performances from athletes from the Southern and Los Angeles City sections in the state championships, senior twins Makenna and Morgan Herbst of Carlsbad High of the San Diego Section are worth highlighting.
For during a stretch of a little more than 10 minutes last Saturday evening, Makenna posted a runaway victory in the girls’ 800 meters when she ran 2:02.28, and following the boys’ 800, Morgan posted the No. 2 time in U.S. prep history she won the 300 low hurdles in 39.64.
Morgan and Makenna later ran the third and fourth legs on a Carlsbad team that placed fourth in the 4 x 400 relay in 3:45.00.
Makenna, who is unbeaten in the 800 this season, had a lead of more than two seconds over second-place Anne Elise Packard of JSerra Catholic when she came through the first lap in 59.36 seconds. And she won the race by more than five seconds as freshman Grace Smith of Claremont finished second in a personal best of 2:07.33.
Morgan had dipped under 40 seconds in the 300 hurdles for the first time when she ran 39.95 in the San Diego Section championships on May 24, but she bettered that mark last Saturday when her 39.64 clocking moved her to second on the all-time U.S. prep list behind Sydney McLaughlin, who ran 38.90 as a senior at Union Catholic Regional High in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, in 2017.
Morgan had trailed senior Kaylin Edwards of Long Beach Wilson for the first four flights of hurdles. But she had drawn even with her by the fifth of eight barriers and she began to pull away from her after that as Edwards placed second in 40.61 in a race in which four girls broke 41 seconds.
Times in question: Junior Jaden Jefferson of De La Salle High in Concord won the final of the boys’ 100 meters in 10.27 seconds in the state championships last Saturday, but his 10.01 clocking in his preliminary heat the previous day has led many to wonder if the timing system was working properly during that race.
That’s because Jefferson and the other top sprinters in the first heat appeared to have lowered their personal bests by margins close to three tenths of a second or more.
As an example, Jefferson entered the meet with a personal best of 10.30 before clocking 10.01 in the heat.
In addition, second-place Nicolas Obimgba of Torrance went from 10.51 to 10.20, third-place Antrell Harris of Birmingham in Lake Balboa went from 10.65 to 10.24, and fourth-place Khairee Baker of American Canyon went from 10.68 to 10.32.
While the California Interscholastic Federation has stood by the results of that race, stating that the timing system was working properly, veteran prep track and field statistician Jack Shepard wrote in an email earlier this week that Track & Field News “studied the race video and thought that the proper time for Jefferson was possibly in the mid to high 10.30s. All of those fast times will be stricken from our lists. Was glad that Jefferson came back with a great 10.27 final.”
Shepard, the longtime boys high school editor for Track & Field News, has been involved with compiling a high school statistical annual for several decades.