He was an unknown in track and field just two years ago and hardly registered as a blip on the state radar last season. Now, Myles McFarland has a first-place medal and a place in Sacramento-area track and field history.

On Saturday night in Clovis in Fresno County, the senior from Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove won the 110-meter hurdles in a wind-aided 13.69 seconds to highlight the Sacramento-area contingent in the 104th California Interscholastic Federation state championships. This caps a remarkable year in which McFarland went from being a non-qualifier for the state meet to a favorite to medal this season, producing sterling efforts in meets large and small across the state as he learned his craft on the fly.

A 6-foot-2 Bee All-Metro football selection, McFarland was the only local winner to stand on top of the victory stand on the Buchanan High infield, and he became the first Sacramento-area runner to win the 110 hurdles since Doug Busby of Sacramento High in 1936. No other regional athlete has won this race. The only other area runner to win a CIF state hurdles championship was R.J. Frasier of Jesuit in the 300-meter race in 2010.

McFarland beat a stout field, including a lunging-at-the-finish Noel Felix of Central High in Fresno, who placed second in 13.77.

Mostly, it was a day for the burners, jumpers and distance runners from Southern California who took center stage.

Sol Bitners of Davis was second in the discus with a toss of 154 feet, 6 inches to lead the local girls efforts.

Michael Payan of Whitney placed third in the pole vault with a 16-foot effort.

McFarland said after winning both hurdles races at the CIF Masters Meet on May 18 that he was steered toward track by his mother, Yvonne Moore. She told him he needed to get active and to challenge himself with a full-on sprint, only with hurdles in front of him.

“I didn’t even get into track until my sophomore year,” McFarland said at the Masters meet. “Mom said I was being a teenager and acting up and told me to do something, and she said track. So I tried it, and now I’m here.

“I’d never been on a track before to run, and then I found the love of my life: hurdles. This is just the beginning. I’m really proud.”

For complete state meet results, visit the CIF state website.