Arcadia Invitational Rewind: Youth is served
Servite underclassmen win three relay races, set two state records in breakout meet
Like Granada Hills Charter High School two years ago, the boys’ sprint squad from Servite High in Anaheim, California, had a breakout meet in last weekend’s Arcadia Invitational.
The question now is can the talented group led by sophomore Benjamin Harris use the momentum generated with its performances at Arcadia High School to propel itself to the program’s first state title, as Granada Hills was able to do in 2023.
“Absolutely. That’s definitely on our radar,” Servite coach Brandon Thomas said by telephone when he was asked about Servite’s state championship chances. “Obviously, we’re going to need a lot of outstanding performances to make that happen. But it’s a goal of ours.”
While that Granada Hills squad was upper classmen heavy, Servite’s core six sprinters are comprised of two sophomores and four freshmen. And those six athletes, who are also football players, combined to win — in chronological order — the 4 x 200-, 4 x 100-, and 4 x 400-meter relays in the Arcadia Invitational.
In addition, the 800 and 400 relay quartets set the state records of 1:23.88 and 40.00, respectively.
The 1:23.88 clocking by Harris, sophomore Robert Gardener, and freshmen Jace Wells and Jaelyn Hunter bettered the previous California best of 1:24.15 set by St. John Bosco of Bellflower in 2022 and the 40.00 effort by Jorden Wells, Jace’s twin, Harris, Hunter, and Gardener broke the state record of 40.14 set by Long Beach Poly in 1999.
The 40.00 clocking was also the fastest prep time in the nation this year.
In the 1,600 relay, an all-freshman squad of Hunter, Kamil Pelovello, and the Wells twins ran 3:12.33 to defeat a Culver City foursome that had beaten them by nearly two seconds in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays two weeks earlier.
In addition to its runner-up finish — in 3:12.79 — in the Division II 4 x 400 relay in Texas, Servite won the 4 x 200 in 1:24.34 and Thomas said the team appeared to be headed to a victory in the 4 x 100 before a mishap on the final exchange led to the baton hitting the track and the squad eventually crossing the finish line in 46.35.
“Leaving Texas, I knew we had a lot of juice,” Thomas said. “I knew we had a lot to go back home with and be extremely competitive. It was mostly about putting it together when it mattered.”
Thomas had not given much thought to the state record in the 4 x 200 heading into the Arcadia Invitational’s “Burning Batons’ session on Friday night, but when he saw the lineup for Long Beach Poly’s squad he figured Servite was going to have to run fast to win.
Cal Poly Pomona assistant Darrell Smith, who had been the coach at St. John Bosco when it set its state record in 2022, saw the possibility of that record falling and he told Thomas before the race “to leave my record alone today.”
As it turned out, Long Beach Poly also bettered St. John Bosco’s mark as the Jackrabbits’ second-place time of 1:24.08 was only two tenths of a second behind Servite’s 1:23.88 clocking.
The 4 x 100 was the first boys’ running event of the invitational portion of the meet on Saturday evening and though Servite’s baton passes weren’t perfect, Thomas said they were smooth as the squad of Jorden Wells, Harris, Hunter, and Gardener won a deep race in which Long Beach Poly placed second in 40.32 and Rancho Cucamonga finished third in 40.42.
The 100 was the next track event that involved Servite’s sprinters and Jorden Wells ran a personal best of 10.47 to place second in the seeded race before Harris set a career best of 10.33 to finish a hundredth of a second behind junior Brandon Arrington of Mt. Miguel High in Spring Valley.
Arrington is the defending state champion in both the 100 and 200.
In the other two remaining sprint events, Hunter won the seeded 400 meters in 47.91 while finishing a hundredth of a second in front of Reiss Rinaldi of Hamilton, Arizona, and Harris ran a personal best of 21.17 while finishing third in an invitational 200 race in which Arrington placed first in a personal best of 20.35 to move to second on the yearly national list.
The members of Servite’s 4 x 400 team then got a sizeable amount of time to recharge their batteries as one distance medley relay, two mile races, four 3,200-meter or two mile events, and a trio of 4 x 400 races were run after the conclusion of the boys’ invitational 200 and before the boys’ invitational 1,600 relay.
