Daily Journal Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year: Burlingame’s Avery Boyse

Avery Boyse was just a kid with a dream.

Heading into her senior season at Burlingame, Boyse was shopping for colleges based primarily on academics. She was new to the world of track and field, having competed in what would become her specialty event, the pole vault, in just one official meet as a junior. The results in that junior meet at the Peninsula Athletic League finals were enough to get her on the podium, but her sixth-place height of 7 feet, 10 inches was pedestrian at best.

As Boyse combed through colleges early in the application process, she’d check to see what schools had track teams, though it was more just out of curiosity.

“It was like a dream of mine,” Boyse said. “I wanted to do it but I didn’t think it was super realistic.”

Now, one year later, Boyse’s track and field career has taken off like a rocket.

After dedicating to the sport in the offseason, she quickly pole vaulted into the upper echelon of the all-time greats in the Central Coast Section. Less than a month into her senior season, she broke the PAL record with a vault of 12-6 at the Willow Glen Track Invitational. Two months later, she recorded a personal record vault of 13 feet at the PAL finals at San Mateo High School, tying her for seventh all-time in CCS history.

Boyse’s senior resume made her a slam dunk for the title of Daily Journal Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year. That’s just icing on the cake after her dream became reality midway through her senior year, when she received an offer to compete not just at any college, but at the NCAA Division I program at UCLA.

“Avery is one of the most persistent, most focused, and one of the most athletic kids I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” Burlingame head coach Chris Coleman said. “And I think all of that combined allowed her to excel and elevate so fast. And I really think that UCLA is going to be able to take her further than we could ever take her, and I’m really excited to see what her next evolution will look like.”

Boyse’s high school evolution was born from a background in, her first passion, gymnastics. She and another former Burlingame track standout, 2024 graduate Avah Reichow, grew up together at Accel Gymnastics Training Center in Burlingame. Reichow was always more advanced in the sport, rising to the Junior Olympic level, where she became the Level 10 Northern California champion in girls’ vault, and would go on to forge an NCAA Division I career of her own with the UC Davis women’s gymnastics team.

Unlike the 5-4 Reichow, however, Boyse, at 5-8, was literally outgrowing gymnastics. She held out for as long as she could, until her sophomore year at Burlingame, when she initially joined the track team as a sprinter. Then, midway through her junior season, she stumbled upon the pole vaulting pit.

“I wouldn’t say my mind changed,” Boyse said. “It was just a situation where ... I started pole vaulting, I really, really liked it. Since I was kind of tall too, gymnastics was kind of taking a toll on my body. ... It just ended up working for the better.”

As with most public school pole vaulters, Boyse really had to want it. There was no pole vault apparatus at Burlingame, so she initially started training at nearby Mills High School.

“It was honestly very unserious,” Boyse said. “It was just kind of a fun thing I was doing on the side of gymnastics.”

Then Boyse, somewhat unintentionally, but very quickly, went on a six-degrees-of-separation tour that led her from working with longtime Aragon vaulting coach Norm Bennett, to training at Stanford University with Will Eggers, to an impromptu introduction on April 12 in Arcadia to UCLA pole vault coach Tate Curran.

“Having all those people help me and guide me through the process, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Boyse said.

Boyse’s breakout meet came March 8 at the Willow Glen Track Invitational where she had her sights set on a PR. Having come off a career-best vault of 11-feet at a season-opening scrimmage at Aragon, Boyse was shooting for what now seems like a modest goal.

“I had zero expectations, zero idea what I was doing,” Boyse said. “My goal was I would love to get over 11-6.”

That she did, but she didn’t stop there. Boyse went on to record a triple-PR by hitting vaults of 12-feet and 12-6 as well.

That set the stage for her date with destiny a month later, April 12, at the Arcadia Invitational. Boyse got off to an uneasy start as Eggers, her personal coach, couldn’t attend the meet. Instead, Eggers asked former UCLA pole vaulter Kyle Brown to work with her at the meet. Boyse went on to take fourth place with a vault of 12-5. But the best was yet to come.

“It was definitely a little bit stressful because I was like: ‘OK, I’ve never met this guy,’” Boyse said. “But it ended up working out.”

It worked out because, during the meet, Brown introduced her to Curran. In the moment, Boyse thought it was just a standard meet and greet. However, the following day, her phone rang with a call from Curran. One week later, Boyse made an official visit to UCLA, and committed to the school as a student-athlete soon thereafter.

Talk about a dream come true.

“For sure,” Boyse said. “I did not imagine any of this.”

The senior went on to claim the PAL championship and, the next week, the CCS championship May 17 with a top vault of 11-9 at Gilroy High School. Two weeks later, on May 31, she claimed fourth in the state with a vault of 12-2 at the CIF State Track & Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

Her crowning achievement was the PAL championship, and not just because of her PR of 13 feet — also the new Burlingame record, setting it three times in 2025. The previous mark of 10 feet was set in 2006 by Kristin Hirabayashi at the CCS championships at San Jose City College.

What made the PAL championship at San Mateo High special, though, was it marked the only time in her varsity vaulting career Boyse got the chance to compete in front of a home crowd.

“It also was great because that was the first time I competed in the area,” Boyse said. “With my Burlingame teammates there cheering me on, it was the first time I had them there. ... It was just a good vibes day. It was just super fun.”

Those good vibes paved the way for Boyse tying for seventh place in CCS history with St. Francis’ Natasha Barthel — who hit a vault of 13-feet in a 2007 dual meet — making Boyse just the eighth vaulter in CCS history to reach 13 feet.

“The chatter was loud and consistent and supportive,” Coleman said. “Tons of support and really thrilling to watch the team rally behind her to do what is a very difficult event.”

Emerging from a field of Burlingame red, it’s fitting Boyse’s bolt from the blue will see her don the blue-and-gold at UCLA next season. What’s scary is the former gymnast is still quite new to the world of track and field, where the sky is the limit.

“Yeah, honestly, I like to say I learn something new every single day,” Boyse said. “I wouldn’t say I’m a professional knowing exactly how the sport works, because I don’t really know some of the things. But that’s part of the fun.”