Ventura's Sadie Engelhardt leads local qualifiers for state track and field championships

Nineteen local athletes and four relay teams qualified for the state championships with top performances at the CIF-Southern Section Track and Field Masters meet on Saturday at Moorpark High.

Ventura High junior Sadie Engelhardt will be going for the sixth individual state title of her remarkable high school running career when she competes in the girls 1,600-meter race this weekend at the 104th CIF-State Track & Field Championships at Buchanan High's Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.

Engelhardt repeated as the Masters champion in the 1,600 with a time of 4 minutes, 45.05 seconds. Last year, she became the first runner in 48 years to win state titles in the girls 1,600 and 800 events in the same meet. Engelhardt, who earned another CIF-Southern Section title last week at Moorpark, has won two state cross country titles and three state track titles.

Engelhardt will also have a chance to win a state crown as part of Ventura's 4x800 girls relay team. Melanie True, Tiffany Sax, Aelo Curtis and Engelhardt won the Masters title with a time of 9:02.57 to advance. The time moved Ventura to 11th on the all-time state list. Sax finished seventh in the 1,600 with a time of 4:50.87 to join Engelhardt in the event at state.

Another Ventura girl athlete won a Masters title to punch her ticket to state. Valentina Fakrogha had a personal-best clearance of 5 feet, 8 inches, to take first in the high jump. Fakrogha repeated as the CIF-SS Division 2 high jump champion last week.

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Royal senior Quincie Richards set a county record for the girls triple jump (40-3.50), moving to No. 2 on the state season list, and finished second by a half-inch to qualify for state. Richards won the CIF-SS Division 2 triple jump last week to become the school's first girls track sectional champion since 1974 and only the third in program history. She also placed ninth in the long jump (17-10), but did not qualify for state.

After repeating as the CIF-SS Division 1 girls discus champion last week, Camarillo junior Trinity Tipton took second with a school-record mark of 145-4 to advance to state. Tipton, who also qualified for state by placing eighth in the shot put (40-6), moved to No. 7 on the county's all-time performance list for the girls discus.

The Calabasas girls 4x100 relay team of Lahela Ray, Paige Porter, Zoe Ray and Marley Scoggins had a school-record and state-leading time of 45.71 to finish first and qualify for state. Zoe Ray (55.34) and Lahela Ray (55.75) were sixth and seventh in the 400 to advance for the Coyotes, who won the CIF-SS Division 2 team championship last week. Arielle McKenzie (2:12.71) and Arden Keeton (2:13.41) met the 800 qualifying marks to reach state. Lahela Ray, Porter, Zoe Ray and McKenzie took second in the 4x400 relay in 3:43.93 as Calabasas qualified two relay teams. Scoggins also advanced in the 100 (11.62).

Royal's Olivia Kirk finished second in the girls 100 (11.54) and 200 (23.72) to qualify for state in both events.

Westlake's Claudia Turner placed fourth in the girls pole vault (12-3) to advance to state, one week after winning the CIF-SS Division 2 title in the event.

Ventura's Anthony Fast Horse took second in the boys 1,600 with a time of 4:09.78 and teammate Micah Grossman was seventh in 4:11.93 as both qualified for state. Blake Harris, Henry Hottinger, Grossman and Fast Horse finished fifth in the boys 4x800 relay (7:46.29) to reach state.

Moorpark's Davis Benson set a school record with a clearance of 6-8 in the boys high jump to finish third and Rio Mesa's Jackson Knowles took fourth (6-6) as both qualified for state.

Westlake's Cade Sommers cleared 16-0 in the boys pole vault to tie for second and reach state. Sommers won the CIF-SS Division 2 title last week.

After repeating as the CIF-SS Division 3 champion in the girls 100 last week, Oaks Christian's Niya Clayton qualified for state with a time of 11.59. Buena's Madison Easter also qualified with a time of 11.89.

Rayah Rodriguez, Imani Clayton, Kyra Herd and Niya Clayton led Oaks Christian to a third-place finish (46.33) in the 4x100 relay to qualify for state.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura's Sadie Engelhardt leads local qualifiers for state track and field championships