Medina, Williams, Johnston and Dowdy reach Clovis after standout seasons and school-record performances
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Medina, Williams, Johnston and Dowdy reach Clovis after standout seasons and school-record performances
The good news is that four Citrus Belt League track and field athletes qualified for the 106th CIF State Track and Field Championships held May 29-30 at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Buchanan High School in Clovis, California.
The bad news is none of them did well enough to qualify for the finals in their events, a result that does not diminish what they accomplished during the 2026 season.
Redlands East Valley High sophomore Elijah Medina (1600 meters), Beaumont High School sprinter Daryl Williams (200 and 400 meters), Beaumont High hurdler Kai Johnston (300 intermediate hurdles) and Yucaipa High School discus thrower Emmalyne Dowdy all made it to Clovis because their best marks met or exceeded the state qualifying marks for their events.
Medina finished 20th in the state prelims on May 29 in 4:13.86, three seconds off his personal best of 4:10.25, capping a spring track season in which he set a new REV school record in the 3200 meters (9:07.56), moved into second on the 1600-meter record list behind Simon Opsahl's 4:08.74 set in 2021, and is now fifth on the REV 800-meter list with a time of 1:56.83.
His surge is a strong improvement over his freshman year times in the same events — 2:16.25 in the 800, 4:33.82 in the 1600 and 10:02.56 in the 3200.
This season he also ran a leg on REV's 4x400-meter relay that was timed in 3:26.65 at the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals, running with Dominick Vasquez, Emery Dominguez and De-Mareaye Hopkins.
Last fall, Medina made his presence felt in cross country, winning the CBL 3-mile championship in 15:07.2 and later lowered his best time in the 3-mile run to 14:47.6 in winning the Dana Hills Invitational on Sept. 6.
He wound up 15th among individuals in the Southern Section Division 3 finals in 14:49.2 while the REV team placed 10th.
If Medina had equaled his personal best in the 1600, he would have moved up to be the 17th finisher, but still would not have qualified for the state final.
The senior sprinter ran 21.53 in the 200 and 48.72 in the 400 at the state meet prelims but wound up 22nd in both after times in the heats were merged.
Earlier in the season he won back-to-back CBL titles in the same two events and anchored Beaumont's 4x100 relay team to a CBL title this year in 41.67, a school record. Running legs on that relay were Kai Johnston, Talan Zowarka and Steven Honeyfield.
Williams now holds Beaumont records in the 100 meters (10.65), 200 meters (21.12) and 400 meters (47.75) and anchored the Cougars' 4x400-meter relay to a school record of 3:16.16 at the CIF Division 1 prelims in 2025. His teammates were Johnston, Cleve Johnson and Tristan MacDonald.
Worth noting, if Williams had run his best 200 and 400 times in the state prelims he would have qualified eighth in the 200 and ninth in the 400.
Johnston dominated the 300-meter hurdles during the CBL dual meet season and made it through to the Southern Section Masters where he ran his personal best of 37.53 to qualify for the state meet.
That mark moved the graduating senior to No. 2 on the Cougars' all-time record list behind Daniel Agbelusi's 37.40 set at the 2024 CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals.
Johnston also shares the school record in the 4x100 with Williams, Zowarka and Honeyfield, and the 4x400-meter relay school record with Williams, Johnson and MacDonald.
Worth noting, if Johnston had run his best time, he would have qualified sixth for the state finals.
Dowdy's discus toss of 132 feet, 3 inches at the Mt. SAC Relays earlier this season was her personal best in her high school career at Yucaipa and now stands as the school record in that event.
Her personal best in the shot put (34 feet, 2 inches) ranks No. 5 on the Thunderbirds' career list.
Her discus mark earned her a trip to Clovis for the state meet because it exceeded the state standard for the event even though her best effort at the Southern Section Masters was 127 feet, 10 inches.
Unfortunately, her performance was below par, finishing 22nd and last in the state prelims at 107 feet, 7 inches.
Ironically, her personal best would have been good enough to qualify among the top 12 athletes that advanced to the finals.
An Instagram post indicated that Dowdy, the 2026 CBL champion in the discus, will be heading to Scripps College in Claremont where she is expected to compete on the joint Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team in track and field as well as study bioengineering.
Sophomore shot put specialist Carmen Robles of Redlands High produced a personal-best effort of 39 feet, 7 inches at the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals to qualify as the No. 5 athlete among all divisions for the Southern Section Masters.
Unfortunately, the official results of the Masters meet stated only that she fouled out of the event and missed the chance to qualify for the state meet.
Robles also competed in the discus at the Masters meet and set her personal best with a toss of 122 feet, 11 inches, well below the state qualifying standard, so she did not advance.
Her best shot put mark ranks her No. 2 on the RHS record list behind 2025 graduate Su'Riah Williams' mark of 43 feet, 4 inches. Her discus mark ranks fifth on the Terriers' all-time record list.
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