Arcadia awaits locals today

Every track and field season for the past 41 years the Arcadia Invitational has served as a chance for the best to test themselves against each other at the season's halfway point.

Corona del Mar High is bringing members of its boys and girls teams and Newport Harbor has athletes from its girls squad.

Newport Harbor seniors Jessica Robson and Allison Stokke have posted some of the best marks in California this season in their respective events. Robson will compete in the high jump, her mark of 5-foot-8 tied with four others for the best in the state.

Stokke, who won the state championship in the pole vault as a freshman, will get another crack at Tori Anthony of Castilleja, who narrowly edged her by four inches in the state final last season.

The competition will be just as stiff for the Sea Kings' runners. Juniors Shelby Buckley and Allison Damon will compete in the mile run and their hands will be full with Alex Kosinski and Shannon Murakami, who finished second and third respectively in the state meet last year.

The toughest test however will come for Sea Kings senior Sarah Cummings in the 3,200-meter run. Cummings will have to pass Jordan Hasay, the top distance runner in the country and defending state champion in the event, and Woodbridge's Christine Babcock, who is the mile state champ.

The Corona del Mar distance medley relay team of Damon, Buckley, sophomore Claire Schmidt and senior Hilary May. The Sea Kings are the defending champions in this event, which they won at nationals last year, and hold the Invitational's record at 11 minutes, 42.86 seconds, breaking their own meet record set a year earlier.

Dominic Perrone