New national record holder in the discus Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel has won two athlete of the year honors to close our coverage of the 2025-26 school year. At right is D2 State Athlete of the Year Abby Zimmerman of Redondo. Photos: thegrowlingwolverine.org & ruhsgirlsvolleyball / Instagram.com.
To go with overall honoree Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla (a D3 junior), we have others selected as the best among girls athletes for seniors, sophomores, freshmen and those from divisions (D1, D2, D4 and D5) for the 2025-26 school year. We have two-sport athletes for seniors/D1 and for D2 and a four-sport athlete for D4. We have a repeat winner for D5 plus a swimmer for sophomores and a flag football star for freshmen.
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Congratulations to the following additional girls for being selected as a 2025-26 Cal-Hi Sports State Athlete of the Year:
SENIOR OF THE YEAR (Class of 2026)
Jaslene Massey (Aliso Niguel, Aliso Viejo)
It was a very tough choice at the top of the honors list as it easily could have gone to Massey instead of the phenom golfer. Jaslene already has been Orange County Girls Athlete of the Year and Gatorade Girls Track State Player of the Year.
Those other two honors came out before what Massey did recently at the World Athletics U20 Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Some thought she was crazy to try to do the discus-shot put double in such a competition since the finals for both events were scheduled on the same day, but Jaslene wanted the experience of the competition. The discus was first and Massey wasn’t near the top of the standings — until her last throw. She uncorked a mark of 191-7, which didn’t surpass China’s Yixin Su for the gold medal but it was good enough for a silver. Massey rushed over to the shot put ring after that competition was concluded and couldn’t warm up as others were doing. It took her into the third round to move into the top eight and according to DyeStat.com that’s when “exhaustion started to set in.” She didn’t improve and wound up eighth.
Massey had been expected to repeat as CIF state champion in the discus at this year’s finals in Clovis. She did but did so with a monster throw of 196-4. That established a new national high school federation record. The discus event also went off first at the CIF state meet and Massey wasn’t as rushed in also doing the shot put. Similar to the discus, she won easily. Massey’s top throw of 52-9 was more than eight feet longer than the second-place finisher.
In completing the CIF state meet double, Jaslene became the first to do that from Orange County since Natalie Kaaiawahia of Fullerton in 1983. The county also had last year’s senior and D1 state athlete of the year for girls with swimmer Teagan O’Dell (also the overall honooree). Aliso Niguel has had a girls athlete of the year before too, but it was a much different situation as it went to USA gymnastics star Kyla Ross in 2014. She didn’t compete in CIF sports, but went to Aliso Niguel when she won four gold medals that year in the World Gymnastics championships.
Another bonus for Massey’s athlete of the year resume is that she wasn’t just a four-year varsity performer in track. She played middle blocker all four years in volleyball. A 4.34 GPA put her up there among the Aliso Niguel’s top academic rankings as well.
Massey may have been wanting to get a head start in college by competing in both of those events at the U20 world meet. She’ll be a freshman this fall at Oregon and Hayward Field will be her home track.
Note: More Senior Athletes of Honor listed underneath each CIF division.
JUNIOR OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2027)
Asterisk Talley (Chowchilla)
Our overall Girls State Athlete of the Year previously was honored as our winner for freshman girls two years ago. Chowchilla High has never had a boys or girls state athlete of the year winner before. We have small school girls honorees back to 1970-71. For boys, the small schools go back to 1945-46.
More Junior Athletes of Honor
Clara Adams (Wilson, Long Beach) Track & Field
Olivia Elsokary (Westlake, Westlake Village) Flag Football, Basketball
Westley Matavao (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) Volleyball
Julia Myerberg (Branson, Ross) Soccer
Felicity Nguyen (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) Soccer
HayleyJane Pence (Santiago, Corona) Water Polo
Khanh Seaton (Castro Valley) Swimming
Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian) Basketball
Gabi Brito of Santa Monica had the top time in the nation in two events and was in top five in two others. Photo: USA Swimming / YouTube.com.
