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By Ray Hamill — Arcata senior Skyler Collenberg is heading to the CIF state championships in track and field for the second straight year.

And he has qualified in two events after a strong showing at this weekend’s North Coast Section Meet of Champions at Dublin High School, which saw him set yet another league record.

The multi-sport star has enjoyed a hugely successful career with the Tigers and now he’s ready to close out with a bang as he looks to make some noise at the biggest high school meet of the year in California.

And that makes him this week’s Humboldt Sports Athlete of the week.

After dominating in the H-DNL all spring, Collenberg went into this weekend’s big NCS meet as one of the favorites in both the shot put and discus.

And the local standout delivered with one of his best performances of the season, placing first in each to advance to state in both events.

He now holds league records in both the shot put and discus.

Del Norte’s Sebastian Espinoza also qualified for the state championships after placing second to Collenberg in the shot put.

Collenberg won that event with a throw of 60’ 6”, which was more than six feet better than the field.

The impressive Espinoza placed second with a throw of  54’ 4.5”.

In the discus, Collenberg threw 176’ 4” and comfortably beat second-placed Deonte Littlejohn out of Acalanes High School by more than eight feet.

The old league record was 175’, which was set by South Fork’s Lonnie Whitlow in 2003.

Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

TEAM OF THE WEEK

McKinleyville Baseball

The Panthers’ season may have come to an end after Saturday’s NCS playoff loss to Bishop O’Dowd, but the players and coaches have every reason to feel proud of what they achieved this spring.

And that makes them our choice for team of the week.

Last weekend, head coach Mike Dobrec and his players secured a third straight Charles Lakin Tournament championship, and they followed that with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Division-I California in the opening round of the section Division-2 playoff tournament on Wednesday.

Saturday’s loss was just the third of the campaign for a McKinleyville team that showed it clearly belonged in the company of some of the best programs in the NCS.

“We had a great season,” Dobrec said. “We were 24-3, and if you’d told me that at the beginning of the season, I’d have been happy with that. I am happy with that. We fought hard to the end.”

The good news for the Panthers — and the bad news for the rest of the league — is that they don’t like they’re going to fall off any in 2027.

With a plethora of returning stars, including the outstanding Tate Saso and Hunter Carper, among many others, McKinleyville should be just as strong as ever a year from now.