A break of that length can sometimes lead to a group of sprinters losing their focus at the end of a long evening, but the Servite foursome of Hunter, Pelovello, and Jace and Jorden Wells won the 1,600 relay in 3:12.33 while finishing well clear of second-place Culver City in 3:14.59 and third-place Rancho Cucamonga in 3:14.80.
With their three relay victories and strong performances in individual sprint events, it could be easy for Servite’s talented underclassmen to become complacent or overly confident, but Thomas said he doesn’t see that becoming an issue.
He points out that Harris, who transferred to Servite in January, has the experience of having helped Long Beach Poly win the program’s 11th team title in last year’s California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state meet by placing fifth in the 100 and running a leg on a Jackrabbit squad that placed second in the 400 relay.
“I think the young men definitely have a great team captain in Benjamin Harris,” Thomas said. “He’s keeping them fired up and excited about finishing the season strong.”
Oh so close: While coach Brandon Thomas was thrilled with Servite’s state-record clocking of 40.00 in the boys’ 400-meter relay in the Arcadia Invitational last Saturday, he admitted that a time of 39.99 would have sounded so much faster.
“Thirty-nine would have obviously looked way better,” he said. “We all went crazy when we first saw 39 [on the trackside clock]. But then the official time became 40.00… It’s a state record so obviously we’re fired up about that. But we know we’re going into the second half of the season. We felt we could run 39 this season. Now we know we can go 39.”
Now for his girls’ team: Brandon Thomas does more than just coach the track and field team at Servite High, an all-boys Catholic school in Anaheim. He also guides the track and field squad at Rosary Academy, an all-girls Catholic prep school in Fullerton.
And like the Servite boys, the Rosary girls had a break-out meet in the Arcadia Invitational as the Royals won the 800-meter sprint medley relay during the “Burning Batons” section of the meet on Friday and the invitational 4 x 100 relay on Saturday.
Both relay squads were comprised of juniors Justine Wilson and Jada Faison and freshmen Maliyah Collins and Tra’Via Flournoy, but the order in which they ran varied.
In the sprint medley relay, Flournoy and Faison ran the two 100-meter legs, before Collins ran a 200 and Wilson followed with a 400-meter anchor carry.
Rosary’s winning time of 1:42.20 left it .14 seconds ahead of second-place Oaks Christian of Westlake Village and was the fastest in the state this year.
The Royals also posted a yearly state-leading time in the 4 x 100 relay as Flournoy, Wilson, Faison, and Collins clocked 45.47 to win another close race in which Long Beach Poly placed second in 45.60 and Calabasas finished third in 45.61.
A weekend to remember: In addition to guiding the Servite boys and the Rosary girls to a combined five relay victories in the Arcadia Invitational, Brandon Thomas also took great satisfaction in the performance of his son, Max, in the 44 Farms Team Invitational in College Station, Texas, last Saturday.
Max, who was coached by Brandon when he was at Servite, is now a junior at USC. And he led the Trojans to a sweep of the first five places in the 100 in the meet on Texas A&M’s home track when he ran a n a wind-aided 9.92 seconds.
Fellow junior Garrett Kaalund finished second in 9.93 for USC, and he was followed by sophomore Eddie Nketia in 9.96, senior Travis Williams in 10.07, and junior JC Stevenson in 10.13.
Earlier in the meet, Jamaican Williams, Max Thomas, Kaalund, and New Zealander Nketia had clocked a winning 38.41 in the 4 x 100 relay while finishing more than a second ahead of Virginia Tech, which placed second in 39.45.
The USC men’s program is coming off an indoor season in which it won its first NCAA title since 1972.
What if he liked the event?: Senior Jack Stadlman of Temecula Valley High in Temecula will tell you he’s not a fan of the 400-meter dash. But for the second time this season, he dipped under 46 seconds in the event last Saturday when he 45.92 to win the Arcadia Invitational.
Stadlman is a former basketball player who started running track last year.
