The Malibu High girls track & field team ran and leapt its way to a league championship and buzz-worthy placement at a CIF event to close the season last month.
Additionally, on May 26, the squad’s top athlete outran competitors — a common theme throughout the season — in a time that showed she is the number one female distancer runner in the Golden State.
Malibu track and field head coach Ray Humphrey said the 28-athlete group had a great season.
“It was a very fun, very competitive season because of the makeup of the team,” he said. “We had some serious athletes that wanted to do really well.”
The Sharks sprinted, vaulted and high-jumped past Tri-Valley League competition en route to winning their first league championship in over a decade on May 4. The squad finished fifth out of 49 schools at the CIF Southern Section Division IV Finals on May 20.
Humphrey said for the past few years Malibu aimed for a league championship when competing in the Frontier League, but fell short. The former Malibu High football coach said the Sharks had some reservations about aspiring to be league titlists this season, since they had moved to the bigger and more competitive Tri-Valley League. Humphrey said the girls only focused on improving their performance times.
“We definitely got better,” he said. “We had a unique group that wanted to compete. We just trained hard and got better against the clock. I told them, ‘You are only as good as your last mark.’ That was important to us.”
The Sharks got better and won meets throughout the three-month season, then claimed the team’s first league title since 2002.
Foot Locker cross country national champion Claudia Lane led the way. The sophomore, also the CIF Division IV cross country champ, won the 1,600-meter race in four minutes, 57.26 seconds and the 3,200 in 10:49.10. Both times are league records.
“Doing what she did was amazing,” Humphrey said.
Malibu Junior Ella Mckinna-Worrell also had two wins. She won the 400 in 1:01.01 and the 300 hurdles in 49.37. Mckinna-Worrell’s classmate, Isabella Gettings, had a jump of five feet, two inches to win the high jump. Senior Eva Conrad’s leap of 15-07 won the long jump, and sophomore Sierra Brady’s jump of 10-06 won the pole vault.
Freshman Morgan Perlmutter’s jump of 10-00 placed her second in the pole vault. Junior Liz Boland placed second in the 100 in 12.83 and was the runner-up in the 200 with a time of 26.68. Anya Adorni-mindel, also an 11th-grader, finished the 100 hurdles third in 17.91.
Malibu’s 4×100 relay team’s 50.23 placed second in their race. The 4×400 relay team’s 4:21.04 placed third.
At the CIF event, Mckinna-Worrell’s 57.73 placed sixth in the 400m. Brady’s jump of 9-9 in the pole vault tied for fourth and Perlmutter’s 9-3 leap finished sixth in the same event.
Lane dominated again with wins in the 1,600m and 3,200m. She won the shorter race in 4:51.27 and the other in 10:19.27.
Assistant coach Jennifer Gonzalez said the best moment of the season was having so many Sharks qualify for the CIF finals.
“We had a great group of girls that really wanted to work hard and improve,” she said. “Our kids really just came through with solid performances all year.”
The boys track & field squad finished 29th out of 47 schools at CIF thanks to two juniors competing in the pole vault. Luca Damian’s vault of 13-0 placed him third, and Cooper deNicola’s 10-6 garnered him ninth place.
Lane’s CIF victories qualified her for the CIF Southern Section Ford Girls Masters Track & Field meet last Friday in Arcadia. There, she won the 3,200 by nearly 14 seconds in 10:10.25.
Humphrey said Lane’s most impressive 3,200 win of the season happened at Arcadia High in April. At the Arcadia Invitational, the Shark posted a time of 9:57.52 to outkick Grandview High (Colo.) senior and University of California signee Brie Oakley’s 9:57.59.
“That was the best race I had seen in high school,” Humphrey said. “She and the girl from Colorado were going back and forth. Just to watch Claudia go out and win was amazing.”
Humphrey said Lane could one day be recognized as the best athlete ever to graduate from Malibu High.
“If she continues to do what she does, she will be in the Olympics,” he said. “She is that good.”
On the Sharks’ roster, Lane isn’t the only talented athlete.
Mckinna-Worrell has stood out in four events for the Sharks. She has one win in the 100, two 200 wins, eight top-three finishes in the 400 and four top-three placements in the 300 hurdles.
Humphrey said Mckinna-Worrell is a jack of all trades on the track.
“She is a good athlete, and she does it very quietly,” he said. “If you can get a peep out of her it’s amazing.”
The coach said the sprinter anchored the 4×100 team that nearly broke a school record.
Brady had eight first-place finishes in the pole vault. In fact, in 13 meets this season her lowest finish was 10th. She was in the top five in the other 12 meets. Perlmutter had nine top five finishes in the pole vault.
Humphrey said the Sharks, which featured four seniors, is ready for the 2018 season.
“They are talking about what they can do next year,” he said. “We had a unique group that wanted to compete and wanted to get better.”
