Every year, high school athletes from all over the country and even world fly to Southern California to compete in the Arcadia Invitational, the most prestigious track meet in the country held by a high school and known as the, “Home of National Records.” The Invite took place on Apr. 11-12. On Apr. 11, it was Burning Batons Relay Sessions, and the main morning and afternoon sessions of the meet took place on Apr. 12
This year, the invitational brought together almost 500 schools and had over 4000 athletes participate in the meet. 36 national records were broken, ranging from field events like the high jump to the track events like the 3200.
Four runners from Arcadia High School (AHS) represented their home school in the meet: junior Brandon Duran in the 100 meter dash, junior Emilia Gonzalez in the 1600 meters, and junior Charlotte Hopkins and senior Reena Hsieh in the 3200 meters.
When Hopkins was asked about how she prepared for the meet, she said, “in preparation for the invitational, I got a lot of sleep and tried to hydrate as much as possible. In terms of training, the best thing I could do for myself was back off and take it easy in order for my legs to feel rested.”
Hopkins, who ran the two-mile in the highly competitive and exclusive Invitational section, described how being both a part of the set up and being a runner changed her view of the invitational.
“Witnessing the set up of the invite made me more appreciative of how much effort is put in from both the AHS team as a whole and Coach [Christopher] Schultz.”
One highlight from the invitational was the pair of records broken by senior Jane Hedengren from Timpview High School. In the Girls Invitational two-mile race, Hedengren broke the high school 3200 meter record en route to both the win and the record for the Girls two-mile race, in an unprecedented time of 9:34.12.
When asking senior track team member Brianna Yanez attributed the success of the Arcadia Invitational to the high level athletes competing.
“Athletes from all over the country [and world] come to the invite, so there is a lot of good competition,” said Yanez. “For future runners of [the Arcadia Invitational], the advice I would give is to enjoy the highs but to also take the lows in stride, because the low moments and the bad races are learning experiences.”
