Athlete of the Meet Award winners announced for NorCal Regional Championships

3C2A NorCal Regional Championship Results

SALINAS - The 2024 Northern California Championship hosted by American River College over May 3-4 crowned this year's individual and team champions under a new back-to-back day format. For the first time in Northern California Championship history, the trials of the running events were contested the day before the finals and provided athletes the opportunity to experience this championship format. Jocelyn Pedretti, Taylor Snaer, and Joey Stout nearly helped the Modesto Junior College Pirates sweep the Athlete of the Meet honors with Pedretti named the Female Field AOM, Snaer the Female Track AOM, and Stout the Male Track AOM. Liam Brennan of De Anza College was named the Male Field AOM. Demitrius Snaer of Modesto College was selected as the Men's Norcal Coach of the Year and Kyle Robinson of Chabot College was the Women's Norcal Coach of the Year. 

Sophomore Jocelyn Pedretti notched the first of her three individual NorCal event wins back on April 9-10. She won the heptathlon title, a year after finishing seventh, with a score of 4,334 points. Pedretti improved her score by nearly 700 points in a year and was a comfortable winner by 161 points. She would also take victories in the javelin and discus throw at American River College. Her javelin-winning throw of 38.33 meters was nearly eight feet better than second place and moved her up from tenth in 2023 to overall champion. Pedretti would move over to the discus ring later in the meet to win with a mark of 41.28 meters, the only mark in the competition over 40 meters. She was just eighth in the final as a freshman. Pedretti nearly picked up another top-three finish for the Pirates in the high jump clearing. 1.50 meters. She would finish fifth but pick up a valuable four points toward the team score for Modesto.

Freshman Liam Brennan of De Anza College leaves his first Northern California Championship with two first-place finishes in the shot put and discus. He started off the championship with a win in the discus throw. Brennan was the only competitor to eclipse the 160-foot barrier with a mark of 51.51 meters. He was victorious by 19 feet. On Saturday, Brennan tossed the 16-pound shot put 14.38 meters to win the competition by over six inches. With another year left for the Mountain Lions, Brennan will be a favorite to repeat his titles in 2025. 

Modesto Junior College freshman Taylor Snaer put on one of the most impressive sprint performances in a championship. Snaer won both the 100 and 200 meters in Norcal Meet Record times despite having to run trials of both on Friday. She would speed away from the field in the 100 meters in 11.37, the only woman to go under 12 seconds in the final. Snaer would run her second sub-23 clocking in the 200 meters in 24 hours, running 22.97 in the final. She recorded a lifetime best of 22.95 in the Friday trials. Snaer ran the second leg on Modesto's winning 4x100 relay team, their time 47.88 the only one under 48 seconds in the final, and fantastically anchored their winning 4x400 relay to a season-best 3:59.52. Snaer contributed 40 points to the Pirates's 152 points that netted them a Northern California team title. 

Another freshman, Joey Stout of Modesto Junior College will have a shot at repeat honors in 2025 after his first place in the 400 meters and second in the 200 meters. He was also a part of their winning 4x400 relay team and fourth place 4x100 relay. Stouts won the 400 meters by 0.92 seconds and was the only athlete to run under 48 seconds. He would contribute 33 points to the team's 104 points, coming up just 8 points short of the men's team title. 

Demitrius Snaer of Modesto Junior College guided his women to the Northern California title one year after placing fifth as a team. The Pirates tallied 152 points to win by 45 points over second-place Monterey Peninsula. Modesto had scorers in the top eight overall in 15 events and had eight event winners. 

Kyle Robinson of Chabot College led the Gladiator men to just their third-ever Northern California Championship trophy, the other two coming in 1999 and 2001. Their 57 points is the third best in school history and is an improvement on 12th-place team finish in 2023. The Gladiators were only fifth as a team at the 2024 Coast Conference Championship as they strategically readied themselves for a top-three Northern California finish.  Chabot had three event winners with Robert Stitts winning the 100 meters and 200 meters and Daniel Trampe victorious in the 5,000 meters. 

(Chris Zepeda, 5CTCA)