Sadie Engelhardt (left) has captured one final honor and a wrap to her illustrious running career at Ventura High. At right, Long Beach Poly softball star Ki’ele Ho-Ching crosses home plate during team’s win vs Warren of Downey in CIF Southern Section D4 championship. Photos: Ken Martinez / DyeStat.com & Rasheed Riveroll Castillo / the562.org.
To go with overall honoree Teagan O’Dell, we have others selected as the best among girls athletes for juniors, sophomores, freshmen and those from divisions (D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5) for the 2024-25 school year. Last year’s top honoree, Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt, is picked again, this time for D2. We also have a flag football-softball athlete for the juniors, a high scoring basketball phenom for sophs and a CIF state individual golf champion for freshmen.
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(Cal-Hi Sports intern Isai Gutierrez provided the writeups on Rina Kowasaki, Sadie Engelhardt, Kaia Diederichs and Lauren Harris. Editor Mark Tennis did the others.)
Congratulations to the following additional girls for being selected as a 2024-25 Cal-Hi Sports State Athlete of the Year:
SENIOR OF THE YEAR (Class of 2025)
Teagan O’Dell (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM)
The overall athlete of the year is a senior in most cases and that is the situation for the 2024-25 school year with Teagan placed first among seniors, first among girls from D1 or large schools and first overall. Her efforts plus those of her teammates has helped Santa Margarita win six straight CIF state team titles in girls swimming. That kind of dominance also can give the school an edge to be State School of the Year and this year that happened for the Eagles for the third time in school history.
Additional seniors to get a mention are shown below in the various CIF divisions.
JUNIOR OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2026)
Ki’ele Ho-Ching (Long Beach Poly, Long Beach)
Adding a second sport to being one of the nation’s top-ranked prospects in softball may have been just for fun for Long Beach Poly’s Ho-Ching, but she also ended up being very good at it and that helped in a big way in her landing the state’s top honor among junior girls.
Given Poly’s incredible all-time history in all athletics, it was surprising to see that Ho-Ching actually is the first-ever junior girls state athlete of the year from the school. One of the school’s State Athletes of the Year for girls is listed as Billie Jean Moffitt (later Billie Jean King) for the 1960-61 school. Poly also had the 2014 State Senior of the Year in track sprinter Ariana Washington. The last junior from a Long Beach high school to gain this honor was Ebony Collins (also from track) of Wilson High for the 2005-06 school year.
This past high school softball season saw Ki’ele battle injury for the first half of it, but she was at her best in the CIF Southern Section D4 playoffs. She went 3-for-4 with two homers in a crazy 13-12 semifinal triumph vs Harvard-Westlake of Studio City and in the title game she had an RBI double plus a two-run inside-the-park homer in a 6-2 win against Warren of Downey. It marked the first-ever CIFSS softball title for the Jackrabbits.
For the season, Ho-Ching batted .500 on 18 hits and had five homers and 18 RBI. Since she did so much damage later in the season when the games counted the most, the Long Beach Press-Telegram still named her as its Dream Team Player of the Year.
In spring/summer travel ball playing for Athletics Mercado, Ki’ele has had some memorable moments and that is what has lifted her toward the top of national prospect rankings. She recently ended a big recruiting push for her services by committing to the national powerhouse Oklahoma Sooners.
Last fall with the Jackrabbits’ flag football team, Ho-Ching was one of the top players for a squad that reached the CIF Southern Section D2 semifinals before a loss to Northwood of Irvine. Ki’ele had 10 interceptions on defense while on offense she had 43 catches for 791 yards and 11 TDs. Those are flag stats, but still showed what she could do.
In naming Ho-Ching for the juniors it also should be mentioned that Long Beach Poly flag football star Aaya McLyn as a senior was considered for the top senior honor. Her other sports were soccer and basketball and she also played with Ki’ele on the softball squad. McLyn was the Long Beach Press-Telegram Girls Athlete of the Year over Ki’ele, but for this there’s obviously no seniors eligible for it.
Ho-Ching is following older sister Tiare into college softball next year. Tiare was a freshman this last spring at Arizona State. We will always think of their uncle, the late Herman Ho-Ching, when seeing that last name, too. Herman was a Jackrabbit football legend on championship teams in the late 1990s. He drowned in an Oregon river in 2023.
