First-year Head Coach Robert Neely guided Cuesta Women's Track and Field to 14th place at the 2023 CCCAA State Championships and extended Cuesta's State Meet scoring streak to 20 years. The Cougars finish at the State Meet connects the start of Neely's tenure to the program's founding Coach Darrell Rich, who ignited the current streak with a 42nd place to close his career in 2002. The streak was kept alive over the next two decades through tenures of Coaches Jani Johnson and Brian Locher. Neely built off Locher's final season in 2022, when the Cougars finished 6th at the CCCAA State Meet, which marked their highest finish since Rich led them to 3rd place in 1988. The Cougars sent only four women to the State Meet, but all four posted podium-worthy finishes. Freshman Grace Gutierrez (pict-L) earned the Cougars' top mark with a Silver in the High Jump, while fellow Rookie Madeline Scovil (pict-R) joined her on the CCCAA's All-State team with 4th place and a new school record in the Triple Jump and fellow Leaper Ashley Gose took 8th place in the Long Jump. In the lanes, Freshman Elle Casselman crossed in 5th place in the 800-meters.
Freshman Grace Gutierrez easily earned All-State honors as she battled for a State Title until the final jump. She soared through the early heights to a season-best 5-2.25 without missing a single jump. Her perfect run left her as the favorite when the bar was raised to 5-3.25. However she joined the other four compeitors as they all missed their first two attempts at the new height. However in the final round Bakersfield's Neshara Smith cleared the bar to take the title. Gutierrez, who took 2nd place, moved up to 7th all time at Cuesta for the High Jump, behind 2022 All State Leaper Eva Kessler (5-3) and the four athletes tied with Ella Baston's 1978 school record of 5-4.
Freshman Madeline Scovil qualified for the Triple Jump and Long Jump, but dropped out of the Long Jump to allow her teammate Ashley Gose to advance. Scovil's decision to concentrate on the Triple Jump paid off big for the Cougars. Her leap of 38-6.75 earned her 4th place in the competition and broke Tee Noble's 1998 school record by almost half-a-foot. Scovil also added nine inches on her previous best to earn CCCAA All-State honors. Scovil made her mark this season, along with her Triple Jump record she also ranks 6th all time in the Long Jump at 17-6.75. In her side events, Scovil owned the Cougars' best mark in the Pole Vault (9-6.75), as well as the second best times in the 100m (:13.13) and 200m (:29.89).
Freshman Middle Distance Runner, Elle Casselman just missed all-State honors with a 5th place finish in the 800-meters (2:19.56). Casselman was the only member of Cougars' State contingent to compete in the lanes. Casselman, who only raced the metric half-mile peaked at the right time of the season. She dropped time in each race this season, until she posted the 10th fastest time in Cuesta History at the 2023 CCCAA Regional Finals at 2:18.26. She ran her second sub-2:20 race of the season at the State Meet (2:19.56), however, while she owned a comfortable four second lead over 6th place, the first four runners were all sub-2:18
Freshman Ashley Gose ended her first year at Cuesta in the Long Jump with an 8th place finish at the CCCAA State Meet. Gose, a late add to the meet, landed a mark of 17-11.5 at the State meet, which was less than an inch off her season-best for the Long Jump. Gose's trip to the State Meet capped a dominant first season. She owned the Cougars' best marks in the 100m (:12.89), 200m (:28.28), Long Jump (18-0.25) and was second on the team in the Triple Jump (36-10.5).
