This Friday and Saturday, more than 1,500 California high school students are competing at the state's track and field championships in Clovis. This year, the event is in the national spotlight after President Trump singled out a trans athlete competing in the event and threatened to cut federal funding to California if the state didn't follow his executive order banning trans athletes from women's sports.

Among the athletes competing is AB Hernandez, a Junior from Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County. Hernandez and her mother have spoken openly about her competing as a trans athlete.

Hernandez is competing among the top athletes in the state in the long jump, the high jump, and the triple jump. On Friday, Hernandez competed in the preliminaries for all three events and qualified for the finals, which will take place on Saturday.

Following President Trump's threats regarding federal funding this week, the Department of Justice announced it is investigating whether a California law allowing trans athletes to participate on female high school teams violates Title IX.

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which oversees the championships, also announced this week a change in the rules for the championship. Under the change, if a trans athlete medals in an event, CIF said any "biological female" athletes who would have otherwise medaled will also get a medal. Also under the updated rule, if a trans athlete qualifies for an event, a "biological female" athlete who would have otherwise qualified for the event would be allowed to qualify as well.

A CIF spokesperson did not elaborate Friday on how the federation defines "biological female," but the spokesperson emphasized, "student athletes are allowed to participate in the gender with which they identify."

"I think that’s fair, especially allowing those who got bumped by the trans athlete to be able to compete," said Antonia Currington, the head Track & Field Coach for Oakland Tech, of the CIF rule change. Currington was at the championships cheering on five student athletes.

Currington explained that her athletes have been training all year for this competition and have not been focused on the national controversy surrounding this meet.

Currington said she is, "hoping it’s a great meet, great race for everyone, and let’s see if we can make the podium."

As NBC Bay Area was interviewing Currington, a plane flew over the stadium carrying a message reading "no boys in girls sports."

"I feel like you can disagree with the participation, but you don’t have to call and be rude to the person participating in the sport," Currigton said of the protests outside of Friday's competition.

"And let the higher-ups deal with that, don’t bring it down to the level at a track meet where we’re all competing," she continued.

A group of several dozen protestors demonstrated outside the championships on Friday, expressing opposition to Hernandez's participation in this competition.

"I want an even playing field in sports, we have junior varsity and varsity for a reason, we have girls and boys for a reason," said Vanoush Khatchaturyan, a Clovis resident who was protesting with the group Leave Our Kids Alone. Khatchaturyan said several groups gathered to protest on Friday, and more were planning to demonstrate at Saturday's event.

Stelter Brown, a Clovis resident and LGBTQ advocate, said he was disappointed these protestors took the focus away from the athletes.

"To try to turn a weekend tournament into a protest is a distraction and a disservice to the students, all of them actually," Brown said.

Clovis Police Sergeant Chris Hutchison told NBC Bay Area that one protester was arrested Friday outside the event. Hutchison said that the protester was waving a flag and got into a verbal exchange with a leader of a group that had an opposing point of view, who was in a car at the time. The protester with the flag then struck the person in the car with the flag pole, police said.

A police spokesperson identified the protester with a flag as 19-year-old Ethan Kroll, who was booked into Fresno County Jail for felony assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism, and obstructing/delaying an officer.

Hutchison said this arrest was the only incident of the day and that "otherwise it's been very, very peaceful and has been a great event."

The final round of competition will continue Saturday in Clovis.

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