What is the recipe for a state sprint crown?
For Calabasas High junior Malia Rainey, it had just a few ingredients: a heaping serving of talent, an extra dose of hard work, and of course, belief — plenty of it.
The 2026 Star Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year trusted her speed as she stormed down the track at Buchanan High School on May 30 in the CIF-State girls 100-meter final in 11.38 seconds, gapping a field that included some of the fastest sprinters in the country to win gold.
She was undefeated from CIF-Southern Section finals onward in the event, winning the Division 3 section and Masters titles before claiming the ultimate prize.
“There was a point in the season where I was just not feeling the best,” Rainey said. “To be able to persevere through all of that, give it my all and give it my best, it definitely feels really good. I accomplished all of the goals I wanted to this season.”
When it came to believing in Rainey’s potential for greatness on the track this postseason, she was last to the party. Calabasas track coach Jeff Clanagan said he realized about a month out from the state meet just what the stellar sprinter might be capable of.
All he had to do was convince her.
“I always believed she could win it,” Clanagan said. “In the beginning of the season, you talk about, ‘Hey, the goal is to get to the state meet.’ Towards the middle of the season, I started talking to her like, ‘Hey, the goal is to win.’ ”
It was the same kind of message she has always gotten from her earliest coach — mom.
Before she ever dreamt of being a track star, Rainey said it was familial tough love back home in New Orleans that pushed her towards success.
“You have got to be tough to sit at that table,” Rainey said of her family. “When I was younger, I used to always cry when I didn’t win. I would be hyperventilating; it was a struggle for me. (My mom) would always be in my ear on the car ride home, yelling, trying to get it into my head, ‘You are the best. When are you going to realize that you are a great athlete?’
“She has been telling me since forever, she always knew it was going to happen. She was just waiting on me to see it.”
Rainey’s mom got to watch as she ran a wind-legal 11.41 to win a CIF-SS title, moving her daughter up to No. 5 on the area all-time list, before she won the event at the CIF-SS Masters in 11.33.
The family moved to California from New Orleans when Rainey was just eight years old. On the track, she found a calling that put her at home no matter where her feet were.
“Nothing else gives me the adrenaline that track does,” Rainey said. “Nothing else feels as good. Nothing else can get me to feel my best.”
The move also put things in perspective for the young speedster who had dominated back east. Nothing would be given — every win would take everything she had.
“I used to win everything. I was so used to it,” Rainey said. “Then I moved to California. I wasn’t No. 1, I wasn’t coming in first all the time. I had teammates who I was constantly in competition with. … It taught me to be humble and it also taught me that, the more you focus on yourself, the better you can become.”
Those teammates, especially seniors Marley Scoggins and Olivia Kirk, helped form one of the greatest sprint trios in the country this year. Scoggins, a University of Tennessee commit, and Kirk, bound for the University of Oklahoma, bound over to Rainey and were the first to embrace her after the state title victory.
The competition every day in practice helped make Rainey’s mental approach bulletproof. If she was training with the best, racing the best every day in practice, why couldn’t she be the best?
Why not believe?
“If your mental isn’t right, you have already lost,” Rainey said. “That’s already 80% gone. I make sure that I am affirming myself of who I am, who I know I can be and what I know I can do, but also staying humble.”
The junior, used to the underdog mentality it took to shock the favorites in the state 100-meter final, knows that she will no longer an unknown, hunting giants, when she takes to the track next spring.
For better or for worse, she and Calabasas are on the radar.
“Nobody expected me to win, I know that for sure, but I do like being the underdog, the one that is not talked about, and then, bam, I come out state champ,” Rainey said. “I have a target on my back, I am not the one chasing the target. I know it’s going to be a mental challenge I am going to have to get through, but knowing myself and knowing who I am as an athlete, I know I will be able to.”
That’s not stopping her from setting big goals for her senior campaign.
Rainey said she is targeting not just a title defense in the 100, but an attempt at the 200-meter title as well.
“That is the beauty in track,” Rainey said. “You can always get better. There is always something more that you can work on.”
The Star’s All-County Girls Track and Field Second Team
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Malia Rainey is The Star’s Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