More Junior Athletes of Honor
Cydnee Bryant (Centennial, Corona) Volleyball, Basketball
Chloe Champas (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Softball
Makena Cook (Lutheran, Orange) Flag Football
Chaira Dailey (La Jolla) Cross Country, Track
Ava De Anda (Poly, Riverside) Swimming
Zoe Jiamanukoonkit (Torrey Pines, San Diego) Golf
Elizabeth Johnson (Orcutt Academy, Orcutt) Volleyball, Basketball
Natalie Keith (Northwood, Irvine) Flag Football, Softball
Leilani Lemus (Clovis) Wrestling
Jerzy Robinson (Sierra Canyon, Chatsworth) Basketball
Lotolelei Sivas (Roosevelt, Eastvale) Flag Football, Softball
Naiaja Sizemore (Vanden, Fairfield) Track
Haley Smith (Liberty Ranch, Galt) Volleyball, Basketball
Ayla Tuua (Capital Christian, Sacramento) Softball
Kelsey Zhang (Saratoga) Swimming
Special Category Athlete Mention
A.B. Hernandez (Jurupa Valley) Track & Field
The transgender athlete who competed with girls at the CIF state track meet was credited with co-first place finishes in the triple jump and high jump and had a second-place finish in the long jump. It’s a special category situation for us and how to handle transgender athletes in high school sports is clearly an issue that hasn’t been “solved” yet. Still, Hernandez had several personal bests in her march to the CIF state meet despite all the controversy and deserved a mention somewhere in our end-of-year honor roll.
Kaleena Smith of Ontario Christian figures to be one the nation’s most talked about girls basketball players for the next two years. Photo: ocladyknightsbasketball / Instagram.com.
SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2027)
Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian)
Kaleena’s arrival at Ontario Christian came the season after all-time CIF Southern Section career scoring leader Chloe Briggs graduated from the school and was the 2022-23 D5 state athlete of the year. Briggs, like Smith, also was named as an athlete of the year strictly for what she did in basketball.
It was an immediate impact for Smith on the California prep scene as soon as she stepped onto the court. She set a state record as a freshman for most three-pointers in a season with 179 and during the 2024-25 season she connected for 92 more.
While Kaleena’s scoring average went down as a sophomore from 34.9 ppg to 23.2, she was on a much better team that had risen to No. 1 in the nation for many weeks. The flashy point guard also averaged 8.1 assists and 4.5 steals per game in leading the Knights to the CIF Southern Section Open Division title.
The Knights were not able to reach the CIF Open Division state championship due to a loss to Etiwanda in a rematch that decided the CIF SoCal regional title.
Smith was considered the runner-up to Etiwanda’s Aliyahna “Puff” Morris as Ms. Basketball, but was selected as the Gatorade State Player of the Year that was announced before the CIF state finals were played and also was a finalist for the Naismith Award. She became just the second sophomore in 40 years of the Gatorade award to win the top state honor.
As one of the top national players in the Class of 2027, Kaleena now adds her first state athlete of the year honor. The Inland Empire has not had the state sophomore athlete of the year among the girls since Julia Gray from J.W. North of Riverside for the 1995-96 school year. She was a track star who also shined on the basketball court.
Note that last year’s Freshman Athlete of the Year, golfing phenom Asterisk Talley, no longer competes in any high school events. She’s still listed as being from Chowchilla, but we don’t know if she is still taking classes at the high school. She’s still on a path to a major pro career.
More Soph Athletes of Honor
Clara Adams (North Salinas, Salinas) Track*
Bianca Nwaizu (Calvary Chapel, Santa Ana) Swimming
Alyssa Ton (Fountain Valley) Swimming
Coral Williams (Norco) Softball
*Has transferred to Watsonville.
Palos Verdes’ Rina Kawasaki sank several clutch putts to give her the CIF individual golf title as a freshman. Photo: scga.org.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2027)
Rina Kawasaki (Palos Verdes, PV Estates)
It’s the second straight year for a golfer to gain this selection and while Rina doesn’t have the same golf world appeal of last year’s honoree, Chowchilla’s Asterisk Talley, she did something in her ninth grade year that Talley did not and that’s win the CIF individual championship.
