The state’s top distance runner added another piece of hardware to his impressive trophy case and earned another shot at his first state track championship.
Dana Hills junior Evan Noonan won the boys 3,200 meters at the CIF-SS Masters Meet for the second consecutive season last Saturday, May 18, at Moorpark High School. Noonan is one of five Dolphins athletes to qualify for the CIF State Championships, including Jayden Hernandez (1,600 meters), Annie Ivarsson (1,600 meters), Paige Scheer (800 meters) and Roxy Meyer (triple jump).
The CIF State Championships begin with preliminaries on Friday, May 24, at Buchanan High School in Clovis. The finals will be held on Saturday, May 25. CIF State Championships will be streamed online by the NFHS Network.
Noonan is the reigning back-to-back CIF State cross country champion and CIF-SS Division 3 cross country champion, and the junior won his second consecutive CIF-SS Division 3 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter titles on May 11. Just like last season, Noonan elected to continue on to CIF-SS Masters in only the 3,200 meters, and again, he earned another championship.
Noonan ran his second-best 3,200-meter time of the season at 8:48.56 to win his second straight CIF-SS Masters title by nearly one and a half seconds. Noonan ran his personal-best time of 8:47.17 at the Arcadia Invitational on April 6.
As a sophom*ore last season, Noonan finished third at the CIF State Championship, marking the only major title he has yet to win on the California distance-running circuit. He can rectify that as the No. 1 seed entering the 3,200-meter finals on Saturday. There are no preliminaries in the 3,200 meters.
The only other Dana Hills athlete to reach the podium at the CIF-SS Masters Meet was junior Annie Ivarsson, who finished third in the girls 1,600 meters. The junior posted a lifetime-best in the 1,600 with a time of 4:47.21 after setting her previous personal-record in a second-place finish at the CIF-SS Division 3 Finals on May 11.
Ivarsson is the No. 2 seed in her preliminary heat on Friday. The top four from each 1,600-meter heat plus the next best four times advance to Saturday’s final.
Roxy Meyer had two shots at advancing out of the Masters Meet, and the senior got it done in the girls triple jump. Meyer finished fourth with a mark of 38 feet, 11.5 inches to qualify for the State Meet. Meyer set a personal-record in the event with a mark of 39 feet, 4.75 inches at the CIF-SS Finals.
Meyer is the No. 25 seed in the triple jump preliminaries on Friday. The top 12 marks advance to the finals on Saturday.
Meyer also finished eighth in the girls long jump at Masters, just out of state qualification.
Paige Scheer claimed the final state qualification spot in the girls 800 meters with a sixth-place finish at CIF-SS Masters. The UCLA-bound senior clocked in at 2:12.27 to earn her spot by a 0.33-second margin.
Scheer is the No. 4 seed in the second 800-meter heat in the preliminaries on Friday. The top three in each heat plus the next best three times advance to the finals on Saturday.
While the top six from the Masters Meet automatically go to the CIF State Championships, athletes can still qualify if they’ve hit certain performance markers during the season, and that was the case for senior Jayden Hernandez in the boys 1,600 meters.
Hernandez finished 10th at CIF-SS Masters with a time of 4:12.21, but the University of New Mexico-bound senior will still move on to the State Meet. Hernandez posted a personal-record time at the CIF-SS Finals of 4:08.29.
Hernandez is the No. 7 seed in his 1,600-meter heat in the preliminaries on Friday. The top four in each heat and the next best four times advance to the finals on Saturday.
Sydni Harden also competed at CIF-SS Masters and finished seventh in the girls pole vault with a clearance of 11 feet, 9 inches. The junior did not qualify for State, but she finished the season as a CIF-SS Division 3 champion with her personal record of 12 feet, 1 inch at CIF-SS Finals.
Nick Fry Ends Boys Golf Season in SoCal Regional
His senior season nearly went as far as it could possibly go, but Dana Hills golfer Nick Fry saw his season come to an end one step short at the CIF SoCal Regional on Wednesday, May 22, at Los Serranos Golf Club in Chino Hills.
Fry shot a 2-over-par 76 to tie for 59th in the 123-player field. Logan Park of Diamond Bar won the event with a 10-under-par 64, and the final state qualifier was Zuxu Wu of Anaheim Discovery Christian, who tied for ninth with a 4-under-par 70.
Fry opened with a birdie on the 552-yard, par-5 No. 1, but the senior then posted bogeys on four of the next five holes, including three straight on the par-4 No. 4, par-4 No. 5 and par-3 No. 6. Fry rolled in four birdies on the day, but it wasn’t enough to overcome his six bogeys.
In the CIF postseason, Fry tied for fifth at the CIF-SS Southern Regional and tied for fourth at the CIF-SS Individual Finals.
Hans Sempre Falls Just Short at CIF-SS Boys Tennis Sectionals
The South Coast League singles champion won his first two matches in his CIF-SS Sectional last Thursday, May 16, at Marina High School, but Dana Hills’ Hans Sempre couldn’t earn his berth to the CIF-SS Tournament.
Sempre dominated his opening match, 6-0, 6-0, and solidly took his second match, 6-3, 6-2. In his sectional final, Sempre ran into freshman Trinity League champion Riley Anson of JSerra, who took the match, 6-1, 6-3, to advance straight to the Round of 16 at the CIF-SS Tournament.
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