Male Dominates California Girls’ High School Track Championship, Exposing Absurdity of State’s Half Measures

Clovis, Calif. — Over the weekend, this sleepy San Joaquin Valley suburb of Fresno became the focus of the national transgenderism debate. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body for California high school athletics, hosted the statewide track and field championships at Clovis’s Buchanan High School, during which a boy, AB Hernandez, dominated several of the girls’ events.

Hernandez, a junior from Jurupa Valley High School, located near Riverside, is a boy who claims to be a transgender girl. Under CIF rules and California law, Hernandez has been permitted to compete in girls’ sports. On Saturday, May 31, Hernandez took first place in the girls’ triple jump, tied for first place in the girls’ high jump, and got second place in the girls’ long jump.

Yes, that’s right, the California state girls’ champion in the high and triple jump . . . is a boy.

The Legal Fight
The Trump administration, alerted that a boy was likely to compete in and win significant competitions in the state track and field competition, began threatening Governor Gavin Newsom with a loss of funding to the state and Title IX enforcement actions if California continued to ignore the president’s February 5 executive order banning boys from girls’ sports.

CIF changed its policies twice over the course of the week leading up to the championships, but claims it was unable to reach total conformity with the Trump order because of the requirements of California state law. Hernandez was permitted to continue competing in girls’ events. However, CIF changed its policies to allow any girl who would have missed out on qualifying because of a transgender athlete to advance to the state competition, and medals and final rankings for the female competitors would be awarded as if the transgender athlete were not competing. In short, Hernandez’s participation would not block anyone from qualifying and would not affect their final standings.

Of course, the consequence of this was patently ludicrous. For example, at the end of the triple jump competition, the stadium PA announcer acknowledged two “first place” finishers in the triple jump: Hernandez, who jumped 42’ 2.75”; and Kira Gant Hatcher from St. Mary’s College High School in Albany, Calif., who jumped 40’ 5”. Santia Ali from Clayton Valley Charter High School in Concord, Calif., had the third longest jump at 39’ 10.75”, but was awarded second place.

So Hernandez was competing, but his results were ignored. He essentially competed in a phantom league of his own, where his results would not actually affect the results of the girl competitors, but would certainly distract from their results.

CIF’s hasty, belated changes also did not completely address the issues at play. Perhaps the most damaging aspect of transgender sports is accommodations: males being permitted into women’s bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. Fourteen-year-old freshman girls must endure the presence of, in some cases, an 18-year-old male (with or without intact reproductive organs) using the same shower and changing facilities that they use. The Trump executive order specifically cited locker room accommodations as a central aspect in which males in women’s sports violate Title IX.

“Over the past few days, CIF has offered last-minute adjustments to their qualifying and placing practices that only underscores their knowledge that biological girls have been cheated out of the opportunities they earned,” Clovis City Council Member and Mayor Pro Tempore, Diane Pearce said during a press conference the day before the meet began. “Today, I call on CIF to do the right thing. . . . Remove biological boys from girl sports and restore the integrity of our girls’ divisions.”

Tensions Boil Over

The gates to Veterans Memorial Stadium, Buchanan High School’s 10,000-seat capacity football and track stadium, opened at 2 p.m. on a blistering hot, 100-degree day in Clovis. The transgenderism controversy hung over the day’s proceedings both literally and figuratively, as a plane flew overhead for most of the afternoon pulling a banner reading “NO BOYS IN GIRLS’ SPORTS.”

Protesters on both sides of the transgender debate gathered just outside the stadium. Protesters opposing CIF’s policies wore and carried a variety of pink clothes and signs. Meanwhile, a pro-transgender protester, 19-year-old Ethan Kroll, stood on the corner in black pants, a black hoodie, black sunglasses, a black facemask, and even black gloves, waving a blue, pink, and white transgender flag attached to a large aluminum flagpole.

Kroll got into a heated verbal exchange with Josh Fulfer, a local conservative activist, as Fulfer drove past the intersection. Fulfer recorded the encounter as it escalated and posted a portion of it to his X account. According to Fulfer, Kroll stabbed the butt end of the flagpole through the passenger window of Fulfer’s car, prompting Fulfer to pepper spray Kroll. Kroll was arrested by the Clovis Police Department, booked into the Fresno County Jail, and charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm), vandalism, and obstructing/delaying an officer.

In the stadium, a segment of the crowd responded with pointed cheering and applause when AB Hernandez’s name was announced for his first event, the high jump.

Cindy Lynn from Redding, Calif., is the mother of a girl who was competing against Hernandez in the high jump and long jump competitions.

“I don’t have a problem with trans people,” said Lynn. “I have a problem with boys competing with girls, and I don’t think it’s fair.” She believed Hernandez’s presence had an adverse effect on the girls’ performance. “It is uncomfortable knowing that there’s a man on the field that she’s competing against, and knowing that the playing field is not equal. It does, I think, affect their confidence, and I think it affects their demeanor out on the field.”

Seeing Hernandez on the field clearly shows he has physical assets that give him an enormous advantage over the female competitors. He is flat-chested, with broader shoulders, narrower hips, and more defined muscles. He is taller than all but a few girls he competed against, with longer strides.

Hernandez ended Friday in first place in the qualifying for all three of his events: long jump, high jump, and triple jump. He cleared 5’5” in high jump, his worst event, when many of the female competitors could not even clear 5’2”. He jumped 40’ 9.75” in triple jump, 9.75 inches longer than anyone else. He was over six inches past all competitors in the long jump.

Speaking at the press conference before the meet, Sophia Lorey from the California Family Council, herself a former high school and collegiate athlete, emphasized that the blame lies with adults, not with AB Hernandez himself.

“This young boy has been lied to and used by the adults in his life: his school, his coaches, even his own family. He deserves compassion and truth, the truth that he was not born in the wrong body, and there was no mistake the way he was made,” Lorey said.

Hernandez Dominates

Hernandez continued his dominance on the track on Saturday. He easily won the triple jump by 22.25 inches and came in second place in the long jump. But his championship performance in the high jump, in what is considered his weakest event, perfectly illustrated the problems of males competing in girls’ events.

Hernandez’s form in the high jump is not particularly good. He fails to adequately pump, gather, and utilize his arms to achieve optimal height. The female high jumpers noticeably pumped their arms more vigorously to gain the momentum necessary for their jumps. Yet, because Hernandez has a male frame, male height, and male muscle, these advantages compensate for the inadequacies of his form. He equaled the top girls with a 5’7” jump to tie for first place in the state.

Such a height would not be competitive for boys. At least 20 boys from other D3 high schools in the CIF Southern Section (the school-size category and Los Angeles-suburb region in which Hernandez competed in local competitions) achieved jumps higher than 5’7” in the preliminary competition that took place in Yorba Linda, Calif., on May 10.

The boys’ state champion, Joshua Harel from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., jumped 6’9” on Saturday. The lowest height attempted among boys competing in the preliminary portion of the statewide competition on Friday was 6’4”.

This is why Hernandez has no place in this competition. He is not genuinely elite when one compares like to like. He is only better than a group of individuals with whom he has no business competing. He is no more impressive than was Danny Almonte, the 14-year-old pitcher with dodgy Dominican birth records who dominated 11- and 12-year-olds in the 2001 Little League World Series. Hernandez’s mediocre performance detracts and distracts from the elite performances of the girls around him.

During the medal ceremony, Hernandez stood in front of the two girls who also jumped 5’7” to tie for first place: Lelani Laruelle from Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, and Jillene Wetteland from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach. The symbolism of a boy standing in the way of these two girls’ extraordinary accomplishments was impossible to ignore.