Kawasaki made her debut season one to remember. She not only won the CIF state title as a freshman, but did it in dramatic fashion. Talley was fifth in the CIF individual finals as a freshman
The standout from Palos Verdes High sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to win the 2024 CIF State Girls Golf Championship at San Gabriel Country Club, finishing with five birdies and just two bogeys in regulation. Her birdie came on the par-4, 368-yard 18th hole after a tightly contested playoff against the defending champion, making her the first Palos Verdes golfer in school history to win the state title and the first freshman in California to do so since Zoe Campos of West Ranch in 2017, who has since turned professional after competing at UCLA. Campos also was the State Girls Freshman Athlete of the Year for the 2017-18 school year.
Kawasaki’s poise under pressure didn’t end there. She followed up her state title by qualifying for the prestigious 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur, shooting a 1-under-par 71 in the qualifier at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix, finishing second overall. She’ll be competing among the nation’s best amateurs at Bandon Dunes in Oregon this week. Tournament play is set to begin August 6 on the Golf Channel.
Rina also is the second State Girls Freshman of the Year from Palos Verdes. The first was basketball point guard and multi-sport athlete Mimi McKinney for the 1990-91 school year.
With a calm demeanor beyond her years, a clutch performance on the state’s biggest high school stage, and a historic freshman season now in the books, we’re excited to see what Kawasaki does in the years ahead, both on and off the course.
More Frosh Athletes of Honor
Gabi Brito (Santa Monica) Swimming
Caelyn Campos (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Softball
Tati Griffin (Ontario Christian) Basketball
Maya Harris (Campbell Hall, North Hollywood) Volleyball
Arya Pfeiffer (Oaks Christian, Westlake Village) Soccer
Grace Smith (Claremont) Track
Evangeline Williams (Trabuco Hills, Mission Viejo) Track, Cross Country
DIVISION I
Teagan O’Dell (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Sr.
This is the category that Teagan also was named for as a junior one year ago. She was considered a runner-up to overall Athlete of the Year Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura, a junior who also was the D2 athlete of the year. Yes, with multiple categories and class-by-class honorees, this can get confusing. An effort is always made, however, to honor as many boys and girls athletes as possible.
More D1 Senior Athletes of Honor
Rylee Blade (Santiago, Corona) Cross Country, Track
Isabella Marie Gonzales (Clovis East, Clovis) Wrestling
Morgan Herbst (Carlsbad) Track
Taelyn Holley (Murrieta Mesa, Murrieta) Softball
Nyemah King (Lakewood) Basketball, Flag Football
Mae Kordas (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego) Volleyball, Beach Vball
Aaya McLyn (Long Beach Poly) Flag Football, Soccer, Basketball, Softball
Aliyahna “Puff” Morris (Etiwanda) Basketball
Jailynn Robinson (JSerra, SJ Capistrano) Water Polo
Loren Webster (Wilson, Long Beach) Track
DIVISION II
Sadie Engelhardt (Ventura) Sr.
Even without competing for Ventura High in the spring for track and field, Engelhardt still finished her high school career as perhaps the best distance runner California has ever seen, and now she earns Division II State Girls Athlete of the Year honors, following her selection as the overall State Athlete of the Year last season. Sadie also was the top honoree the last three years among juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
Racing unattached throughout 2025, the North Carolina State commit has competed at some of the top pro and open meets in the country. She opened the year by setting the national high school indoor mile record with a 4:27.97 at the prestigious Millrose Games in New York City. She also ran 4:09.84 for 1500 meters at the same meet and placed seventh in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, where she ran 4:29.34 for the mile and 4:11.53 for 1500m.
During outdoor season, Engelhardt lowered her personal best in the 1500 meters to 4:07.78 at the Stumptown Twilight in Portland, moving to No. 5 all-time on the U.S. high school list. At the New Balance Nationals Outdoor, she posted victories in both the 800 meters (2:02.50) and 1500 meters (4:16.55), while also finishing runner-up in the mile (4:34.46). She has added some strong results at elite meets like Track Fest, Music City Track Carnival, and the Sound Running Sunset Tour, where she clocked 4:08.87 in the 1500m.
In the fall, Sadie also helped Ventura finish fourth in the CIF Division II state cross country finals, even while managing an Achilles injury late in the season. Englehardt also became the first three-time champion in that division and she was later named as Gatorade’s Girls Cross Country State Player of the Year for the third time.
