Dozens of local athletes hit the track Saturday at CIF Southern Section preliminaries.
The Division 1 races kicked off at Trabuco Hills High School, with Division 2 at Ontario High School, Division 3 at Yorba Linda High School and Division 4 at Carpinteria High School.
In Division 1, Caleb Burton of Crescenta Valley High School advanced to the boys 1,600-meter finals with a sixth-place finish in 4:10.25. Teammate Enzo Dik grabbed the final qualifying spot in 4:14.82.
On the girls side, Lucia Pearson of Saugus High School qualified for the 1,600 final in 4:59.45.
Crescenta Valley stayed strong in the 800-meter race with a heat-three win and automatic qualifying time of 1:55.05, while Annika Mark qualified for the girls 3,200 final in 10:55.85.
In Division 2, Thousand Oaks High School opened with a qualifying mark in the girls 4×100-meter relay in 47.02.
Newbury Park High School won the boys 4×100 in 41.04, while Thousand Oaks placed fifth in 41.85.
Lucas Schneider of Thousand Oaks qualified in both hurdle events, placing sixth in the 110 hurdles in 14.65 before winning his section of the 300 hurdles in 38.38.
Newbury Park’s Jaden Griffin advanced to finals in both sprint races, running 10.46 in the 100 and 21.41 in the 200.
Sophia Grant of Newbury Park grabbed a heat win in the girls 800 in 2:15.64.
Westlake High School and Newbury Park both qualified for the boys 4×800 finals with times under eight minutes, while Anais Cruz and Sabina Cruz of Westlake advanced in the girls 3,200.
In Division 3, Calabasas High School earned a section win in the girls 4×100 relay in 45.52.
Delaney Napierala of Oaks Christian won her heat of the girls 1,600 in 4:57.42, while Oaks Christian also picked up two heat wins in the boys race.
Harvard-Westlake’s Carter Perry and Oaks Christian’s Rayah Rodriguez each won heats in the girls 400.
Calabasas dominated the girls 100 with Olivia Kirk, Marley Scoggins, Malia Rainey and Devyn Sproles taking the top four spots. All four later qualified for the 200 finals.
In the boys 800, Oaks Christian’s Vin Krueger qualified in 1:53.45.
The girls 3,200 featured four local qualifiers, including Harvard-Westlake’s Jia Rhee and Napierala, who both earned heat wins.
On the boys side, Sterling White of Oaks Christian, Charles Abemayor of Harvard-Westlake, Malcolm Caughey of Oak Park and Dorian Bening of Agoura all advanced with times under 9:30.
In Division 4, Viewpoint High School’s Demitri Baker won the boys 100-meter dash in 10.65 and later qualified in the 200 in 21.76.
Viewpoint’s boys also qualified for the 4×800 finals, while Olly O’Connor earned a heat win in the 3,200 in 9:26.73.
Qualified athletes will return to Moorpark High School for the finals Saturday, May 16.