On Saturday, May 11, sophomore Teia L. captured the CIF Division IV championship in women’s pole vaulting with a height of 11’1”. This title follows her 2023 Prep League Championship and 4th place finish at CIF last year.
Though she had a stellar freshman season, this victory truly reflects her growth over the past year. Teia jumped more than a full foot over her 2023 CIF Finals mark of 9’9”. After finishing second at the 2024 Prep League Finals, she came back to vault close to her personal record, 11’4”, which she achieved earlier this year at the Redondo Nike Track Festival.
Teia now makes history as only the third individual track and field Westridge athlete to win a title in CIF, with the last title coming in 2002. Moreover, Teia and her mother, Westridge Board of Trustees Chair Valerie Rubio ’92, are the only mother-daughter pair to each have a CIF championship (Valerie was part of the 1989 CIF champion soccer team).
Director of Athletics Coach Melanie Horn spoke about Teia’s accomplishments, saying, “It’s beyond amazing that in just over a year Teia has gone from a completely novice pole vaulter to the CIF-SS Division IV Champion. Talk about a prodigy… to surge in height so greatly in such a short period of time is stupendous.”
Though Teia always warms up with practice jumps at any meet—CIF Finals felt different. That morning, she found her footing and movement to be smoother than usual. Her first two warm-up jumps went well, so she stopped there. “I didn’t even need a lot of a warm up so it already started off as a good day,” Teia said.
Continuing her solid performance in warmups, Teia began her competition, surpassing a height of 9’7” on her first attempt. Then, she cleared 10 feet. When the bar was at 10’7”, she cleared it in two attempts. Finally, she cleared 11’1” on her second attempt—her winning height. But she wasn’t done yet, Teia still had to watch the remaining athletes attempt the 11’1” bar. After some waiting, no other girl could clear the height, effectively crowning Teia as champion. She described the winning experience as “really exciting” but admitted she was not outwardly celebratory, keeping her excitement to herself.
After winning the competition, Teia still had a few more jumps to complete. To qualify for CIF Masters, the tournament that follows CIF Finals, Teia tried to clear a height of 11’7”, three inches above her personal best. Though she did not make the mark, Teia is determined to keep improving. “[I] just [want] to see how high I can get,” she said.
While Teia’s remarkable season for Westridge is done, her training is not. In the summer with her club team, she will attend the Nike Nationals in Oregon, and in the months to follow, she will continue to train and chase new personal bests. “Overall this season was super fun and I’m ready to see what next year has in store for me,” said Teia.
