It did not take long for the first record to fall Saturday evening at the 57th annual Arcadia Invitational track and field meet at Arcadia High.
In the very first event, Servite’s boys 4×100 relay team burned up the track in 40 seconds flat, a new state and meet record and the fastest prep time this season.
Getting the Friars’ foursome off to a fast start was Jorden Wells, who passed the baton to Benjamin Harris around the first turn and watched as the Long Beach Poly transfer took the lead on the backstretch and handed off to Jaelen Hunter, who maintained his team’s margin before passing to Robert Gardner, who widened the margin on the anchor leg. All four of them are underclassmen and they beat runner-up Long Beach Poly by 32 hundredths of a second.
“We came in hot, having practiced real good and it paid off,” Gardner said. “Once I get the baton I have to do my part.”
Harris believes the best is yet to come.
“We can line up with any team out there,” he said. “We can go lower next week [at the Mt. SAC Relays] and beyond.”
Having won the 4×200 on Friday, Servite tried for the “trifecta” in the final race of the night Saturday and completed the sweep of the relays as Jorden Wells sprinted a 47.10 anchor leg to lead the all-freshman squad to first in the 4×400 in 3:12.33, the sixth-fastest time in the U.S. this season and the eighth-best all-time at Arcadia.
Hunter, the top ninth-grader in the country in the 400 meters, showed why by winning the seeded race in 47.91.
Jack Stadlman of Temecula Valley won the Invitational 400 in 45.92, staying No. 3 in the nation at that distance. Despite his success, Stadlman said he prefers the 200.
“I’m not a fan of the 400, but I knew I had the fastest seed, I trusted in myself and finished the race,” said Stadlman, who trailed early before taking control to comfortably beat runner-up Noah Smith (46.56). “I wanted the meet record, but I told my coach I’d be satisfied with 45.”
Vista Murrieta’s Michael Norman set the meet record of 45.51 in 2016.
Stadlman, a former junior varsity basketball player, ran the fourth-fastest time in the United States (45.69) on March 1 in only his second 400 ever and Smith, a junior, ran the eighth-fastest national time this year (46.55) at the Chandler Rotary Invitational in Arizona.
Wells clocked 10.47 to take second in the seeded 100-meter dash and Harris went head-to-head with Mt. Miguel junior Brandon Arrington (last year’s state 100 and 200 champion) in the Invitational heat. Arrington won by one hundredth of a second in 10.32—the third-fastest ever at Arcadia. Harris’ 10.33 was good enough for fourth all-time at Arcadia and one hundredth of a second off the state record for a sophomore).
Arrington doubled back to win the 200 in 20.35, breaking Noah Lyles’ meet record of 20.48, set in 2016. Lyles, of T.C. Williams, Alexandria, Virginia, still holds the Arcadia 100 meter record of 10.17.
After finishing second in the mile the previous two years to Ventura’s Sadie Engelhardt, who opted to forego her last high school season to compete in Open and pro races, senior Jane Hedengren of Timpview, Utah, made history of her own by establishing a new national two-mile record of 9:34.12. Interviewed one minute after, she took her stunning achievement in stride.
“I felt alright, but I wanted to go faster,” said Hedengren, whose effort also broke the national 3000 and 3200 records. “Thank you, Arcadia, for cheering me on.”
Maliyah Collins’ blazing anchor leg helped Rosary win the Invitational girls 4×100 in 45.47, the sixth fastest time in the nation this year and fourth fastest ever at Arcadia. Christina Gray anchored reigning City Section champion Carson’s 46.58 first-place effort in the preceding seeded race.
The Invitational boys 3200 field included five sub-four minute milers. Owen Powell of Mercer Island, Washington won the eight-lapper in 8:39.86. Fifteen-year-old New Zealander Sam Ruthe, who ran a 3:58 mile last month, was third in 8:40.95
A highly-anticipated showdown took place in the Invitational girls shot put, where Aliso Niguel junior Jaslene Massey, who won the Orange County Championships in March with a throw of 50 feet, seven inches (No. 3 in the nation this year) prevailed with a 48-09.50 effort. Senior Aja Johnson of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, who won the 2023 state crown and was the runner-up last spring, finished second 48-01.00.
The roles were reversed in the discus, where Johnson (the 2024 state champion) took first place with a throw of 159-01 while Massey was second (157-03).
Long Beach Wilson’s Loren Webster won the Invitational girls long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 10 inches and Camren Smith of Quartz Hill won the Invitational boys triple jump at 49-06.00.