“It’s crazy,” Weer said of the field. “I think four of us are from my district…it’s crazy to have so many fast people, especially in the 1A competition. I never imagined that we’d all run this fast.”

Thursday was Weer’s first time running at Hayward Field — she’d watched state championship races there before, but got to take the track for the first time in her win. She tried not to watch herself on the looming video board, she said — she focused on the kick that “comes when she needs it to”. 

She needed it in the final…and it came. She won by less than three seconds.

“Everything is so big,” Weer said of the stadium. “It’s amazing how this is one of the biggest tracks in the country, and so cool to be able to run on that. Not a lot of high school students get to do that.”

Weer’s teammate, boys’ 3000m winner Jett Leavitt, didn’t need a kick. He won his race by more than 51 seconds, in 8:30.37 — a new personal-best and OR #16 time. In second place, too, was his training partner, Jonah Lyman.

“I think it’s really cool,” Leavitt said. “It happened last year, too, but seeing him finish at the end not too far behind me is so cool. We train every day together. Seeing my friend and my teammate finish with me is really cool.”

3A girls’ 3000m winner Jaya Simmons’ win was her second-consecutive state title in the race; a 9:54.73 time secured the win in what could be the Valley Catholic High School senior’s final race in that uniform.

“There was definitely a lot of pain on the final lap,” Simmons said. “I really went out hard, but just knowing as a senior that this is my last 3000m here meant that I had to push through that last lap.”

Friday at Hayward Field welcomes the 4A, 5A and 6A competitors to the stadium. Competition begins with the 4A girls’ 3000m at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time.

Audrey MacLean of the Middlebury women’s track and field team tallied a pair of United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-American honors. The awards are based on the athlete’s performance at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
 
HONOREE HIGHLIGHTS

• MacLean (First Team)

  • MacLean earns a pair of All-American outdoor laurels, giving her six accolades over her first two years. She is a two-time All-American on the cross country stage, garnered first-team laurels in the 5,000 meters during the indoor season, and is a three-time recipient outdoors.
  • This marked MacLean’s fourth appearance at a national meet, competing at the NCAA Championships in cross country each of the last two years, while placing sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase a year ago.
  • During the steeplechase preliminaries, the Panther crossed the line first with a clocking of 10:33.39. 
  • In the final on Friday, MacLean paced the pack throughout and held off a late charge by Hamilton’s Keira Rogan to earn runner-up honors with a time of 10:23.59.
  • On Saturday in the 5,000, MacLean settled into the middle of the pack in the opening laps of the race, climbing 10 spots by the midway point.
  • The sophomore maintained 10th place until the final 400, where she passed a pair of competitors to finish in eighth place with a time of 16:42.81. 
  • This season, MacLean rewrote the record books for Middlebury with top clockings in the steeplechase (10:21.15) and the 5,000 (16:26.94).

Middlebury has 64 Outdoor All-American women’s honorees. Those who finish in the top-eight spots individually or in a relay earn first-team distinction, while individuals claiming ninth through 16th and relays earning ninth through 12th tally second-team laurels. The full list of honorees can be found here.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – University of Missouri track and field’s Valentina Barrios punched her ticket to the national final in women’s javelin while Alicia Burnett advanced to the quarterfinals in the 100m after running a school-record 11.13 on day two of the opening round of the NCAA Championships at E.B. Cushing Stadium on Thursday. 

Barrios, a junior, followed up her Southeastern Conference Championship performance with a fifth-place result of 56.71m (186-0). She joins Callan Saldutto in Eugene, Oregon, the site of the final rounds of the NCAA Championships, as the two will compete for the school’s first national championship in javelin on either the women’s or men’s side.

After setting the school record in the 100m on April 18, Burnett topped it by a tenth of a second to finish in ninth and earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the event. She competes next on Saturday at 6:35 p.m.

Day two again started with the hammer throw, where Reagan Kimrey led the Tigers in 30th place with 57.17m (187-6) to conclude her freshman season. Petra Gombas closely followed with a throw of 55.03m (180-6), claiming 38th.

Senior Kaesha George capped off her campaign in 18th in women’s javelin after throwing 47.58m (156-1). Led by Barrios, the squad was rounded out by Val Galligan in 29th place (45.77m/150-2) and Morgan Cannon in 45th (36.29m/119-0).

In the track events, Burnett took 34th in the 200m in 23.63, while freshman Monica Wanjiku capped off her stellar freshman season with an 18th-place result in the 10,000m, finishing in 34:49.42.

UP NEXT

The Tigers continue postseason action at round one of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday, May 30, beginning with the men’s discus at 1 p.m., where Skylar Coffey and Tarique George will represent Missouri.

FOLLOW THE TIGERS

For all the latest on Mizzou Cross Country and Track & Field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the teams on Facebook, Instagram and X (MizzouTFXC).

Heading into this weekend’s State Track and Field Championships, the California Interscholastic Federation made a rule change to appease the Trump administration’s furor over a trans athlete being allowed to participate.

This weekend is the California Interscholastic Federation’s high school State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, California, an event which, to be honest, we do not normally cover. But the stakes at this competition are incredibly high this year, for reasons that have very little to do with track and field.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is ginning up outrage that a trans female athlete is competing, so much outrage that they’re planning a full-on Department of Justice investigation into the matter. The administration is also threatening to withhold “large scale” federal funding from the entire state of California over the matter.