Earlier this year, she was honored with the key to the city of Ventura. With her prep career now complete, Engelhardt moves on to NC State with eyes still set on faster times, and very possibly, the Olympic stage in the years to come.
We just couldn’t let Engelhardt move on to college without one last shoutout to a memorable high school career.
More D2 Senior Athletes of Honor
Alina Arguela (Banning, Wilmington) Flag Football, Basketball, Softball
Abby Davidson (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Softball
Aja Johnson (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks) Track
Daya King (Vista del Lago, Moreno Valley) Soccer
Tylie Kitchen (Whitney, Rocklin) Basketball, Softball
Delaney Osborne (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Basketball, Softball
Hanne Thomsen (Montgomery, Santa Rosa) Cross Country, Track
Trinity Tipton (Camarillo) Wrestling, Track
Abby Zimmerman (Redondo, Redondo Beach) Volleyball, Basketball
Ella Myers of Monterey has been her local athlete of the year for two years and now adds a statewide honor to complete her prep career. Photo: Mark Tennis.
DIVISION III
Ella Myers (Monterey) Sr.
In naming her as the Girls Athlete of the Year for the second straight time, the Monterey Herald declared that Ella would go down as the top girls athlete in the long history of Monterey High. Well, we can add to that declaration. She’s now the first-ever girls state athlete of the year from her school in any category and she’s one of the most outstanding we’ve ever covered from the Monterey-Santa Cruz area.
Myers, a first-team all-state softball player, a CIF state meet placer in wrestling and a state record holder in weightlifting, is the first D3 state girls winner from her area since Sarah Ackerman of Aptos in 2020. It goes back to 1993-94, however, for another one as that was the year that Soquel’s Desirae Knipfer (also mostly known for softball), was the State Girls Medium Schools Athlete of the Year. We switched to five divisions for the 1995-96 school year.
We didn’t plan on seeing Ella hit a game-winning homer as a sophomore in the 2023 CIF Central Coast Section D2 championship softball game, but she did at West Valley College as the Toreadors got past Salinas High in a game played before the Open Division final.
Myers continued to excel in her primary sport the next two seasons. This last spring, she batted .533 with nine homers, 28 RBI and went 12-3 in the circle with a 0.97 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 100 2/3 innings. Her career total of 35 homers in four seasons will be good enough for the all-time state list and is one of the best in CCS history. Ella also had a career batting average of .450 on 135 hits and 36 doubles. Her career pitching record of 57-17 with a 1.93 ERA also was augmented by a 657-strikeout total in 493 2/3 innings. Monterey’s team records during Myers’ four years were 25-8-1, 20-8, 21-8 and 19-5-1.
Softball also will be the sport that Ella will be playing in college at UC Santa Barbara. None of the girls in the program should try to wrestle with her or get her into a weightlifting contest. Her accomplishments in those other two sports certainly gave her the edge as an athlete of the year candidate.
At this year’s CIF state wrestling championships in Bakersfield, Myers not only qualified for the fourth straight year but she earned a sixth-place medal in the 140-pound weight class. She also was a CCS champion as a junior and was a third-place winner in the CCS as a senior.
The weightlifting part of it was through Monterey High teacher Max Feldman, who took a group of lifters, including Ella, to a “World Association of Bench and Dead Lifters (WABDL) Bovine Bench Press and Deadlift Championships” event in March. Myers came home with a push/pull girls state record of 407.7 pounds in the 16-17 age group 148-pound class.
More D3 Senior Athletes of Honor
Kayla Boozer (South Pasadena) Volleyball, Basketball
Brooklyn Nordquist (Ponderosa, Shingle Springs) Flag Football, Basketball, Softball
Priscilla Romero (San Dimas) Volleyball, Basketball, Track
Ariana Soil (Antelope Valley, Lancaster) Flag Football, Basketball
Nicole Steiner (Los Gatos) Basketball, Volleyball, Track
Brooke White (River City, West Sacramento) Track
Kaia Diederichs of Colfax was able to play in two CIF state finals and four CIF Sac-Joaquin Section finals at the Golden 1 Center. Photo: Jordan Georgeson / Gold Country Media.
DIVISION IV
Kaia Diederichs (Colfax) Sr.