SOPHOMORE OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2028)
Gabi Brito (Santa Monica)
Based on her All-America times in several events, it would seem likely that Gabi could be regarded as the top high school girls swimmer in the nation, including seniors and juniors. She did not go to the CIF state meet this year, but she did go to the CIF Southern Section finals where she took first in her division in the 50 fly and 100 fly. In the NISCA Swimming All-American lists, Brito was third-best in the 200 free, had the best time in the 50 free, had the best time in the 100 fly, third-best in the 100 back and 19th in the 100 breast.
The medley events is her best and at the recent Speedo Junior National Championships held in Irvine, Brito took first place in the 200 IM. She also was in several relays. Brito wasn’t in the medley events at the USA Swimming National Championships that were also held in Irvine earlier in the summer, but was in the 50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 50 fly and 100 fly events. Gabi’s top finish was third-place in the 50 fly. Keep in mind that’s a national championship including college swimmers and more and this is two years before the 2028 Olympics.
At the CIFSS D1 finals, Brito set a new record of 50.74 seconds in the 100 fly. The record previously was at 51.53 entering this year, but Gabi broke that in the prelims with a 51.41. After she touched in this year’s final, the initially listed time was 51.56, but the timers met afterward and re-set the winning time to 50.74.
Brito qualified for the US Olympic trials at age 13 before she even got to Santa Monica High. Her older sister, Bella, currently swims for USC and was a two-time CIF state champion.
More Soph Athletes of Honor
Dailynn Battee (Etiwanda) Softball
Caelyn Campos (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Softball
Tati Griffin (Ontario Christian) Basketball
Ava Irwin has been playing flag football for several years and is the younger sister of one of the most prolific high school football receivers in California history. Photo: jserra.girlsflagfootball / Instagram.com.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR (CLASS of 2029)
Ava Irwin (JSerra, SJ Capistrano)
This is a strange one only because Ava has already started her sophomore season playing at another school — Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth). For this honor, of course, it’s based on the 2025-26 school year and she was the freshman star receiver for a JSerra team that won the CIFSS D1 title, finished 28-0 and was considered the No. 1 flag team in the nation among schools that play the sport in the fall (not all do, especially Florida).
The athlete of the year honor is due to the fact that as a freshman Ava would also likely be considered the State Player of the Year. A freshman boy, for reference, has never come close to being State Player of the Year. She was the CIFSS D1 player of the year and was the Orange County Flag Football Player of the Year.
As with the honors done on the boys side for many years, players with two-way success also can have an edge to be a player of the year. Irwin is a natural receiver and also made all kinds of big plays on defense as well. On the season, Ava totaled 163 catches for 1,903 yards and 27 touchdowns. On defense, she had 15 interceptions and 94 flag pulls. Irwin had two long TD pass receptions for the Lions in their close win over defending champion Orange Lutheran in the CIFSS D1 championship game.
In writing up Ava, the mistake of listing her from Hart of Newhall was almost made. Hart is where her older brother Trent Irwin starred from 2011 to 2014. He still holds the state career receiving record with 5,268 yards. Trent, who later went to Stanford and is currently on the roster of the New York Jets and has been on the roster of the Cincinnati Bengals, also had 285 career receptions and 57 career TD catches during his years at Hart. Assuming she plays all four years and doesn’t have any eligibility or injury issues, Ava is likely going to put up career totals for girls flag that are going to be tough to beat for a long time.
Irwin will go down as JSerra’s first-ever girls freshman athlete of the year even though she’s now gone. The last freshman of the year from Orange County was swimmer Ella Ristic of Santa Margarita in 2017.
More Frosh Athletes of Honor
Addison Archer (Rancho Christian, Temecula) Basketball
Madelyn Benzler (Elk Grove) Softball
Alexandra Marin (Buchanan, Clovis) Wrestling
Ava Parker (Helix, La Mesa) Track & Field
DIVISION I
Jaslene Massey (Aliso Niguel, Aliso Viejo) Sr.
