It’s the time of year that University City’s Katrina Wright, Poway’s Ashley Callahan, and members of Scripps Ranch’s 4×100 relay squad should be preparing to defend their San Diego Section championships Saturday and move on to the 102nd state track meet at Clovis next week.
Like the prom and traditional graduation, they sadly won’t have the opportunity, but their achievements in 2019 now are part of our area’s rich history in the sport. They can look back and say, “I was a state champ.”
There have been 28 individual champions and 46 total, beginning with the sprint double by La Jolla’s Janice Wiser in the first girls’ state meet in 1974.
Monique Henderson of Morse won five individual titles, four in the 400 meters and one in the 200 meters. Henderson and only 11 others in state history have 5 gold medals.
Sweetwater’s Gail Devers and Vista’s Kira Jorgensen each won three championships.
Devers later was a twice Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash and a gold medalist on a 4×100 relay team. Henderson was on the winning U.S. 4×400 relay squad in 2004.
Jorgensen topped the field in 1600-meter races in 1987, ’88, and ’89. Devers won the long jump in 1983 and doubled in the 100 meters and 100-meter 30-inch hurdles in 1984,
The 100 hurdles 33-inch and the 4×400 relay are events in which there has not been a first-place finisher from the San Diego Section.
Champions:
| EVENT | YEAR | NAME | SCHOOL | MARK |
| 100 yards | 1974 | Janice Wiser | La Jolla | :10.8 |
| 100 meters | 1984 | Gail Devers | Sweetwater | :11.51 |
| 220 yards | 1974 | Janice Wiser | La Jolla | :24.2 |
| 200 meters | 2000 | Monique Henderson | Morse | :23.19 |
| 400 meters | 1998 | Henderson | :53.41 | |
| 1999 | Henderson | :52.87 | ||
| 2000 | Henderson | :50.74 | ||
| 2001 | Henderson | :51.34 | ||
| 2019 | Katrina Wright | University City | :53.93 | |
| 800 meters | 1986 | Laura Chapel | University City | 2:08.07 |
| 1600 meters | 1986 | Darcy Arreola | Grossmont | 4:45.13 |
| 1987 | Kira Jorgensen | Vista | 4:45.98 | |
| 1988 | Jorgensen | 4:49.54 | ||
| 1989 | Jorgensen | 4:49.55 | ||
| 1993 | Milena Glusac | Fallbrook | 4:50.83 | |
| 2009 | Sammy Silva | Our Lady of Peace | 4:47.67 | |
| 3200 meters | 1992 | Glusac | 10:28.62 | |
| 1993 | Glusac | 10:42.68 | ||
| 2003 | Claire Rethmeier | San Pasqual | 10:27.32 | |
| 2010 | Molly Grabill | Rancho Bernardo | 10:20.25 | |
| 2019 | Kristin Fahy | La Costa Canyon | 10:11.38 | |
| 100-meter hurdles 30” | 1984 | Devers | :13.41 | |
| 100-meter hurdles 33” | NA | |||
| 300-meter hurdles | 1991 | Erin Blunt | San Pasqual | :43.02 |
| 2014 | Hannah Labrie-Smith | Cathedral | :41.67 | |
| 4×100 yards relay | 1977 | Jewell Lovelady, Danita Young, Katie Gaston, Judy Reed | Crawford | :46.14 |
| 4×100 meters relay | 2019 | Brianna Sproles, Aubree Bell, Jaymie Rustkovich, Aaliyah McCormick | Scripps Ranch | :46.51 |
| 4×400 meters relay | NA | |||
| High Jump | 1978 | Sue McNeal | Carlsbad | 5-10 1/4 |
| 1987 | Lynn Patrick | Serra | 5-10 | |
| 2007 | Whitney Sisler | La Costa Canyon | 5-10 | |
| 2019 | Alysha Hickey | Coronado | 5-8 | |
| Long Jump | 1981 | Chris Mose | El Cajon Valley | 18-10 1/4 |
| 1983 | Devers | 19-6 | ||
| 2018 | Hickey | 19-9 3/4 | ||
| Triple Jump | 1994 | Tamieka Porter | Orange Glen | 38-11 |
| 1997 | Andria Booker | El Camino | 40 | |
| 1998 | Booker | 40-0 1/4 | ||
| Shot Put | 1974 | Kathy Devine | Mission Bay | 47-4 1/2 |
| 1975 | Devine | 42-3 3/4 | ||
| Discus | 1976 | Kathy Middleton | Poway | 134-5 |
| 1986 | Tracy Crawford | Southwest | 156-02 | |
| Pole Vault | 1998 | Tracy O’Hara | Rancho Bernardo | 12-8 |
| 1999 | Kathleen Donoghue | Rancho Bernardo | 12-8 1/4 | |
| 2008 | Emily Mattoon | Rancho Bernardo | 12-6 | |
| 2009 | Kortney Ross | Westview | 13-4 | |
| 2010 | Ross | 13-6 | ||
| 2019 | Ashley Callahan | Rancho Bernardo | 13-4 |
Rick, by any chance, were you in attendance at the inaugural Girls CIF Track Championships in 1974? It’s my understanding that the meet was held separately from the Boys’ carnival.
There’s a team championship banner hanging in Kearny’s gym which the Lady Komets earned. Oddly enough, their only gold medal for the entire contest was captured in the 880-yard relay. (Regrettably, the ’74 banner itself was produced without “GIRLS TRACK” stitching to indicate their collective accomplishment!)
Matt, you should be my editor. I completely overlooked the triple jump and Von Ware…and Willie Banks, Dokie Williams, and Lenny McGill. Thanks for reading and thanks for catching the error. I updated the list. I wasn’t at the 1974 meets. I had just taken a new job with the NFL magazine in Los Angeles and was moving. I had been the PR guy for the Golden State Warriors the previous two years. Did the girls run the 880-yard relay? That event, one of my favorites, was dropped in 1968 when the high schools began running the 440 and mile relays.
Yes, the Girls 4×220-yard relay closed out the 1974 and 1975 Finals. I would have to research the ’75 results after the Central Library re-opens.
In 1976, section officials adopted the Boys’ format: 440 Relay and the Mile Relay.
I might bump into you at the library, if it ever opens.