1974-2020:  Girls State Track and Field Champions

It’s the time of year that University City’s Katrina Wright, Poway’s Ashley Callahan, and  members of Scripps Ranch’s 4×100 relay squad should be preparing to defend their San Diego Section championships Saturday and move on to the 102^nd state track meet at Clovis next week.

Like the prom and traditional graduation, they sadly won’t have the opportunity, but their achievements in 2019 now are part of our area’s rich history in the sport. They can look back and say, “I was a state champ.”

There have been 28 individual champions and 46 total, beginning with the sprint double by La Jolla’s Janice Wiser in the first girls’ state meet in 1974.

Monique Henderson of Morse won five individual titles, four in the 400 meters and one in the 200 meters.  Henderson and only 11 others in state history have 5 gold medals.

Sweetwater’s Gail Devers and Vista’s Kira Jorgensen each won three championships.

Devers later was a twice Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash and a gold medalist on a 4×100 relay team.  Henderson was on the winning U.S. 4×400 relay squad in 2004.

Jorgensen topped the field in 1600-meter races in 1987, ’88, and ’89.  Devers won the long jump in 1983 and doubled in the 100 meters  and 100-meter 30-inch hurdles in 1984,

The 100 hurdles 33-inch and the 4×400 relay are events in which there has not been a first-place finisher from the San Diego Section.

Champions: