Two young athletes were watching near the finish line last season in Clovis as Jasir Fontenot set a California state meet record of 13.31 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles.

“Wow,” one said, duly impressed, “where is he going to college?”

The other looked at his friend and shook his head.

“He’s just a freshman,” was the answer.

“No,” said the other. “Wow.”

Yes, Fontenot — who the next day cruised to the state title in a wind-aided 13.21 seconds — was just a freshman, sending statisticians racing to the record book to question if anyone in more than 100 years of California state high school track history had ever won the 39-inch high hurdle event as a freshman.

The answer is no.

Only seven runners have won that race twice, which is one of many goals for Fontenot.

This season he’ll be running for Mater Dei Catholic High School after competing last year at San Diego High with his sister, Anisha Bowen-Fontenot, who is now at USC.

Together the Fontenots became the state’s first brother-sister champions when Anisha won the 100-meter hurdles in 13.07 seconds.

High school athletes always set lofty goals, but Jasir Fontenot’s are about as eye-popping as his 17-1 high school record a year ago before going on to win the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships, placing third in the Nike Outdoor Nationals and fourth in the U-20 National Championships.

After setting the World Age Group records for 13-14-15 year olds, he has his eyes set on the 16-year-old standard of 13.20 by Jamaica’s Dejour Russell in 2010. Eventually, Fontenot wants the 17-year-old mark of 13.08 by Wayne Davis in 2009, 12.99 for the 18-year-old age group record by Jamaica’s Damion Thomas in 2018 and the all-time world U-20 mark of 12.72 by France’s Sasha Zhoya in 2021.

He also wants to join the seven others who have won state championships twice before hopefully adding his third and fourth titles.

A distant goal is a potential berth in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

But first, he needs to get healthy.

He turned an ankle playing in Mater Dei’s final basketball game of the year, and Crusaders coaches aren’t rushing his return.

“It might be a blessing,” he said. “Last season was really long — successful, but long. I’ve been going all out since the eighth grade, when I watched my sister win her first state championship. I’ve set a goal to double what she did.”

Anisha won two state titles. Jasir wants four state championships.

“When I get back, I’ll be completely dialed in,” he said. “I missed making the USA Senior Nationals by just 2-hundredths of a second. So that’s another goal.”

He needed 13.75 in the 42-inch highs and ran 13.77.

First, he hopes to be ready for the Mt. Carmel Invitational on March 28, but he definitely wants to run at the Arcadia Invitational on April 11.  His lone loss came at Arcadia last year.

“I hit a few hurdles, and in a field like that, you can’t hit hurdles,” Jasir said. “But I learned some things that helped me later. In hurdling, you want a smooth race. Clear the hurdles, make your steps perfect before and after each of the 10 hurdles, and finish strong.”

Finishing strong is something that Fontenots do, as their father and coach, Bazz, doesn’t stress a great start but does look for a powerful finish.

“In almost every invitational he and his sister set meet records last year and in every one they were the ones who ran down those who started fast,” said Bazz, noting that the competition between Jasir and jet-starting Sterling Bryant of Ramona, wh is now at San Diego Mesa College, resulted in both running under the previous section record of13.84 by Helix’s Shon Martin in 2024.

“The thing about the 110-meter hurdles is there is no room for error. Jasir hasn’t run a clean race and lost. We work on little things, and so far, in the end it has worked out.”

Jasir Fontenot now holds seven of the eight fastest times in section history and another three that were aided by wind, with his PR being the 13.21 with a relatively scant 2.4 meter-per-second breeze, which is slightly above the allowable 2.0 mps.

Or, as that impressed fan said a year ago, “Wow.”