Junior soars to high jump meet record with 5-10.25 clearance, adds victory in 300 meters; Harris triumphs in pentathlon and 60-meter hurdles, Hope sweeps horizontal jumps, Redmond doubles up in sprints and Serra secures a pair of relay wins 

By Pete Marshall for DyeStat

ARCADIA – It didn’t feel anything like the season of record Saturday at the California Winter Outdoor Championships at warm and sunny Arcadia High, and the ideal conditions led to some remarkable girls’ performances, especially considering there are several more big indoor meets and the outdoor season doesn’t begin in the CIF-Southern Section until Feb. 18.

One of those impressive efforts was achieved by Castaic junior Meagan Humphries, who shattered the meet record with a high jump of 5 feet, 10.25 inches (1.78m) well above the old standard of 5-5 (1.65m).

INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

Humphries didn’t jump until the bar got to 5-1 (1.54m). She cleared her first five heights on her first attempt, then set the bar to 5-10.25, cleared that on her third attempt. She even tried twice unsuccessfully at 6-0 (1.82m).

“The league record was 5-10, so we came in with the intention to break that,” she said. “Then we were going to go with the mindset of ‘go big or go home.’ But I was basically looking to PR and break the league record.”

Humphries said the goal this year, however, is to clear 6-0.

“I definitely think I’m capable of getting six feet this season,” she said.

Humphries was a double winner, as she also took home the title in the 300 meters in 38.20 seconds, just .08 seconds off the meet record. The 300 meters had 12 heats and 85 competitors Saturday.

The Oaks Christian distance medley relay team of junior Grace Geyer (1,200 meters), freshman Rayah Rodriguez (400), sophomore Eleanor Borchard (800) and junior Payton Godsey (1,600) shattered the meet record by clocking 11:47.11, more than 30 seconds faster than the old record set by Claremont in 2018. They also won Saturday by more than 52 seconds.

It’s an impressive team put together, despite the fact that they aren’t training together as a group.

“Honestly, I feel like we haven’t worked on handoffs too much,” Geyer said. “Me and Payton run long distances for track and both of them (Rodriguez and Borchard) are doing shorter distances, so we’re actually training separately for the most part every day.” 

Said Godsey: “All of us know we’re going to do our job come race day, so we’re all training very hard. I think us four are some of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met.”

Borchard said the team is also looking to qualify for the New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston in March.

King senior Alyssa Hope, the top returning horizontal jumper in the state, won both the long jump (19-9/6.01m) and the triple jump (39-10/12.14m). At the state meet last year, she won the long jump and was second in the triple jump.

“The two meets I did before this to qualify, I kept jumping 18 (feet in the long jump),” Hope said. “So my goal was to at least get 19 and hopefully get a little closer to 20, which I did. For triple jump, I had jumped 39 two weekends ago, and my goal was to get closer to 40. I’ve been training since July, so I feel like this is where I should be at this point in time.”

Of course as the outdoor season winds down in three months, she wants to jump much farther.

“I want to get close to 22 feet in long jump and I really think I can do it,” she said. “Then I want to get close to 43 or past 43 in the triple.” 

One of the most impressive multiple winners Saturday was Stockton Lincoln senior Yvette Harris.

The state runner-up in the 100 hurdles last year, Harris won the 60-meter hurdles Saturday (8.57 seconds) in the morning, then won the last event of the day, the pentathlon with 3,371 points. The pentathlon ended about five hours after the 60 hurdles final.

She felt the last event of the pentathlon, the 800 meters, was the biggest challenge.

“I think I did pretty good in all my other events,” she said. “This last event hurt, a lot. But overall, I think I did pretty good. I’m really proud of myself with the 60 hurdles and the multi.”

Serra had two outstanding relay teams win on Saturday: the 4x200 and the 800 sprint medley, which the California Winter Championships run a 100-100-200-400 format.

The 4x200 team clocked a meet-record 1:38.94, but barely edged Golden Valley by one hundredth of a second. The sprint medley won in 1:45.55, although it was not a meet record.

Three of the girls ran in both relays: Oregon-bound senior Brazil Neal, junior Mia Flowers and senior Sadia Green. Neal ran leadoff in both, Flowers was anchor in the 4x200 and second in the sprint medley and Green was second in the 4x200 and third in the sprint medley. Senior Zakiyah Wilson rounded out the 4x200 and senior Sienna Claiborne ran the anchor in the sprint medley.

“Coming into the race, I just knew I had to get out and give my team a lead, and me and Mia are on the 4x100 all the time so it was really just easy to hand it off to her and knowing she’s going to do her job and the rest of them as well,” Neal said after the second of the relays, the sprint medley.

Senior Reign Redmond of Carson, the defending state champion in the 100-meter dash, took home the crown Saturday in setting meet records in both the 60 (7.38 seconds) and 150 (17.69). The top seven finishers in the 150 beat the previous meet record of 18.11.

“I was trying not to shake in the blocks and make sure I just burst out,” Redmond said of winning the 60. “If you don’t get a good block start, you really have to fight to the end to get back ahead.”

Another meet record fell in the 1,500, as Etiwanda senior Janelle Avilez won in 4:29.45, one of three finishers to run faster than the previous meet record (4:30.55).

“I’ve definitely been training a lot harder,” Avilez said. “Whatever I was doing before it was good, yes, but now that I’ve been focusing more on track (after cross country), it’s been a huge jump.”

Other girls field event winners included: Iliana Downing of La Costa Canyon (pole vault, 12-4/3.75m), Mackenzie Monson of South Torrance (weight throw, 42-0.50/12.81m) and Sinaiah Pointer of Etiwanda (shot put, 39-11.75/12.18m).

On the track, other girls winners included: Samira Kennedy of Castilleja (600, 1:33.42), Marjourie Lopez of Shadow Hills (3,000, 10:02.88) and JSerra’s 4x800 relay (9:22.83).