Girls water polo and cross country squads celebrated for historic championship wins in banner-raising ceremony
Morro Bay High School has had a lot to cheer about during its 2024-25 sports year, but among a number of individual accomplishments were two CIF Central Section team championships, and they were both earned by girls’ squads.
On May 17, family and friends of the MBHS girls water polo and cross country teams were feted with a mini parade down the Embarcadero, over the Morro Creek Bridge and around to the high school, where they held a championship banner-raising ceremony and awarded the girls their championship rings.
The girls cross country team last fall won the CIF Central Section Division 4 title and qualified the whole team to run in the State Finals; both meets were held at Woodward Park in Clovis.
Morro Bay scored 66 points to win the CIF Division 4 meet with Cabrillo of Lompoc coming in second with 91 points. There were a total of 114 runners in the Division 4 race.
Medalists for Morro Bay were sophomore phenom Shelby Taylor, who finished in third place overall; Phaedra Fernflores, who took sixth; and Wendy Wilson, who was eighth. Mia Bennett was 15th and Lilith Buller was 43rd for the Pirates.
Cross country coach Jennifer Frere got emotional talking about the girls and how hard they worked and how proud she was of their accomplishments. Frere already has her name — well, her maiden name (Jennifer Locavara) — on a championship banner in the MBHS gym. But her name appears on a short list of state champions, as she won a state cross country title in 1991 while at MBHS. Taylor has two more shots at equaling that feat and seeing her name on that special, individual banner. If she makes it, she’ll join wrestler Craig Troxler, cross country and track star Isaiah Festa, who won three state championships, two for cross country and one in track; and pole vaulter, Shayla Ballentyne, who set a state and national record when she won the state meet.
Of note, the boys cross country team this past season almost made it a double feature, as they finished second in Division 4 behind McFarland High.
The girls water polo squad became the first girls sports team to win a CIF section championship other than the basketball and cross country programs. The Lady Pirates took first in the CIF Central Section Division III and came close to adding another trophy to the school’s trophy case before losing 9-7 to Aptos in the regional tournament final. They finished 20-11 on the season and took third in the Mountain League behind Arroyo Grande and Righetti.
Another sports team almost won CIF, as the Pirates football team made it to the championship game but fell 32-28 to Selma.
MBHS might not be done claiming CIF championships, as the baseball team, which went 12-0 to win the Ocean League, made it past its first round CIF game against Justin Garza High of Fresno, winning 5-4 in extra innings. They had two more potential games to play but those were scheduled after Morro Bay Life’s deadline.
Photos by Neil Farrell/MBL
