AB Hernandez took the top score in the girls' triple jump at the 2026 CIF Southern Section Track & Field Masters Meet in Moorpark, California, on Saturday, earning another state qualification and heading back to the California Interscholastic Federation championship meet for the second straight year.
The Jurupa Valley High School senior also was set to go to Buchanan High School in Clovis next weekend in high jump and two other events after the Masters Meet at Moorpark High School. Hernandez, who was named co-champion of the girls' triple jump event on May 23, has kept turning major meets into state tickets, a run that has made the 5-foot-9, 120-pound athlete one of the most closely watched competitors in the section.
That latest result came a week after Hernandez won first place in the girls' high jump at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Divisional Championship Finals in Moorpark on May 16. Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran did not qualify for state in the girls' high jump this year, leaving Hernandez's path through the postseason as one of the clearest stories in Southern Section track.
Hernandez has competed for Jurupa Valley's girls volleyball team and girls track team over the last two seasons, and the athlete's success has drawn national attention as the spring season has gone on. The attention has also brought criticism. A retired California high school track official called the situation "a farce" and said people keep finding language to describe it and then making that language the truth, a reaction that captures how sharply the debate has divided California's track scene.
For Hernandez, the only facts that matter on the track are the marks, and those marks have delivered again. The next stop is state, with three events and another chance to turn a season already packed with headlines into a championship finish.
