Two field athletes medal at State; South, Cal City softball, Shafter baseball fall in title games

Three Kern County field athletes reached the CIF State Track and Field Championship finals in their respective events and two came away with medals Saturday night at Clovis Buchanan High's Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Liberty High junior Madelyn Porter finished second in the girls' pole vault and Shafter High's Joslyn Pierucci took seventh in the girls discus. A third athlete, Thaddeus Dyer of Tehachapi High, was 12th in the boys' high jump.

Porter's top clearance was 12 feet, 6 inches, same as champion Sophia Forst of Pleasant Grove and third place Caitlin Khieu of Del Norte. All three athletes missed on their three attempts at 12-10. To determine the final standings, Forst cleared 11-10, 12-2 and 12-6 on her first attempt. Porter cleared 11-10 on her third attempt and Khieu on her second. But to determine their places, Porter cleared 11-4 on her first attempt, Khieu on her third. Porter had five misses, while Khieu had six total misses. Forst's only misses came on the final height. In Friday's preliminaries, Porter cleared both 11-2 and 11-8 to be part of a five-way tie for first - each cleared 11-8 on their first attempt.

Pierucci, a senior, had six attempts on Saturday. Among the first three throws, she hit a 146-4 that held up as her top throw. She fouled three times, but she landed a 143-1 on her very first throw and had a 137-7 on her final attempt. She had earned her spot in the discus finals with a personal-best 151-1 at the May 22 CIF Central Section Masters Meet. She was able to farther this season. Last year, she reached the state meet, but was eliminated in the preliminaries. This year, her top prelims mark of 137-0 earned her the ninth out of 12 qualifying spots.

Dyer, a senior, cleared the bar once in six total high jump attempts Saturday. He cleared 6-5 on his third jump, the opening height. When he couldn't clear 6-7 after three attempts, his day was over. In Friday's prelims, he cleared both 6-4 and 6-6, needing a second attempt for both heights, and was 10th out of 12 qualifiers.

The state finals qualifiers did what several other county athletes could not do - advance out of Friday's preliminaries.

The only two local relay teams, Liberty's girls 4x100 relay and Bakersfield's boys 4x100, did not advance. Liberty's relay team finished 19th overall in 47.92 seconds; BHS boys, without injured Jalen Ford, ran 42.35 and were 23rd overall.

Individually, Liberty's Ally Bennett was 21st overall in the girls 1600 meters in 4 minutes, 56.94 seconds; Del Oro's Noel Huato, was 23rd in the boys 1600 in 4:15.23; Liberty's Porter sought two event qualifications, but was 21st in the 100-meter hurdles; Ariana Rangel of Frontier ran in two events, finishing 18th overall in the 400 in 56.13 and, later, 25th in the 200 in 24.98; Bakersfield's Omari Brown reached 6-4 in high jump for a 17th-place tie; Josiah Frink of Ridgeview no-heighted in the high jump; Stockdale's Nevaeh Ramos Howard competed in two events, the 100 and 200, but her 11.99 time in the 100 and 24.47 in the 200 was only good for 16th overall in each; Independence's Damarious Johnson was 23rd overall in the boys 100 in 10.69 seconds; Lacey Mueller, Bakersfield Christian high jumper and Ridgeview's Victoria Smith-Chaplin high jumper both no-heighted; McFarland's Diego Ochoa was 20th in the boys 800 in 1:53.87; Bakersfield's Bryce Gridiron made it to state in the 200, but he did not compete. He had run in the BHS 4x100 earlier in the prelims on Friday.

CIF Central Section Div. 4 Softball Championship - San Luis Obispo Mission College Prep 3, South 0: A run in the third and two big insurance runs in the sixth lifted the Royals to the shutout victory over the Spartans and take the title on Saturday at Fresno State's Margie Wright Diamond.

The Spartans, making their first CIF section title appearance since winning Division 6 in 2023, were limited to three hits by MCP pitcher Lindrie Hinrichs, who struck out 10 and walked one - South power-hitter Aniyah Gordon.

The Spartans were limited to singles by Gordon, Zowey Estrada and Payton Eades. The Spartans left six runners on base.

South's Sierra Lopez was the starting pitcher. She allowed just four hits, gave up the three runs - two earned - walked two and struck out two. Gordon came into the game in the sixth inning and got the final two outs. She allowed one hit.

Danielle Rivas, Hinrichs and Violet D'Orazio-Lelli each drove in a run for the Royals. Rivas had a double, Hinrichs a triple and Lelli a single.

South, co-South Yosemite Mountain League champions under Ralph Lopez, finishes the year with a 24-7 overall record. The Spartans, who were seeded fourth in these playoffs, had playoff wins over Bakersfield, San Luis Obispo and knocked off the No. 1 seed, Reedley Immanuel, in the semifinal on the road.

Gordon's amazing senior season concluded with 88 RBIs and 19 home runs for the Spartans.

CIF Central Section Div. 5 Baseball Championship - Minarets 10, Shafter 9: In a game that went back and forth, even Shafter's Lukas Pena's two-run hit in the seventh inning to get the score to what it finished as, the teams produced a wild title game at the Valley Strong Ballpark in Visalia on Friday.

This was the Generals' third straight season finishing their season in the title game. Shafter won it in 2024 and then fell to Corcoran in 2025. Under the direction of new head coach David Schwartz, the Generals, who were the top seed in D-5, got back to where they've been and, even in defeat, still had a shot to win it late.

No inning was scoreless. Shafter did some damage in the second with a four-run inning to seize a 5-2 lead, but the Mustangs scored the next three runs to tie it. Shafter committed four errors in the game and Minarets took advantage, eventually getting a 10-7 lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Both pitchers, Andy Gomez for Shafter and Jamie Spurgeon for Minarets, helped themselves offensively. Gomez was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and Spurgeon was 3 for 5 with two RBIs, a double and triple and three runs scored.

Pena was 2 for 4 with four RBIs for Shafter (19-7). Minarets (24-8-1) also got three RBIs from Beckham Mathewson.

CIF Central Section Div. 5 Softball Championship - Woodlake 11, California City 1 (5 inn.): California City's No. 10 playoff seeding was not indicative of the postseason run the Ravens had, getting all the way to the CIF Central Section championship game. Wins over the No. 7 seed Corcoran, No. 2 Exeter and a semifinal triumph over the No. 6 team, Orcutt Academy.

But on Friday in the title game at Fresno State's Margie Wright Diamond, California City understood why Woodlake in Tulare County was the No. 1 seed.

Woodlake pitcher Marriah Ellis threw a five-inning, one-run allowed no-hitter. But in the third inning she walked two, the Tigers made a defensive error to load the bases and Cal City's Bryce Ragland hit a one-out grounder that enabled Natasha Aguirre, who led off with a walk, to score and make it 5-1. Woodlake responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth and added two more in the fifth to reach the mercy-rule ending.

Woodlake's offense had 14 hits against Cal City starting pitcher Nevaeh Ramirez. Mareli Zamora had three hits, including two doubles, drove in three runs, Ella Lara and Mia Gastelum drove in two runs apiece.

While this was Cal City's first appearance in a CIF section title game, the Tigers claimed their third straight section title. They won the D-4 title last year and the 2024 D-5 crown. The Tigers also won the D-5 SoCal Regional title last year. Woodlake (28-4), by winning this newest title, is seeded second and will host West Covina's Edgewood in a first-round CIF Southern California regional playoff game Tuesday.

Cal City, under head coach Donnie Hewes, finished 22-8.

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 5:21 AM.