One long-standing record had survived 12 seasons.
Another barely lasted one week.
With sights on qualifying for this weekend’s CIF-State Track and Field Championships, area high school athletes left nothing for chance.
Two Ventura County records were broken among electrifying performances on Saturday, May 23, at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet held at Moorpark High.
Jalen Aguilar-Carnes of Moorpark qualified for the state boys 200-meter dash with a wind-legal time of 21.01 seconds, bettering the county record of 21.07 set by Camarillo’s Ahmed Obed in 2014.
Aguilar-Carnes was a member of Moorpark’s boys 4×100 relay that advanced with a county-record time of 40.60. Newbury Park had set the record with a 40.68 in winning the Division 2 title a week prior. Newbury Park (40.85) had the fourth-best qualifying time at the Masters.
Other members of the Moorpark relay were Kade Hunter, Payton Sustin and Davis Benson.
Eighteen individuals and five relay teams earned their tickets to the state finals set for May 29-30 in Bakersfield.
Besides being a member of Moorpark’s relay team, Benson advanced in three individual events.
The junior became Moorpark’s first boys long jump Masters champion and first Ventura County Masters champion in the event since Royal High’s Oliver Jackson in 2000, placed third in his heat of the 110 hurdles (wind-aided 13.94) and was one of three county high jumpers advancing.
Benson, teammate Dean Guzman and Thacher’s Rafa Kelliher cleared the state high jump qualifying standard of 6-6.
Caleb Romeo threatened the 29-year-old county boys 400 record.
The Thousand Oaks senior was fourth in 47.39, two-tenths of a second off the record shared by Camarillo’s Matt Lea — set in 1997 — and Oaks Christian’s Chase Hansen (2024).
The pursuit of top 10 all-time county performances didn’t end there.
Gianna Gonzalez of Moorpark moved to No. 7 on the county’s all-time list for the girls long jump with a career-best mark of 19-5 to secure fourth.
Thousand Oaks recorded the county’s third-best boys 4×400 relay all-time. The Lancers quartet bettered the school record with a time of 3:14.99, trailing only Simi Valley (3:13.65 in 1987) and Rio Mesa (3:14.87 in 2010).
Freshmen Anais Cruz (10:31.83) and Sabina Cruz (10:34.98) of Westlake placed second and sixth in the girls 3,200 to qualify for the state meet. Agoura’s Reese Tamburro (10:46.49) did not qualify.
Advancing in the boys 100 were Jaden Griffin of Newbury Park (10.36), Kingston Celifie of Calabasas (10.37) and Aguilar-Carnes (10.40). All times were wind-aided.
Malia Rainey, Devyn Sproles, Marley Scoggins and Olivia Kirk of Calabasas made the state meet in the girls 100 and 200.
Moorpark freshman Camailla Peltonen qualified in the girls 200 and 400. Her time of 54.96 in the 400 moves her to No. 7 on the all-time county list. She is the third-fastest freshman in the state for the 400.
Thousand Oaks’ Lucas Schneider, who placed third at the 2025 state meet with a county boys 300 hurdles record of 36.94, qualified for a return state trip with a time of 37.72.
The only local state girls 4×100 relay qualifier was Thousand Oaks, which advanced with a time of 46.78.
Oaks Christian distance runners Delaney Napierala (4:49.42) and Vin Krueger (4:10.42) qualified in the girls and boys 1,600, respectively. Arie Nwosu of Oaks Christian missed the at-large standard by .04 of a second with a time of 4:11.79.
Qualifing for the boys 3,200 were Sterling White of Oaks Christian (8:59.26) and Rio Mesa’s Derek Luna (8:59.47).
Moorpark (3:51.43) bettered the state qualifying standard for the girls 4×400 relay.
Nieve Oliver of Camarillo and Gwynneth Mureika of Oak Park cleared 5-6 in the girls high jump to qualify for state.
Among the girls non-qualifiers were: Kathleen Lambe, Oak Park, 1,600 (4:58.55); Rajah Rodriguez (55.65) and Savana Williams (56.40), Oaks Christian, 400; Sophia Grant, Newbury Park, 800 (2:14.22); Reese Tamburro, Agoura, 3,200 (10:46.49); and Thousand Oaks (3:52.98) and Oaks Christian (3:53.11), 4×400 relay.
Girls field event non-qualifiers were: Bennett Rodman, Foothill Tech, high jump (5-4); pole vaulters Shaylee Torres (11-2) and Kai Laber (10-8) of Ventura, Kaia Duben (11-2) of Newbury Park, Taya Frodis (11-2) of Thousand Oaks; and Jordyn Brown, long jump, 17-11.
Area boys non-qualifiers were: Awie Nwosu, Oaks Christian, 1,600 (4:11.79) and 800 (1:55.56); Lucas Schneider, Thousand Oaks, 110 hurdles (14.57); Ryan Quinn, Calabasas, 400 (48.20); Blake Harris, Ventura, 800 (1:55.74); Jodey Conyers, Rio Mesa, 300 hurdles (39.11); and Oak Park (3:19.20), Newbury Park (3:20.02), Agoura (3:20.67), Camarillo (3:21.31) and Oaks Christian (3:29.83), 4×400 relay.
Boys field event non-qualifiers were: Christopher Toppe, Thousand Oaks (21-8.25) and Tyler Starling, Agoura (21-0.75), long jump; Jayden Gills, Newbury Park (43-0) and Teg Watson, Oaks Christian (42-6.50), triple jump; and Evan Kellner, Ventura (160-4), discus.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Record-setting efforts highlight state qualifiers at CIF-SS Masters
Reporting by Derry Eads, Special to Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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