Joshua Mellion went from the medal stand to the graduation stage Friday night.

The now-graduated Manteca High senior placed second in the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters discus throw at Folsom High’s Prairie City Stadium, then raced back home to join the rest of his classmates with the silver medal still around his neck.

Mellion is also the first athlete from the area to qualify for the 105th California Interscholastic Federation State Championships. The top three placers in each event advance, as do others who meet or surpass at-large standards.

The track trials and finals for the 4x800 relay and half of the field events took place Friday. Today is the track finals plus the 1,600, 3,200 and the remaining field events.

Mellion got off to a great start in the discus preliminaries, setting the pace with a 170-foot, 9-inch throw. In fact, that was the leading mark going into the last throws of the finals.

Amador’s Eliot Traxler, the favorite coming into the day, leapfrogged Mellion with a 175-09 heave. Mellion answered with his top throw of the day but came more than a foot short at 174-06.

The state meet is on May 30-31 at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High of Clovis.

Three other area athletes competed in field events Friday.

Ripon junior Clara Schoolland will not be returning to the state meet after placing there last year. She finished eighth in the jump, topping out at 5-04 on her last try.

Joining Mellion in the discus was fellow Buffalo Levi Perez, who placed 17th with a 133-11. Tyler Watkins took ninth in the triple jump at 43-06. Both Watkins (high jump) and Mellion (shot put) are returning today for other events.

Ripon senior Starla Skiles highlighted area athletes in the track trials. The 2024 state qualifier won her heat in the 100 hurdles and is seeded second for today’s final at 14.18 seconds. She clocked the best time in the 300 hurdles (43.96) and was on the fifth-seeded 4x400 relay (4 minutes, 1.34 seconds) with Olivia Ellis, Kaiya Kroutil and Schoolland.

Kroutil shined in the individual 400, as well, advancing to the final with the ninth best time and personal record of 58.06.

East Union’s Jackson Fay put himself in position to qualify for state in the sprints. He’s fourth in the 100 (10.78) and sixth in the 200 (21.78).

Manteca sophomore William Brown is in the final for both hurdles and the 4x100 relay. He finished ninth in the 110 hurdles (15.04) and ran the third fastest 300 hurdles time at 39.03.

Manteca’s 4x100 rambled to a fourth-seeded time of 42.23. Two of its members, Julian Moncada (10.90) and Quinn Martinez (11.14) competed in the 100-meter trials.

Lathrop’s Riley Gier is in the 800 final after turning in the ninth best time in the prelims at 1:57.08.

Others participating in Masters on Friday:

Ripon — boys 4x100 (14th, 43.43), Dru Orlando (19th, 100, 11.16) and Nathan Gaines (23rd, 200, 23.06);

Sierra — boys 4x800 (ninth, 8:16.81) of Manuel Alvarez, Landen Nabb, Rishabh Gopal, Kenneth Roach;

East Union — boys 4x100, 25th, 44.89;

Lathrop — boys 4x400 DQ.