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Fryer: Orange County track and field athletes setting, chasing records

April 3, 2026

The high school track and field season has reached that point where the times and marks get better and better.

The Trabuco Hills Invitational is Saturday at Trabuco Hills High. The Arcadia Invitational will attract its usual amazing field on April 11 at Arcadia High. The Orange County Championships are April 18 at Mission Viejo High.

From what has happened so far, April is going to be a heck of a month.

Already an Orange County record has been broken. Aliso Niguel senior Jaslene Massey threw the discus 188 feet, 7 inches at the Irvine Invitational on March 14. That incinerated the previous county record of 175-8 set by San Clemente’s Kate Hutchinson in 2003, and it is the best mark in the United States this season and the No. 2 high school mark in state history.

Massey, an Oregon commit and the Orange County girls competitor of the year for the 2024-25 school year, is still chasing one of the county’s older records in any sport. In 1983, Fullerton’s Natalie Kaaiawahia threw the shot put 53 feet, 7.75 inches. Massey threw the shot 52-6.5 at the Mt. Carmel Invitational last month. She earlier recorded a 52-10.25, but that was an out-of-season mark in February so it won’t be found in the Orange County record book that for decades has been compiled by Don Chadez.

Massey set the state indoors record in the shot put with her mark of 54-2.75 at the Nike Indoor Nationals last month.

Sprints coach wizard Brandon Thomas continues to train a fast fleet of runners at Rosary and Servite to remarkable results.

Servite's Benjamin Harris takes the baton from teammate Jorden Wells in the boys Division 3 4x100 relay during the CIF Southern Section track and field finals at Moorpark High School in Moorpark on Saturday, May 17 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer) — Servite’s Benjamin Harris takes the baton from teammate Jorden Wells in the boys Division 3 4×100 relay during the CIF Southern Section track and field finals at Moorpark High School in Moorpark on Saturday, May 17 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)

The Servite 4×100 relay team of sophomore twins Jace and Jorden Wells, junior Benjamin Harris and sophomore Kamil Pelovello ran the event in 40.05 seconds at the Mustang Roundup at Trabuco Hills on Feb. 28. That group set the county record of 40.00 last year.

Servite’s “B” unit in the 4×100 has Orange County’s third-best time of 41.91.

Individually those Servite guys are sharp, too.

Harris ran the 100 in 10.23 seconds last month, the best time in California this season. That’s 0.02 seconds away from the county record of 10.25 set by Mater Dei’s Domani Jackson five years ago.

Pelovello, Jace Wells, fellow Friar Jaelen Hunter and Jorden Wells are 1-2-3-4 among county runners in the 200. Hunter and Wells are 1-2 in the 400 in Orange County.

Rosary sophomore Maliyah Collins and her senior teammate Justine Wilson are pursuing the Orange County girls 100 record of 11.66 established by Western’s Carol Rodriguez in 2003. Collins is this season’s county wind-legal leader at 11.77. Wilson ran a wind-aided 11.57 in Texas last month.

Wilson set the county record in the 200 last season at 23.73 seconds. Wilson and Collins both have wind-legal times of 24-flat this season. Wilson also is No. 1 in the 400 in O.C (55.49 seconds).

JSerra has the county’s top three leaders in the boys 800, led by senior Morales at 1 minute, 53.17 seconds.

Century senior Monserrat Santilla Silva made a big splash in CIF Southern Section cross country this past season, going from a 53rd-place finish in 2024 to a CIF-SS championship in ‘25, and she is doing fine this track season, too. She is the county leader in the 3,200 with a time of 10 minutes, 37.65 seconds.

Conspicuous by her absence among the Orange County and CIF Southern Section girls distance leaderboards is Irvine senior Summer Wilson.

After setting the national cross country 3-mile course record of 15 minutes, 14 seconds in the CIF-SS finals this past season and winning a state title, Wilson has not run in any high school meets this season. But she is fine. She set personal records in the 1,500 and the mile (4:48.88) at the Millrose Games in New York this winter and ran a personal-best 9:59.35 at the New Balance Nationals last month in Massachusetts.

Wilson is entered for the Arcadia Invitational, where she will be one to watch.

And from the looks of it, she won’t be the only Orange County athlete to keep an eye on at Arcadia.

NOTES

• The best name in Orange County track is Soda-pop Dailey, a senior at Aliso Niguel. He has the county’s fifth-best time in the 300 hurdles (39.82). Disclaimer: Soda pop daily is not recommended by most physicians. …

• Another good name in county track is Trabuco Hills senior Zachary Taylor, namesake of our nation’s 12th president. Taylor is the O.C. leader in the shot put at 57 feet, 8 inches. …

• A memorial service for Hall of Fame football coach Bob Johnson will be in the Mission Viejo High gym on April 25 at 1 pm. …

• It has been a busy transfer season in Orange County football. Among the moves: quarterback Matthew Smith from Villa Park to Santa Margarita; and receiver Troy Roberts from Yorba Linda to Crean Lutheran. Two quarterbacks moved in from Texas: Hayes Cloutier, who is at JSerra; and Nash McElree, who is at Mission Viejo after spending a brief period of time at San Juan Hills. …

• Erik Zimmerman resigned as the boys water polo coach at Mater Dei, the school announced this week. Zimmerman, who previously coached at Westcliff University and played the sport professionally in Hungary, coached the Monarchs for only the 2025 season. Mater Dei this past season finished 16-15 overall and advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals in which the Monarchs lost to Loyola, 9-2. …

• Yours truly has covered four baseball games this season. Two of them, Newport Harbor vs. Corona del Mar and St. John Bosco vs. Orange Lutheran, had too much bench jockeying and poor behavior. It can be difficult to tell who started it, because programs do have long histories with other programs, and who was the worst, and of course those were not the only games in which this kind of behavior has occurred, but it needs to stop. …

• It remains a stunner that high school administrators continue to allow music about consuming alcohol to be played at their on-campus baseball games. …

• Seniors Rayan Heyati of University (Division 4), James Obleda of Mater Dei (Open Division), Ethan Phung of Los Alamitos (Division 3) and Marvin Villela of Santa Ana Valley (Division 5) were named CIF-SS boys soccer players of the year. Santa Margarita junior Felicity Nguyen (Open Division) and Aymar Salgado of Segerstrom (Division 6) were named CIF-SS girls soccer players of the year. …

• The first computer rankings for CIF-SS baseball were released this week. The top-ranked Orange County team is No. 12 Servite which is No. 4 in the Orange County Top 25. County No. 1 Orange Lutheran was No. 94 because the computer did not have OLu’s full results. …

• This week’s CIF-SS boys volleyball rankings have Mira Costa at No. 1 as expected, with Huntington Beach at No. 2, Corona del Mar at No. 4, Newport Harbor at No. 6, Los Alamitos at No. 7, Tesoro at No. 8, Mater Dei at No. 10, Santa Margarita at No. 11 and Beckman at No. 12. …

• The CIF-SS boys volleyball playoffs have had Division 1 as an eight-team group using a pool-play format in recent years. That could change to a 12- or 16-team bracket this season.

Fryer: Orange County track and field athletes setting, chasing records Orange County Register

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