Vote for the desert's top girls' athlete of the 2025-26 school year
· Yahoo Sports
The 2025-26 school year featured some of the best performances by female athletes in a long time.
We're talking history-making title runs, hitting the podium at not just the CIF-Southern Section levels but at the state meet, multi-sport stars and the final years in some of the most prolific careers we've seen.
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It's your turn to vote for the best of the best. You've already voted for the top boys' and girls' teams of the 2025-26 school year. Now it's time to focus on the individuals.
Here are six supreme performances to choose from, with the athletes listed in alphabetical order. Simply read about their accomplishments and vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of this article at desertsun.com. Whoever has the most votes by noon on Saturday will be your choice for girls' Athlete of the Year. We'll reveal our pick in the coming week.
Jaeda Diaz, Indio
Sports: Flag football, softball, basketball
What she did: A year after being the DEL flag football MVP, Diaz was again one of the top performers on the gridiron, leading the Rajahs to the second best record in the desert and capturing the attention of opposing defenses and offenses as they tried to slow her down at all costs. She earned first-team all-DEL flag football honors, then helped out the Rajahs' girls' basketball team before softball season where she shines the brightest. Diaz, a senior, was named the league's offensive MVP with her usual gaudy numbers. She finished her season with a .655 average, with 53 runs scored, 59 RBIs, 16 doubles and 14 homers. And this was all in 25 games. Think about that, 53 runs scored and 59 RBIs in 25 games. She'll go down as having one of the best softball careers in desert history. She'll play softball at Long Beach State next fall.
Xitlalli Fregoso, Shadow Hills
Sports: Flag football, soccer, track
What she did: The Knights' do-it-all star had a stellar three-sport season in 2025-26. Firt she utterly dominated in flag football, earning the league's defensive MVP and leading the Knights to an undefeated season. Check out these numbers. On offensive as a speedy receiver, she finished the year with 163 receptions for 2,350 yards and 42 touchdowns. On defense she had an insane 21 interceptions, four of which she returned for TDs. She was the only 40 TD catch, 20 interception player in the entire CIF-SS. Then she moved to soccer and helped lead the team to a DEL title with six goals and was a first-team all-DEL selection. Then she moved to track where, again, she was instrumental in helping her team to a league title. Lauded for her versatility, she participated in seven different events throughout the season, whatever was needed, sprints, jumps, relays. At the DEL meet she took third in the 300 hurdles. She committed to play college flag football at University of Redlands.
Katelyn Gallagher, Palm Desert
Sports: Soccer, basketball, track and field
What she did: Gallagher has continued to pull off the rare feat of playing two sports at an extremely high level in the same season. In soccer, she was named the Desert Empire League's offensive MVP thanks to her 15 goals and eight assists for the Aztecs. On the basketball court, she was a stat-stuffer with 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 6.8 steals per game and was a first-team all-league honoree. Think about that. A DEL MVP soccer player and a first-team DEL basketball player while playing both sports simultaneously. In the spring, she was on the track team and contributed in a variety of ways, including in the discus where she finished third at the DEL meet.
Jaylynn Hernandez, Coachella Valley
Sports: Soccer, track and field
What she did: Hernandez, only a sophomore, was the driving force behind a history-making year for the Coachella Valley High girls' soccer team. She score a school-record 34 goals to lead the Arabs to the school's first CIF-SS girls' soccer title and added a CIF regional title, to boot. Then she gave track and field a try and the records didn't stop coming. In her first meet, at the Covina Invitational in early April, Hernandez ran a 12.71-second 100-meter dash and a 26.09 in the 200. They were the fastest times for a girl at the school in 40 years and the 200 time was a school record, a record she would break later in the season. She went on to win the 100-meter (12.53) and 200-meter (25.96) at the DVL meet.
Ava Otteson, Palm Desert
Sport: Swimming
What she did: Athlete of the Year candidates are often multi-sport stars, but every once in a while, athlete is so elite at one sport, it requires attention. That describes Otteson, the Palm Desert senior graduated as one of the best high school swimmers to ever come through the desert. She finished as the DEL MVP for the fourth straight year and broke three records in the meet. She finished her career as the DEL record-holder in six of the eight individual events. She then went on to win the Division 2 CIF-SS title in the 500 free and finished third in the 200 free. And finally she made it to the state meet where she finished sixth in the state in the 200 and ninth in the 500. She will take her talents to college and swim for UCLA in the fall.
Malia Strange, Shadow Hills
Sport: Track and field
What she did: Strange is another athlete who falls into that super-elite-at-one-sport category as she did things on the track that haven't been done in the valley in a long time. After leading the Knights to a DEL title, including a victory over long-time untouchable La Quinta, she started her epic postseason run at the CIF-SS Division 3 meet where she won a CIF-SS title in the 100 hurdles and the triple jump and finished second in the long jump. She qualified for the Masters Meet in all three events. Then she became the first girl from the desert ever to win a Masters Meet title when she won the triple jump in 39 feet, 4.25 inches. That put her in the state meet where she hit the podium again with a second place finish and an epic leap of 40-10.5. She was just 2.5 inches shy of a state title and she was only a junior so she'll be back next year to have another crack at it.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Vote for the desert's top girls' athlete of the 2025-26 school year