Opinion: CIF’s big mistake at state track meet had nothing to do
with transgender athlete - 06/02/25
Opinion: CIF’s big mistake at state track meet had nothing to do with transgender athlete
Waffling, embattled CIF takes a cruel stand against having fun by taking away Clara Adams’ medal
North Salinas’ Clara Adams reacts with tears after she was DQ for Unsportsmanlike celebrates of setting off a
fire extinguisher in the infield after winning the Girls 400 Meter Dash during the CIF State Track and
Field Championships on Friday at Buchanan High in Clovis on Saturday, May 31, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson,
The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
UPDATED: June 2, 2025 at 5:01 PM PDT
The California Interscholastic Federation spent most of last week changing its standards seemingly on a whim
amid a controversy surrounding transgender athlete AB Hernandez competing in girls events at the state championship
in Clovis.
But in the closing hours of the state track and field championships, we found out where the state’s governing
body for high school sports draws the line: having fun.
Yes, really.
North Salinas runner Clara Adams won the 400-meter race at Buchanan High’s Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday,
and then trotted off the track to celebrate with her father.
After running a blazing time of 53.24 in the 100-degree heat, Adams walked up to David Adams and grabbed a fire
extinguisher from him.
In a display of harmless joy, Adams went away from the track – and her competitors – and blasted her shoes with
the fire repellent. Olympic champion Maurice Greene did the same thing when he won the 100 meters at a race in
Carson in 2004.
“I told Clara, ‘You’re on fire,’” her father, David, told the Monterey Herald. “She did not do it in front of her
opponents. She wasn’t disrespecting anyone.”
No harm, no foul, right? Well, not according to CIF officials.
For that offense, Adams had her gold medal ripped away and was disqualified from competing in the 200-meter race.
Because, heaven forbid, a teenager shows emotion after achieving the ultimate goal in her sport.
Madison Mosby, a senior at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood, was given the gold medal instead.
“I don’t know what’s going through my mind right now,” Clara Adams told the Herald late Saturday. “I’m
disappointed and I feel robbed. I am in shock. (The officials) yelled at me and told me, ‘We’re not letting
you on the podium.’ They took my moment away from me.”
The decision to strip Adams of her medal and ban her from running in the 200 meters came mere minutes before
it started.
Her father believes race was a factor for his daughter, who is Black.
“I have video of it,” said David Adams said.. “She was on the other side of the wall. I told her to step off
the track. She did not spray her shoes on the track. We have protested the decision. I feel it was racially
motivated.”
The CIF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on David Adams’ allegation of racial discrimination,
or the decision to take away his daughter’s medal while disqualifying her from other events.
Whether or not her race played a role in CIF’s actions, its move to punish a teenager celebrating the biggest win
of her young life was undeniably extreme.
Having covered high school sports for six years across two different states, an athlete partaking in what is
essentially an inside joke with her dad — away from her competitors — does not even make the top 10 for the most
ridiculous celebrations I have seen.
What Adams did was nowhere on the level of what the Coronado-San Diego team did in 2021, when it was stripped of
a regional basketball title after the team program celebrated the victory by throwing tortillas at the mostly
Hispanic opposing team.
Adams’ celebration certainly did not merit swift action from an entity that had spent the previous week unable
to set rules on a far more serious topic.
Under fire by President Donald Trump’s administration and facing a threat to the state’s federal funding, the CIF
made changes to its rules in an attempt to appease both sides of a controversy surrounding a transgender athlete
competing in girls sports.
The CIF decided to suddenly gift multiple gold medals in events that Jurupa Valley’s Hernandez medaled in rather
than take a stand in either direction.
St. Mary’s-Berkeley’s Kira Gant Hatcher shared the long jump gold medal with Hernandez, and Monta Vista’s Lelani
Laruelle and Long Beach Wilson’s Jillene Wetteland shared gold with Hernandez in the high jump.
Trans athlete Hernandez wins two competitions at California state track meet, sharing podium with Bay Area
jumpers
The CIF decided to name multiple winners. In the state championship.
Regardless of where you stand on transgender athletes competing in female sports, there is no denying that
having multiple winners from different schools for one state championship event is unconventional to say the least.
Under fire from both sides of the political aisle, the CIF could have kept a low profile at the state meet
after walking through fire in the days leading up to the competition.
Instead, with the Hernandez situation beginning to fade, it made a bad decision that took a gold medal away
from a sophomore who wasn’t trying to show up her opponents.
The celebration that cost a California girl her state track title
Clara Adams was disqualified for what CIF officials called unsportsmanlike behavior
Author
By John Devine | MediaNews
UPDATED: June 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM PDT
CLOVIS —After Clara Adams appeared to have become a state track champion Saturday night, controversy erupted
to mar what was thought to be a historic achievement.
Adams, a North Salinas High sophomore, was the first-place finisher in the 400 meters in the state high
school championships. Then, in a celebratory moment, she took a fire extinguisher from her dad, stepped away
from the track, and blasted her shoes with the retardant spray.
“I told Clara, ‘You’re on fire,’” said her father, David. “She did not do it in front of her opponents. She
wasn’t disrespecting anyone.”
Apparently, California Interscholastic Federation officials felt differently. They immediately disqualified
Adams and stripped her of her state title, leaving her in disbelief just minutes before she was scheduled to
run the 200 meters.
“I don’t know what’s going through my mind right now,” Clara Adams said later that night. “I’m disappointed
and I feel robbed. I am in shock. They (officials) yelled at me and told me, ‘We’re not letting you on the
podium.’ They took my moment away from me.”
The gold medal instead went to Madison Mosby, a senior at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood.
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The day only got worse. Because Adams was disqualified for what was ruled an unsportsmanlike act after winning
the 400, she was also disqualified from the meet and was not allowed to run in the 200, where she was one of
the favorites to finish in the top three.
“I have video of it,” said David Adams, who is also his daughter’s sprint coach. “She was on the other side of
the wall. I told her to step off the track. She did not spray her shoes on the track. We have protested the
decision. I feel it was racially motivated.” (Adams is Black.)
The protest fell on deaf ears as the decision to disqualify Adams was upheld, preventing her from her second
straight podium finish in the event — having finished fourth last year as a freshman.
“It’s a very unfortunate event,” said North Salinas head track coach Alan Green. “We are all heartbroken. Clara
ran an incredible 400 race and is the fastest 400-meter girl in the state.”
Adams had hoped to match Calvin Harrison’s achievement 32 years ago of winning the 200 and 400, even wearing the
throwback North Salinas uniforms from that era. But with the protest upheld, her day was finished.
“She was trying to have some fun at the finish line after the 400,” said Green, choosing his words carefully.
“It was interpreted as unsportsmanlike. What an incredible season and run. It’s unfortunate.”
Adams had advanced to the finals after clocking the second-fastest time in the trials on Friday, nearly matching
her state-leading time of 53.23 seconds, achieved at the Central Coast Section finals last week. In the finals,
she blistered the track out of Lane 6, clocking 53.24.
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In the 200 trials on Friday, Adams shaved nearly half a second off her best time, clocking 23.71 and going from
being ranked 12th to No. 2 going into the finals.
Adams, who broke the CCS finals record in the 400 last week and is the Monterey County record holder, is now
No. 2 all-time in the county in the 200, behind Monterey’s Sani Roseby’s mark of 23.52, set in 1999.
During the season, the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Cypress Division 100-, 200-, and 400-meter champion set
school records at North Salinas in the 100, 200, 400, and 800.
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“Clara is taking it really hard,” said her father. “But she’s had a lot of support from people in the stadium.”
Originally Published: June 2, 2025 at 8:37 AM PDT