After becoming the first athlete from Colfax High to ever receive a Cal-Hi Sports state athlete of the year honor last season, Diederichs has done it again, repeating as the Division IV State Girls Athlete of the Year.
The last to repeat as the D4 state girls athlete of the year was basketball scoring phenom Destiny Littleton from Bishop’s of La Jolla in 2016 and 2017. For Kaia, she’s not one of those superstars in one sport, but has become a local legend for her multi-sport success.
After competing in five varsity sports as a junior, Diederichs returned for her senior year and continued to shine in four, basketball, soccer, flag football, and volleyball, once again playing key roles in postseason runs across the board. Her senior year mirrored the balance, toughness, and competitive edge that made her one of the most unique athletes in the state.
In basketball, Diederichs helped lead Colfax to its third straight Sac-Joaquin Section title, moving up from Division IV to Division III and nearly recording a triple-double in the championship win, while averaging 9.8 points, 4.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.2 steals per game throughout the season and showing her value as a steady playmaker and two-way contributor throughout the season.
In soccer, Kaia closed out a brilliant career with over 130 goals, while flag football saw her take on a leading role on both sides of the ball, finishing with more than 1,000 combined rushing and receiving yards, along with 11 interceptions and 30 total tackles on defense. She also contributed in volleyball during the fall.
Diederichs finishes her career as a two-time state honoree and one of the most versatile and reliable multi-sport athletes in recent small-school history. She will continue her athletic career playing soccer at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
More D4 Senior Athletes of Honor
Jazzy Alcantar (Encinal, Alameda) Flag Football, Basketball, Softball
Nyeli Cardona (Imperial) Volleyball, Basketball
Laila Florvilus (St. Bernard’s, Eureka) Basketball, Track
Madison Mosby (St. Mary’s Academy, Inglewood) Track
Audrina Rodriguez (Woodlake) Softball
State basketball scoring leader Lauren Harris of Yuba City Faith Christian also was a team leader during volleyball season. Photo: Mark Tennis.
DIVISION V
Lauren Harris (Faith Christian, Yuba City) Jr.
After making steady noise as a sophomore, Harris turned in a historic junior season in basketball that not only powered her team to a NorCal D6 crown but shattered the all-time state records for three-point shooting. She also was one of the top two players for Lions on the volleyball court.
The 5-foot-11 shooting guard led Faith Christian to the CIF NorCal Division VI championship and broke two of state records in California girls basketball. First, Lauren made 191 three-pointers this season, the most ever recorded in a single season, breaking the Cal-Hi Sports state record of 179 set just a year earlier by Ontario Christian’s Kaleena Smith. Harris also broke the all-time career mark with 500 made threes in 91 games, with her milestone 500th coming during the regional title-clinching win. Those totals ranked her No. 1 in the nation for total threes made. And she still has one more year to go.
More than just a shooter, Harris averaged 29.9 points, 14.2 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game, including 35.8 points per game across six playoff games.
She has already been named to the Cal-Hi Sports All-State First Team for Division V/VI. Her team, coached by her father Geoffrey Harris, captured its second D6 section title in three years. Off the court, she’s also a standout student with a 4.1 GPA and holds multiple Division I offers, including those from UC Riverside, UC San Diego, Cal State Northridge, UC Davis, University of Hawaii, and California Baptist.
On the volleyball court, Lauren had 153 kills last fall for a squad that finished with a 14-10 record. She also was second on the team with blocks (47) and she had 69 service aces (3rd on team).
It appears she is the first girl from a Yuba City high school to be a state athlete of the year in any category. Recent honorees from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section are Caitlyn Cole from Stone Ridge Christian of Merced (2022), Amalie Fackenthal of Sacramento Country Day (2018) and Brittany Woodard of Sacramento Christian Brothers (2008).
With one more season to go, Harris is already one of the most prolific scorers and long-range shooters the state has ever seen. We’re excited to see if another record-breaking season is in store.
More D5 Senior Athletes of Honor
Janessa Garza (Farmersville) Volleyball, Basketball, Softball
Olivia Griffin (Wiseburn Da Vinci, El Segundo) Track
Teagan Hayes (Woodland Christian) Basketball, Softball
Amelia Sarkisian (Brentwood, Los Angeles) Cross Country
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
