Pack up the car and get ready for temperatures in the upper 80s this coming weekend in Clovis and Fresno, where CIF state championships will be held in track and field and boys’ volleyball.
Buchanan High School is the site Friday and Saturday for the track championships, where City Section record-holder Lawrence Kensinger will try to win a state title in the shotput after his astonishing mark of 65-11 at the City finals broke a record established in 1973. Running events begin at 5 p.m. Friday to qualify for Saturday’s finals.
Servite sprinters will try to put on a show in the 4×100 relay, the 100, 200 and 400 races. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame high jumper JJ Harel will try to defend his state title. At the Southern Section finals, he cleared a career-best 7-1.
Fresno City College is the site for the volleyball championships on Saturday.
Tickets are available only through gofan.co.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
When Lawrence Kensinger stepped into the circle for his last throw of the City Section shot put finals on Thursday afternoon in Lake Balboa, he felt a surge of adrenaline like never before.
Energized by spectators and fellow competitors clapping behind him, the Venice High senior gave them reason to cheer with his Herculean heave of 65 feet, 11 inches, breaking a 53-year-old City record and taking over the state lead in the event.
“Number one baby!” Kensinger screamed as he hugged his dad, Cliff. “When you release it, you don’t even feel it coming out of your hand … it’s like air,” he said. “That’s how you know it’s good. It felt amazing!”
After scratching on his first two attempts by stepping over the board, Kensinger played it safe on his third, then let loose on the fourth to shatter the section record of 64-08.75 set by David Gerasimchuck of Narbonne in 1973. That was the second-longest standing City record behind only the boys pole vault which dates back to 1969.
“I got 62 [feet] on my first attempt so even though it didn’t count I felt pretty good,” said Kensinger, who won with a throw of 55 feet at last year’s City finals after a 55-09 effort at prelims. “It did get in my head a little but the third throw I just wanted to get a mark out there. Then on the last one I was told just go out there and rip it.”
Kensinger played football in ninth and 10th grade but quit to focus on the shot put. His goal at last year’s state meet was to qualify for finals. This time, he wants to be on the top step of the podium.
He works with Nick Garcia, the strength and condition coach at Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks. “I’ve been throwing since my freshman year and go to his clinics and train with him once a week. He gives me my lifting program. I send him videos and he does technical analysis. Having a good coach is vital. I couldn’t have done this without him.”
Venice senior Lawrence Kensinger puts the shot 65-11 in the City finals Thursday at Birmingham High.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Kensinger bettered the 65-3.5 thrown by Case Jacobson of Mountain View St. Francis at the Arcadia Invitational in April.
“I’ve been eyeing that number … he beat me there,” added Kensinger, whose prior best was 59-08 at the Irvine Invitational earlier this spring.
“I like to say it’s just small steps, but 65 is top tier in the country. I was throwing 60 consistently in practice so I knew I could do it.”
The current national leader is CJ Williams of Frisco Heritage High in Texas with a mark of 72-0.25.
Kensinger wants to go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where his father played football, but he has yet to sign with the Mustangs.
“I’m just a shot guy right now, but I’d like to do the shot and hammer throw in college,” Kensinger said. “Hammer’s very technical because you do four spins instead of one.”
Was the record-setting throw the highlight of his career?
“So far,” he said. “But I have plenty more to accomplish.”
China’s Zhao Xintong pulls off a shot emmulating the late John Virgo, potting three reds at the same time in his quarter-final match-up against Shaun Murphy at the World Snooker Championship.
British judoka Emma Reid won silver to clinch the first European Championships medal of her career.
Reid, who finished fifth in 2025, was beaten in the- 78kg final by Italy’s Alice Bellandi in Tbilisi, Georgia.
“I’m very happy with my performance, and it’s great to end the day with a medal,” said 30-year-old Reid, who won bronze at the World Championships in 2024.
“It has been a tough and busy block at the start of this year, so it’s nice to see the hard work paying off with my first European Championships medal.”
Reid won her last-16 and quarter-final contests with sankaku-gatame against Ukrainian Anna Kazakova and juji-gatame against Lithuanian Migle Julija Dudenaite respectively.
She then guaranteed herself at least silver by forcing her semi-final opponent, Slovenia’s Metka Lobnik, to submit just one minute into the contest.
Adam Peaty puts on an “astonishing” performance in the men’s 100m breaststroke final, with a time of 58.97 seconds at the Acquatics Great British Swimming Championships.
