Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports,.com – Arcata’s Mayleah Jackson placed first in the girls pole vault at McKinleyville on Wednesday.

By Ray Hamill — A pair of sophomore standouts helped lead the Arcata girls to a team win at the third H-DNL track and field meet of the spring at McKinleyville on Wednesday.

Bella DeCarli won three different events, setting a new PR on her way to victory in the 300 meter hurdles in a time of 49.89 seconds, as well as a season-best time of 2 minutes 29.99 seconds on her way to the win in the 800m.

DeCarli also teamed with Savannah Leary, Lilah Durham and Ada Kinziger to win the 4x100m relay.

Another sophomore, Sonya Chisholm, also had a big day for the Tigers, winning two events and placing second in another.

Chisholm placed first in the 1600m with a PR time of 6:06.20 and second in the 3200m with a PR time of 13:44.17.

For good measure, she also placed first in the 4×800 relay, along with teammates Rose Mondragon, Nehla Espiritu-Blackstone and Zoe Cappuccio, all of whom are also sophomores.

The Tigers dominated the meet and had nine winners in the 17 events on the way to scoring 187.5 points.

The Eureka girls were second with 129 points, with Del Norte (114.5), Fortuna (85) and St. Bernard’s (49) rounding out the top five.

Other Arcata winners on the day included Kinziger in the 400m, Syriah George in the discus with a PR throw of 109’ 5”, Anna McLaughlin in the long jump and Mayleah Jackson, who beat the field in the pole vault by two feet with a season-best jump of 9’.

Jackson rounded out a big day individually with a PR jump of 30’ 7.5” in the triple jump, placing second to Fortuna’s Addison Burgess (31’ 5.5”).

Other multiple event winners on the day included St. Bernard’s Laila Florvilus, who recently announced she will compete in basketball and track and field at Chico State next year, as well as Eureka’s Grecia Ortiz.

Florvilus placed first in the 100m hurdles and the high jump, comfortably beating the field in both events, while Ortiz placed first in the 200m with a season-best time of 27.49 seconds and also teamed with Andrea Rivas, Elizabeth Rominger and Evelyn Ladika to win the 4x100m relay.

Eureka’s Claire Gast also had a good day and set a PR time of 12:10.67 on her way to victory in the 3200m, while her teammate Isabella Claussen placed first in the shot put with a throw of 36’ 2”, which was six and a half feet better than the field, and second in the discus with a PR throw of 107’ 10”.

Del Norte’s Jenna Erler also had a big day.

The junior won the 100m with a time of 13.4 seconds and was second in both the 200m and the high jump.

Fortuna’s Madison Ruiz and Arcata’s Anna McLaughlin placed second and third, respectively, in the 100m.

The fourth and final regular-season league meet will take place at Del Norte next Tuesday. 

For more on this week’s boys league meet, see Eureka boys dominate again in third league meet …