The senior of the year is from a D1 school in most sports and therefore also would be the winner among girls from D1 schools. “Jaslene is one of the most talented, motivated and influential student-athletes Aliso Niguel, Orange County and California has ever seen,” Aliso Niguel athletic director Andrew Mashburn told the Orange County Register. “If she set her mind to it and had the time, she could have been elite in any sport.”
More D1 Senior Athletes of Honor
Cydnee Bryant (Centennial, Corona) Volleyball, Basketball
Alison Cohen (Lutheran, Orange) Water Polo
Braelyn Combe (Santiago, Corona) Track & Field
Ki’ele Ho-Ching (Long Beach Poly) Flag Football, Softball
Leilani Lemus (Clovis) Wrestling
Layli Ostover (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) Volleyball
Jerzy Robinson (Sierra Canyon, Chatsworth) Basketball
Lotolelei Sivas (Roosevelt, Eastvale) Flag Football, Softball
Daisy Throckmorton (McClatchy, Sacramento) Flag Football, Basketball
Ayla Tuua (Capital Christian, Sacramento) Softball
Jaelyn Williams (Eastlake, Chula Vista) Cross Country, Track
Special Category Athlete Mention
A.B. Hernandez (Jurupa Valley) Track & Field
The transgender athlete who competed with girls at the CIF state track meet for the second straight year won first place in the high jump and triple jump and just missed winning in the long jump. It’s the second straight year Hernandez had the top marks in the high jump and triple jump. The senior ends prep career with six state meet medals.
DIVISION II
Abby Zimmerman (Redondo, Redondo Beach) Sr.
Redondo’s rival school from Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach has had several girls athletes of the year, including volleyball star Charlie Fuerbringer twice in 2023 and 2024, overall athlete of the year Dalia Frias for 2021-22, distance runner Grace Watkins for D2 in 2020, golfer Andrea Lee for D2 in 2016 and overall athlete of the year Alex Klineman in 2007. Abby is the first one ever from Redondo.
While volleyball is her priority (she’s now a freshman at Cal and is the daughter of former USA volleyball star Lisa Arce Zimmerman), Abby also was one of the top basketball players in the SoCal region for the past three seasons. Her stats for hoops were never posted, but she was a frequent 20-point scorer and was written up in our state stat stars of the week features more than once. She had 21 points and eight rebounds in a big win last season over Harvard-Westlake. She also was All-Daily Breeze first team as a junior and senior.
Zimmerman did even better than Daily Breeze first team in volleyball. She was the player of the year. Longtime volleyball head coach Tommy Chaffins said she will go down as “one of the top five multi-sport athletes at the school.” Zimmerman had 30 kills in a league win over Mira Costa that snapped the Mustangs’ league win streak at 34 matches. She ended the season with 689 kills, 92 blocks and 77 assists. She was league MVP and All-CIFSS D1. Redondo and Mira Costa are usually D1 for volleyball, but also are often in D2 for many other sports, which is where we’ve tended to place their athletes for these yearly honors.
Whether one counts beach volleyball as a separate sport or not, it’s also worth noting that Abby has been one of the top beach players in Southern California for her age groups. She was in the CIFSS D1 finals on the beach for each of the past two seasons and won a title in 2025. She also took the AVP U18 and AAU Co-Ed titles on the beach just in the last few months.
More D2 Senior Athletes of Honor
Chloe Champas (Del Oro, Loomis) Flag Football, Softball
Reagan Herrmann (Glendora) Flag Football, Basketball
Elizabeth Johnson (Orcutt Academy, Orcutt) Volleyball, Basketball
Ellie McCuskey-Hay (St. Ignatius, San Francisco) Track & Field
Tia Nichols (Bakersfield Christian) Basketball, Softball
Mya Rei Smith (Camarillo) Flag Football, Basketball
Charlotte Raisin (San Marcos, Santa Barbara) Water Polo
Summer Wilson (Irvine) Cross Country, Track
DIVISION III
Asterisk Talley (Chowchilla) Jr.
