By Leonard COUTIN

The annual Arcadia Invitational celebrates it 49th year as one of the most prestigious track and field meets. It is held each year in April on the Arcadia all-season track. This year a vicious rainstorm plagued the event during the two-day meet, hitting hard on Friday and Saturday affecting the performances of the top athletes.

Local talent was invited to participate and run against some of the most talented athletes across the nation. Falcon Kyle Dickinson competed in the open 800m and ran a time of 2:00.55 to place 40th. The Falcon boys ran the 4×800 relay, a team composed of seniors Armin Cardenas, Dickinson, Cameron Atin and John Jae Lee, which placed 22nd in the invitational 4×800 relay running 8:22.21. The Falcon girls, a team composed of seniors Liz Filipian, junior Jestena Galvan, junior Jennifer Saengsri and freshman Kristina Carrillo, have been performing consistently in scoring points in the hurdles this year. They put together a team to run the seeded 400 shuttle hurdle race and won a silver medal in a time of 1:09.05. Vista Murrieta won with a time of 1:07.24.

The Falcon boys ran Saturday night in the distance medley relay, a team composed of Cardenas running the 1200, Shawn Grinnell (400), Dickinson (800) and Colin FitzGerald (1600), which finished 14th (10:35.64). Martin Luther King won the DMR event with a time of 10:12.84.

Philip Thomas was able to take the lead through the first mile of the 3200m rated race as rain fell on Saturday night. Thomas ran his first mile in the 1600m in 4:38 and the second in 4:42 to finish 18th, running another PR mark of 9:20.25 over his last mark (9:20.46).

Flintridge Prep star runner senior Jack Van Scoter, who had a very successful cross-country season having placed first at CIF finals and second in state, raced to a 8:51.32 time in the 3200m Invitational. He had to settle with third place when he was clipped at the finish line by Jon Davis from Fithian (Oakwood High of Illinois) who ran (8:51.17) and came up quickly the last 40m. The winner of the race was Casey Clinger from America Fork of Utah finishing in a time of 8:50.70.

Flintridge Prep sophomore Evan Pattinelli had a close race for the gold in the open 3200m Friday night when she raced against Graeme Schroeder of Tahoma High. Pattinelli looked strong running into the second lap but fell off her pace on the next two. She managed to run a strong time of 9:28.58 to capture second while Schroder ran 9:25.53 to take the win.

The Flintridge girls also ran in the seeded 4×1600 to place 18th with a time of 22:12.03. The team was composed of Sasha Codiga, Jenna Mijares, Sophie Gitlin and Natalie O’Brien.

  Leonard Coutin