MILESPLIT ALL-CA ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
* * *
One in a series of articles profiling 2022 track and field athletes of the year by event grouping as selected by MileSplitCA editors.
* * *
Clovis East senior thrower Feyi Olukanni's vision prior to her final high school track and field season was as clear as the way it unfolded.
"I wrote down that I wanted to get to the State Meet and I wanted to be a state champion," said Olukanni, who like all other California athletes had waited through two years for the opportunity to compete in all meets, most notably the signature meet since CIF-State officials canceled the 2020 and 2021 championship meets due to COVID-19 and lingering protocols.
"I felt like things were finally back to normal," Olukanni said. "(In 2022) we had a full season. I competed at Arcadia and Stanford. It felt like we went back to my freshman year where you competed in all areas, saw more competition and more people. It felt like a regular season to me and that meant a lot since this was my final year."
Olukanni's regular season agreed with her. She finished first in the shot put in eight straight meets to start the season and also seven of eight in the discus. She swept the events at the Stanford Invitational. The Arcadia Invitational marked her first challenge -- she was fifth in the shot put and second in the discus -- but it motivated her and set her up for a stretch run of success.
She proceeded to win six of her next eight shot put appearances, although one was third place in the CIF-State Prelims where the main goal is to qualify among the top 12 for the next day's final. She had not thrown lower than a 41-8 in that span. In the discus since Arcadia, Olukanni had won five of eight -- fifth in the State Prelim -- with three meets with a top mark in the 150s.
The wins she amassed were definitely confidence-boosting. She swept the shot put and discus in the Tri-River Athletic Conference (TRAC) finals, which included her career-best shot put mark of 44 feet, 5.50 inches, and then the CIF-Central Section Division 1 title and the Central Section Masters Meet title. Her postseason concluded with her reaching the season-long goal of winning a CIF State title in the shot put (44 feet), and she also placed third in the discus final with a career-best throw of 154-2.
"It feels so great, I feel so accomplished," she said of her State Meet performances at the time.
The shot put title was partially aided by her discus performance. The discus was the first event of the meet. When it became evident that a discus title wasn't in the offing, she put all of her focus on the shot put, her final high school event.
"It was my last chance and I wanted to take advantage of that," said Olukanni, who won 14 of 17 shot put events in 2022. "Keeping a clear mind for the shot put was important. I knew I had to put my best foot forward because I really wanted to win at State."
She did. Combining her State Meet performances and graduation from Clovis East two days earlier resulted in a pretty special week of accomplishment.
Olukanni took some time off after State to rest, recharge, and have some fun, but she's now getting back to work in preparation for the next chapter.
The 3.8 GPA student at Clovis East, the one who was also involved in volleyball, as a member of the Intercultural Diversity Advisory Council, and as a health ambassador for the Black Students of California United, will attend the University of California, San Diego this fall.
Olukanni will continue her track and field career while majoring in Pharmacological Chemistry. The latter's curriculum includes requirements for most California pharmacy schools and prepares students for graduate school, health careers or chemistry work. Olukanni's work in the shot put and discus will continue at UCSD, but she will be adding a new event -- the hammer throw -- to her athletic commitments. She has already begun training locally and will be throwing soon before heading to San Diego.
"I'm excited to be going to college and excited to face the competition, same as it was to compete in high school. I want to work hard, try my best, PR and see what happens," she said. "I'm glad to have the opportunity to compete. I'm grateful to be a thrower."
Ryan Blystone is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to MileSplit.
Photos by DeAnna Turner, Daniel Hernandez, and Jeffrey Parenti.