He focused on the 100 and 200 and had bests of 10.73 in the former and 21.62 in the latter, and finished eighth in the half-lap event in the Southern Section Division I finals. In his lone race in the 400, he clocked a good, but far from great, 49.06.
Although he has lowered his personal bests to 10.54 in the 100 and 21.10 in the 200 this season, he ran a stunning 45.69 in the 400 in the Saddle-Up Invitational at Vista Murietta High in Murietta in March 1 to cut nearly three and half seconds off his previous best and move to sixth on the all-time Southern Section performer list.
He then cruised to a winning time of 49.40 clocking in a dual meet against Murietta Mesa on Thursday of last week before running 45.92 on Saturday while finishing well ahead of second-place Noah Smith of Long Beach Poly, who clocked 46.56, and third-place Duaine Mayrant of Culver City, who timed 46.99.
“I’ve had a injury I’ve been dealing with, so I was in the pool all week getting ready,” Stadlman said in a redlandsdailyfacts.com post. “The goals today were to win and to get another 45.”
Three for three: Senior Loren Webster of Long Beach Wilson High had a hand in three victories in the Arcadia Invitational as she ran the first leg on a team that timed 1:38.28 in the girls’ 4 x 200 relay on Friday before spanning 19 feet 10 inches (6.04 meters) in the long jump and running the third leg on a quartet that clocked 3:42.08 in the 4 x 400 relay on Saturday.
Wilson edged crosstown rival Long Beach Poly by a tenth of a second in the 800 relay before finishing nearly five seconds ahead of second-place Carlsbad in the 1,600 relay.
Webster fouled on her first attempt in the long jump before registering her winning mark of 19-10 (6.04) in the second round. She also had a wind-aided jump of 19-4 (5.89) in the fourth round in a competition in which junior Kira Gant Hatcher of St. Mary’s College High in Berkeley placed second at 19-5½ (5.93).
Living up to its name: The Arcadia Invitational touts itself as the Home of National Records and another all-time prep best was set in the meet last Saturday night when senior Jane Hedengren of Timpview High in Provo, Utah, clocked 9:34.12 in the girls’ two mile.
The BYU-bound Hedengren took the lead during her first few strides of the race and her winning time crushed the national prep outdoor record of 9:41.76 set by homeschooled student Allie Zealand of Lynchburg, Virginia, last year. Her clocking was also four-plus seconds faster than the national prep indoor best of 9:38.68 set by Mary Cain of Bronxville High in New York in 2013.
Seniors Hanne Thompson of Montgomery High in Santa Rosa, California, and Claire Stegall of Nolensville, Tennessee, placed second and third in personal bests of 10:01.72 and 10:01.82, respectively. But they were no match for Hedengren, who had previously set national indoor prep records in the mile at 4:26.14 and in the 5,000 meters at 15:13.26 after she had romped to the girls’ title in the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon, in December.
After running 73.13 seconds for her first 440 yards of the race, Hedengren clocked 70.91, 70.67, 71.16, and 70.23 for the next four quarter-mile segments. She then ran 72.53, 72.42, and 72.47 for her last three 440-yard splits.
She covered her first mile in 4:46.47 and her second in 4:47.65 and her 880-yard splits were 2:24.04, 2:22.43, 2:22.76, and 2:24.89.
“It was awesome,” Hedengren said in a runnerspace.com post. “You don’t know when you’ll get another chance to do this when you’re feeling healthy and strong. Just trying to soak in this moment and make the most of them.”
Solidifying her position: Junior Jasmine Robinson of North Cobb High in Kennesaw, Georgia, strengthened her hold on second on the all-time prep list in the girls’ 300-meter hurdles in the Arcadia Invitational when she ran 39.81 seconds to win the event last Saturday.
Robinson’s time came in a race in which Carlsbad senior Morgan Herbst battled her for most of the way before finishing second in 40.26.
While Robinson’s time trimmed eight hundredths of a second off her 39.89 personal best set last year, Herbst’s mark bettered her previous best of 40.51 that she had run in winning the Mt. Carmel Sun Devil Track & Field Invitational on March 29.
It also moved her into a three-way tie for seventh on the all-time prep performer list and into a tie for fourth on the all-time California list.
