Top Northern California Girls Performances From the CIF State Track and Field Championships

Ellie McCuskey-Hay and Sophia Frost captured state titles while several other Northern California athletes earned podium finishes in Clovis.

The Los Gatos High School girls' 4x400-meter relay team logged the fastest prelim time (3:44.99) at the CIF State Track and Field Championships, and finished fourth in the final, clocking3:47.57. Ella Crites (top left), Kaylee Cross (top right), Elise Greenstreet (bottom right), Madison Kohli (bottom left). | Jonathan Natividad/@jnatividadphoto

As usual, the California State Track and Field Championships delivered another high-quality meet.

When hasn’t there been one?

Below are the top Northern California girls' performances with a few Southern California ones added for context.

4x100-Meter Relay

St. Ignatius (San Francisco) and Christian Brothers (Sacramento) represented Northern California well, but just couldn’t match the sub-46 speed of Southern Section teams Rosary (Fullerton) and Canyon (Canyon Country). St. Ignatius — Avery Hui-Bytof, Soleil Warner, Chelsea Mickles and Ellie McCuskey-Hay — managed fourth in 46.28. CB — Katherine Koch, Lael Brown, Malia Van Den Bogert and Nicolette Kufasimes — took fifth in 46.52.

100m Final 

Calabasas’ (Calabasas-Southern Section) Malia Rainey grabbed the title in 11.38 (+2.3), but Amirat Temi Aganju of Pittsburg delivered one of Northern California's top performances, running a personal best of 11.46 and placing third.

1600 meters

Anna Salter of Crystal Springs Uplands and Gretchen Yakaitis of Carondelet (Concord) PR’d, running 4:44.31 and 4:45.29, respectively. But their third and fourth-place times were nearly 10 seconds slower than the winner, Braelyn Combe of Santiago (Corona-Southern Section).

100 hurdles 

Central Coast Section jumper Daniela Hughes of Los Altos claimed fifth place in 13.79 behind a contingent of SoCal hurdlers. Carondelet’s Tatum Tucks (13.84) edged out Long Beach Poly junior Kadence Bain for sixth.

800 meters 

Ava Decleve of Scotts Valley and Josie Hill of Sonoma Academy finished second and third, respectively, in 2:07.37 and 2:07.68.

300 hurdles

St. Ignatius (San Francisco) senior Soleil Warner ran a personal-best 40.97 to place second behind sub-40 winner Saniah Varnado of Wilson (Long Beach-Southern Section). San Ramon Valley (Danville) senior Hope Diekmann was sixth in 42.46.

3200 meters

Amaya Bharadwaj of Palo Alto (Palo Alto) exceeded her seed time of 10:10 by eight seconds, crossing the finish line in 10:02.60 to earn runner-up honors. For a 3200-meter race, the finish was close. Very close. Bharadwaj lost to La Jolla (La Jolla-San Diego Section) senior Chiara Dailey by .69.

4x400-meter relay

It seemed as if the Los Gatos (Los Gatos) team burned all of their rocket fuel in the prelims, running a blistering 3:44.99 — Ella Crites (55.75), Kaylee Cross (58.20), Elise Greenstreet (56.45) and Madison Kohli (54.59) — the top prelim time.

But on Saturday, their fortune changed, as they quickly fell behind Rosary (3:43.89) and Canyon (3:44.56), finishing fourth in a very respectable 3:47.57. No relay unit was going to catch Wilson which clocked 3:36.17.

Pole Vault 

Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) senior Sophia Frost, one of only two female NorCal state champions, cleared 12-6 height with the fewest misses to secure the title.

Long Jump

The other NorCal female state champion was Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius (San Francisco). The University of Oregon-bound senior leapt to a thrilling victory with a 20-3½ mark, besting Moorpark (Moorpark-Southern Section) senior Gianna Gonzalez, on a tie-breaker, who also jumped 20-3½.

Triple Jump

Los Altos’ Hughes also performed well in the triple jump, earning second place with an epic 41-1 effort. Hughes lost to a transgender athlete.