Press Democrat boys runner of the year: Cameron Jones, Maria Carrillo
Cameron Jones has been a mainstay for the Maria Carrillo track and field team since he first stepped on campus three years ago.
As a freshman, he qualified for state in the 800-meter race and has only gotten better since.
This past spring, he put together his best campaign yet, highlighted by a trip to the state championship meet with the 4×800 relay team and setting the junior class record in the 1,600.
Jones' excellence on the track among the top mid-distance runners in the area - in arguably one of the deepest seasons in the events in recent years - has now earned him the distinction as The Press Democrat's boys track and field runner of the year for the 2026 season.
"It's an absolute honor and I couldn't be happier to be running in this community with all these guys," Jones said of the recognition. "It's such a treat to be able to participate in a sport and be amongst so many great runners in the area, especially some up-and-coming ones."
Jones' most impressive individual race came at the North Coast Section Redwood Empire meet, the precursor to the Meet of Champions. At SRJC, he won the 1,600 with a blazing time of 4:12.82, a personal record by a full second which also broke the former area class record set by Ukiah's Ryan Mack in 1998 and the school record of 4:13.67 set by Jordan Kinley in 2002.
It was also over a second faster than the legendary Luis Luna's best junior time at Piner in 2011 and moved Jones to No. 6 all-time in the event in area history, according to records compiled by redwoodempirerunning.com.
The 1,600 isn't even Jones' best event - he'd say it's the 800 - but it was the one he found the must success in this past spring as he knocked 12 seconds off his previous best from his sophomore year.
"I'm happy with my performances this year, but I feel like I did a lot more work behind the scenes and I still have a ton more left to give," he said. "I feel like I didn't really have enough time to produce all the times I really wanted to. Really happy with the 4×800, but I think in the individual events I could still push it a bit further. But seriously, I had so much fun this year. No regrets about this season whatsoever."
After his first-place in the 1,600, Jones could have elected to compete in the event at MOC and given himself a chance to qualify for state but selflessly chose to drop the event to give his 4×800 teammates the opportunity to make a trip to Clovis.
They did just that, winning the event at MOC and setting a new meet and Redwood Empire record of 7:49.68. The team of Jonathan Rath, Hugh Cochrane, Austin Petrik and Jones went on to finish 10th at state.
"I have my senior year and two of the guys on the 4×800 team are seniors and I just wanted to have one final good time with them," Jones said. "I don't think anything would have felt better than taking that team to state. Absolutely no regrets there. I'm very pleased with that decision."
Jones is gearing up for one final season with the Pumas and is poised to be their top runner in cross country in the fall and set up to build on his track success next spring.
Boys track: All-Press Democrat team
Runner of the year: Cameron Jones, Jr., Maria Carrillo
Mason Howell, Sr., Vintage
Phoenix De Maria Nall, Fr., Healdsburg
Jack Dufour, Sr., Casa Grande
Owen Dawson, Sr., Analy
Domenic Andreacchi, Sr., Windsor
Jordan Burse, Jr., American Canyon
Zion Cargill, Jr., Cardinal Newman
Teddy Eichner, Sr., Vintage
Liam Gannon, So., Summerfield Waldorf
Michael Ervin, So., Windsor
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