Santa Clarita has produced its share of talented athletes over the years, but Hazel Rhodes is doing something that has never been done before — and she’s doing it in the 400 meters, one of track and field’s most brutally demanding events.

The Saugus High School alumna and recent College of the Canyons graduate has rewritten the record books during her two seasons with the Cougars, becoming the most decorated sprinter in the program’s women’s track and field history and setting her sights on the NCAA Division I stage at California State University, Long Beach.

A Historic Back-to-Back

In June 2026, Rhodes stood atop the podium at the California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) State Championships in the 400 meters for the second year in a row — becoming the first athlete in College of the Canyons women’s track and field history to win back-to-back state titles. That distinction alone would define most careers. For Rhodes, it’s the crown on two years of relentless achievement.

She joins COC Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Chris Low as the only athletes in program history — men’s or women’s — to claim back-to-back state championships in track and field. The company she keeps in the record books reflects just how rare her accomplishment is.

Rewriting the Record Books

The state championships were the most visible moment of Rhodes’s COC career, but the full picture of what she accomplished over two seasons is even more impressive.

She owns the COC school records in both the 200 meters and the 400 meters, running a 24.08 in the 200m and a 53.99 in the 400m — both marks set during the 2026 season. Those times reflect an athlete who didn’t just peak early and hold steady; she kept getting faster.

At the conference level, Rhodes earned six Western State Conference (WSC) championships across her two-year career, winning titles in the 200m, 400m, 4×400 relay, and 4×100 relay. She was also named the WSC Female Track Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year — another back-to-back distinction that underscores just how dominant she was not just in individual events, but as the most valuable track performer in her conference.

The Road From Saugus to the Canyons

Before she was rewriting COC history, Rhodes was developing her talent at Saugus High School in the Santa Clarita Valley. The foundation she built there carried her into COC’s program under head coach Lindie Kane, where her development accelerated into something historic.

The community college track and field landscape is fiercely competitive in California, where programs throughout the state recruit talented athletes and produce future Division I competitors. For Rhodes to rise to the very top of that environment — twice — is a testament to both the quality of her coaching and the work she put in between seasons.

Heading to the Beach

With her COC chapter complete, Rhodes has committed to California State University, Long Beach, where she will compete for the Beach track and field program. CSULB competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Big West Conference, one of the more competitive mid-major conferences in collegiate track and field on the West Coast.

The transition from community college to Division I is a significant step up in competition, training demands, and expectation. But Rhodes arrives at Long Beach not as a project or a developmental prospect — she arrives as a proven state champion, a conference record-holder, and one of the most decorated community college sprinters in recent Southern California history. That resume carries weight.

What She Represents for Santa Clarita

Local sports stories often unfold quietly, celebrated in the community but rarely amplified beyond it. Rhodes’s story deserves wider recognition. She is a homegrown athlete — raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, schooled at Saugus, developed at COC — who has achieved something no woman before her has achieved in her program’s history, and who is now stepping onto one of the biggest stages in collegiate athletics.

For younger athletes in the SCV who are watching and wondering what’s possible, the answer is right here: six conference championships, two state titles, two school records, and a Division I scholarship. All built, one race at a time, right in their backyard.

Hazel Rhodes isn’t just one of the most decorated athletes in College of the Canyons history. She’s one of the most compelling athletic stories the Santa Clarita Valley has produced in years — and at Long Beach, she’s just getting started.

To learn more about each “Hometown Champion”. riding on the KHTS firetruck in the 2026 Santa Clarita July 4th parade, click on their links. 5-Time American Ninja, Westley Silvester; Track Star, Hazel Rhodes, Olympians Azaria Hill, Virgil Eugene Hill, Sr., and Denean Howard-Hill. And of course, wrestling legend, Dragon Lee.