Visalia’s KMPH reports that Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce jumped into the dispute, hoping to sway Gavin Newson to step in and ban the high school student from competing. “Just this morning, President Trump posted on social media about our state finals saying that what is about to happen here in Clovis is ‘not fair’ and reminded everyone Gov. Newsom said that too,” Pearce said in a Tuesday statement. “A biological male will be competing against our girls and he is favored to win the state title in at least one event.”

“Is favored to win?” Are oddsmakers really setting favorites on high school track and field competitions in the Fresno area, or did Diane Pearce just make that up out of whole cloth?

Either way, the response has been fairly swift. Sacramento’s KCRA reports that the California Interscholastic Federation has crafted a new compromise rule that would allow the trans athlete to compete, but would not allow any “biological female” student-athletes to be eliminated from competition by that trans athlete.

“Under this pilot entry process, any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section’s automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships,” the federation says in their new policy. “The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes.”

Governor Gavin Newsom, known recently for cozying up to right-wing anti-trans sentiment, seems pleased with the compromise move.

“CIF’s proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement. To Politico. “The Governor is encouraged by this thoughtful approach.”

But will this work to appease Trump and his administration? I’m guessing it won’t! While conservatives argue this is about protecting women athletes from discrimination, the political game here seems more about using the trans community as a wedge political issue, and punishing states that acknowledge that trans people exist. And if that’s the goal, reasonable compromises might not be possible, or even desired.

Related: Judge Won’t Block San Jose State From Conference Volleyball Tournament Over Alleged Transgender Player [SFist]

Image: A group of young women on the starting line, focused and ready to sprint at full speed. Training starts for their next track and field competition. (Getty Images)

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Prestina Ochonogor became the second Texan in as many days to qualify for the NCAA National Championships at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds at E.B. Cushing Stadium on Thursday.
 
Along with Ochonogor punching a ticket to Eugene, Victoria Cameron earned a berth in Saturday’s quarterfinals in both the 100 and 200. Cameron will be in the 24 women field in each event in hopes of posting a top 12 finish to earn a spot in Eugene in each event.
 
“I’m so proud of this young lady right here,” said head coach Bobby Carter” “Again, I’ve told my athletes, it’s all about surviving and advancing. Today she did just that! There will be much more to come.”
 
WAC Female Freshman of the Year, Prestina Ochonogor, became the second Texan to punch her ticket to Eugene. Ochonogor increased her leap on each of her three jumps. She started with a 7.33-meter jump on her first attempt. Her second attempt just posted a 7.47-meter mark which would have been enough to qualify, but she wasn’t done yet. The Benin, Nigeria, native, then posted a 6.66-meter jump just a centimeter shy of her school record. The leap qualified Ochonogor for nationals with the second-best leap in the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
 
“I want to thank God and I am very grateful from the beginning to the end,” said Ochonogor after punching her ticket.  “I want to thank my family and coaches. Go Texans, I love you! See you in Oregon!”
 
Ochonogor is not new to the big stage. This past summer at 17 years old, she represented Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the long jump. She placed 12^th in the stacked field and was one of the youngest track athletes at the Games. The freshman will be making her second appearance at an 2025 NCAA National Championships after earning a First Team All-American honor earlier this year. She finished eighth in the long jump at the indoor championships.
 
The 2025 WAC Female Outdoor Athlete of the Year, Victoria Cameron earned a spot in both the 100-meter and 200-meter quarterfinals on Saturday with her Thursday night performances. First, the sophomore won her heat in the 100 in 11.07 seconds and qualified for Saturday with the sixth best performance. In her first race of the day, the Stephenville native narrowly broke her school record again, coming within .02 seconds. The Texan is the only athlete from a non-Power Four Conference among the top 18 qualifiers in the 100.
 
Less than two hours later, Cameron punched her ticket for Saturday in the 200 meters. The sophomore finished second in her heat crossing in 23.19 seconds. She posted the 17^th fastest time in the 48 women field. She will punch a ticket to the NCAA Championships in Track Town USA by being among the top 12 runners in the field of 24 in each event set to run on Saturday.
 
A pair of Texan women also competed in the 200. Lauren Roy finished 32^nd in the field in 23.56 seconds. Amandine Estival crossed in 23.79 seconds to earn 38^th overall.
 
Friday, the Texans will be in hopes of punching a pair of tickets to Eugene in the men’s triple jump. In the final day of the men’s NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, both Sir Jonathan Sims and Gabriele Tosti will be competing in the triple jump. The duo will be competing in the fourth flight, estimated to start around 3:45 p.m. Tosti enters as the third ranked jumper in the nation and Sims boasts the ninth best jump in the West.
 
On Saturday, Cameron will be running in three events all with the chances to punch herself a ticket to Oregon. She will start in the 4×100 relay scheduled to run at 5 p.m. with her teammates, Hanna Dudley, Amandine Estival and Lauren Roy. She will then run in the third heat of the 100 meters slated to start at 6:35 p.m. Her final race of the day will be in the 200 racing out of the first heat at 7:50 p.m. Sofia DeGroot will make her NCAA West debut in the triple jump at 2:30 p.m.
 
With just two days left at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, the top 12 in each event on each of the final two days will earn themselves a trip to Eugene. The Purple and White have four individuals still looking to punch their tickets to Eugene, Ore., as well as a four-women relay team. The NCAA National Championships will be held at Hayward Field from June 11-14.