Sydney McLaughlin of Union Catholic Regional High in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, set the national prep record of 38.90 in the Arcadia Invitational in 2017.
Less than hoped for: The invitational race of the boys’ 3,200 meters in the Arcadia Invitational was touted as the first prep race ever that included five runners who had run under four minutes in the mile. But a relatively sluggish opening 1,600 led to a winning time of 8:39.86.
Senior Owen Powell of Mercer Island, Washington, won the race after running his final lap in 54.64 seconds, his last 800 in 1:57.23 and his closing 1,600 in 4:10.39 in a race in which the top five finishers were all sub-4 milers.
Josiah Tostenson Crater High in Central Point, Oregon, placed second behind Powell in 8:40.95, followed by 16-year-old Sam Ruthe of New Zealand in 8:43.57, Tayvon Kitchen of Crater in 8:43.94, and Tommy Latham of Marist in Chicago in 8:45.57.
While the race produced the top 12 prep times run in the U.S. this year, it lacked the scintillating depth of last year’s contest in which Daniel Simmons of American Fork High in Utah placed first in 8:34.96, seven runners ran under 8:40, 27 broke 8:50, and a record 37 bettered 9:00.
For whatever reason/s, no one in this year’s talent-rich field was willing to push the pace for the first four laps as Kitchen was in the lead when he went through 1,600 meters in 4:28.76.
Powell, who had lowered the national high school record in the indoor mile to 3:56.66 in February, was in fourth place when he came through four laps 4:29.47 and he had moved up to second with an 800 to go.
He had a small lead when he began the bell lap, but no one could match his speed over the final 400 meters.
Impressive victory: Senior Joseph Socarras of Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami set a meet and Florida state record of 1:47.66 in the boys’ 800 meters in the Arcadia Invitational last Saturday. But he appeared to have plenty of gas in the tank when he crossed the finish line nearly three seconds ahead of junior Wyland Obando of Long Beach Wilson, who placed second in a personal best of 1:50.45.
Socarras, who had run 1:51.32 as a junior, had timed 1:48.92 and 1:49.09 earlier this season.
He led the field through the first 400 of Saturday’s race in a rather sluggish 55.01 seconds before opening a significant gap on his closest pursuers down the backstretch and then really stepping on the accelerator around the final turn.
His lead was so large coming off the curve that he motioned to the crowd to cheer louder as he entered the home straightaway and he also eased up in the final 15-20 meters of the race.
Despite that, his 1:47.56 clocking was the fastest outdoor prep time in the U.S. this year, moved him to 12th on the all-time high school performer list, and bettered the previous Florida record of 1:47.79 set by Andres Arroyo of Colonial in Orlando in 2013.
“I’m honestly having too much fun,” a beaming Socarras said in a ca.milesplit.com interview when he was asked about his playing to the crowd. “I kind of enjoy it. It’s kind of been my bread and butter since the beginning even though a lot of people don’t know that. I’m just happy to go out and do it and even more happy to hype up the crowd.”
Rapid ascent continues: Junior Simon Rosselli of Mead High in Spokane, Washington, continued his breakthrough season in the Arcadia Invitational when he won the discus at 218-7 (66.62) last Saturday.
Rosselli had a personal best of 183-9 at the start of the season and he had never broken 200 feet until he won the Oregon Relays with a mark of 211-7 on April 5. However, his top mark at Arcadia High School on Saturday moved him to seventh on the all-time prep performer list.
After throwing 206-5 (62.91) in the first round, Rosselli fouled on his second attempt before improving to 209-9 63.93) on his third throw. He had another foul in the fourth round, but he unleashed his 218-7 (66.62) effort in the fifth before capping the competition with a 215-7 (65.70) mark in the sixth.
“Technically, I’m trying to do the same thing, I’m trying to be more consistent,” Rosselli said in an interview on youtube.com when asked about his performance. “Last year I was jumping a lot. My technique would do one thing and then another. So I was pretty much focusing on doing the same thing and I hoped the wind would help.”
I enjoy your writing and reports. Happy Easter to you Brenda and family. Russ