Chowchilla High, which had to change from its longtime nickname of Redskins in 2016 to the Tribe due to a state law that banned the use of the Redskins term for team names, has an enrollment of just over 1,000 students. We could have placed Talley as a divisional winner in D3 or D4 based on a lot of factors but went with D3 to be honest because we had a more clear-cut winner for D4.
More D3 Senior Athletes of Honor
Madison Black (Newbury Park) Wrestling
Chiara Dailey (La Jolla) Cross Country, Track
Natalie Keith (Northwood, Irvine) Flag Football, Softball
Samantha Nichols (Central Catholic, Modesto) Basketball, Softball
Kyla Schooley (Shafter) Volleyball, Basketball
Kelsey Zhang (Saratoga) Swimming
Haley Smith won two varsity letters in two different spring sports at the same after she had finished her basketball career with more than 2,000 career points. Photo: Galt Herald.
DIVISION IV
Haley Smith (Liberty Ranch, Galt) Sr.
We know that Haley was super-pumped to the D4 State Player of the Year for girls basketball after her junior season. Here’s another one that might do the trick. Smith, who earned 13 varsity letters over her four-year career at Liberty Ranch, is now the Girls D4 State Athlete of the Year.
Basketball is indeed the top sport for Smith and that is what she’s going to play in college at nearby Sacramento State. She wound up her career being all-state in her division three times, was a four-time Sac Bee All-Metro pick and was once the Bee’s small schools player of the year. She wrapped it all up with 2,199 points, 1,053 rebounds, 328 assists and 317 steals. Haley set 18 school records in the midst of all that, too.
For her to have gained the nod for D4 as an athlete, however, Smith needed all of that extra success in other sports. She was a three-time all-league pick in volleyball and helped the team to a section runner-up finish as a junior. Smith also became the first volleyball player in school history with 1,000 kills or more and 1,000 digs or more for a career. Swimming was her third sport and for that she reached the league finals in two events. While swimming in the spring this year, Haley decided to play alongside her younger sister on the Liberty Ranch tennis team. She was not only the No. 1 singles player on the team, but gained another all-league honor and helped the team reach the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section quarterfinals.
This is Liberty Ranch’s first-ever state athlete of the year honor in any sport. The Sac-Joaquin Section actually now has the winner in D4 girls for three straight seasons. Colfax’s multi-sport star, Kaia Diederichs, was the winner for both 2024 and 2025.
More D4 Senior Athletes of Honor
Emmi Almeida (Caruthers) Basketball, Softball
Arianna Velasco (Escalon) Basketball, Softball
The one final, final honor for Lauren Harris as she starts out in college is to be a repeat state athlete of the year. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
DIVISION V
Lauren Harris (Faith Christian, Yuba City) Sr.
When we last checked on our State D5 Athlete of the Year for the 2024-25 school year the record-breaking basketball player was still listed as going to Long Beach State for college. Well, now Lauren is going to the University of Colorado after she decommitted from Long Beach on May 1 and soon after signed with the Buffaloes.
Harris, who also was the State D4 Player of the Year in girls hoops and was second team overall all-state, led Faith Christian to the CIF D4 state title. She capped her career with 3,578 points in four years, which came out to an average of 28.4 per game. That’s No. 3 in state history for points and No. 1 for Northern California players. Lauren also had 742 three-pointers in her career, which obliterated the state record (she broke that one during her junior year) and set a new national record.
As an athlete of the year candidate, Harris also was a four-year standout on the Faith Christian volleyball court. As a senior, she had 269 kills, 60 blocks, 369 assists and 175 digs for a team that went 25-4.
Harris could have been moved up to D4 for athlete of the year honors, but Faith Christian is a very small school and is almost always in the smallest division of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. The decision instead was to keep Harris in D5 and also to repeat as a state athlete of the year.
More D5 Senior Athletes of Honor
Kaahliyah Lacy (San Jacinto Valley Academy) Flag FB, Basketball, Track*
Oyin Opawumi (Cate, Carpinteria) Volleyball
Tinnley Pidgeon (Ferndale) Basketball, Softball, Soccer
*Sophomore
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
