FUTURE STARS
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This is a weekly series that will highlight some of the top up-and-coming young stars in the Golden State. This week our focus is a sampling of frosh-soph boys and girls who stood out during the first week of the track and field season.
The objective of this series is to spotlight younger athletes who may otherwise get overlooked. Without question, Ventura (SS) freshman Sadie Engelhardt has far surpassed the title "future star." Every time this talented young athlete takes the line it is newsworthy.
Last week, running at the Sundown Track Series No. 2 at Azusa Pacific University, Engelhardt set a national freshman class record for the mile of 4:38.24, eclipsing the previous best by 3.56 seconds. According to the Track & Field News high school record book, that is the 11th fastest mile time by a high school girl in history.
During her initial high school cross country season, Engelhardt won six races, placed second three times -- Clovis, CIF-State Division II, and Eastbay Regional -- placed third at Southern Section D-3, and placed 15th at the Eastbay National Finals.
Her 3-mile best of 15:59.90 from Cool Breeze ranked No. 3 in CA and No. 1 in the U.S. in the 2025 class. While those highlighted below are emerging stars, the very bright future is now for Sadie Engelhardt.
Below we feature three boys and three girls whose performance from the weekend grabbed our attention.
(athletes are listed alphabetically by gender)