Under a pilot policy introduced last year, second-place finishers in each event received their own gold medals and stood alongside Hernandez on the winner’s podium.

The California Interscholastic Federation’s approach guarantees medal placements for biological female athletes who finish behind transgender competitors, whilst also permitting them to advance to subsequent rounds without securing outright victories.

Hernandez’s performance blew away the competition across all three disciplines.

In the high jump, the student cleared 5 feet 8 inches, whilst the runner-up managed 5 feet 6 inches.

The long jump saw Hernandez land at 20 feet 4.75 inches, more than a foot ahead of the second-place mark of 19 feet 1.75 inches.

Hernandez’s triple jump distance of 41 feet 7.25 inches exceeded the next competitor by over two feet.

The victories secure Hernandez’s place at next weekend’s state championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis, where the two-time state champion will compete for more titles.

Last year, Hernandez won state championships in both high jump and triple jump, finishing narrowly short in the long jump.

“This is all a farce,” a retired California high school track official told Fox News whilst watching the competition.

“It’s like coming up with a language to describe all of this and no matter how nonsensical it is, you make it the truth.”

One parent at the high jump expressed similar concerns: “I have a son, and I would never let my son compete against my daughter.

“Especially in a sport that’s already been decided is an all-girls sport.”

The emotional toll on competitors was evident, with Crean Lutheran senior Reese Hogan, a high jump favourite, failing to qualify for state and burying her head in her father’s chest after her final attempt.

Campaigner Riley Gaines slammed the shared podium arrangement on social media, writing: “If you have to create a shared podium for the boy competing in the girls’ event, you’ve already admitted you know he isn’t a girl and that his participation is unfair.

“At that point, you’re just seeking a public humiliation ritual for the girls.”

The controversy unfolds against a backdrop of escalating federal-state tensions over trans athletes in school sports.

In February 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports,” which interprets sex as gender assigned at birth and threatens to withdraw federal education and athletic funding from schools permitting trans women on female teams.

“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” the order stated.

California has openly defied the directive, with Governor Gavin Newsom’s office declaring that discussions “should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect” whilst rejecting what it termed “the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponise this debate”.

The state’s 2013 law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown, requires students be permitted to participate in sex-segregated sports consistent with their gender identity.