The 48th Arcadia Invitational is set for Friday and Saturday at Arcadia High and athletes from 28 states and four countries will be represented at one of the nation’s largest annual track and field meets.
The invitational races start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and will feature some of the best distance runners in America. Among them is Palisades High senior Marissa Williams, who is entered in the mile and 3,200 meters.
Williams is the state leader in both events, running 4:50.77 in the 1,600 at the Pasadena Games two weeks ago and 10:25.93 in the 3,200 at the Redondo Nike Invitational on March 13. She clocked her personal-best 3,200 time of 10:25.02 at Arcadia last spring.
“Hopefully I can break 4:50 [in the mile],” said Williams, the reigning City Section champion in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
That would be a personal best and she may have to go under 4:50 to win against a loaded field that includes Bryn Morley of Bigfork, Montana (third at the NIKE Chandler Rotary Invitational), Katie Rainsberger and Lauren Gregory of Colorado and CIF Southern Section standouts Destiny Collins from Temecula Great Oak and Amanda Gehrich from Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro.
The 3,200 field includes national mile leader Dani Jones of Desert Vista, Arizona, Emily Hamlin of Idaho, Sonoma Academy’s Rylee Bowen and Fiona O’Keeffe of Davis, who edged Williams by five seconds to win the state Division I cross country title in November.
Entered in the pole vault, scheduled to begin at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, is Pali High’s Alex Olsen, the current City titleholder. She cleared a personal-best 10 feet, 11.89 inches to win the Pasadena Games. Olsen trains with Anthony Curran at UCLA and began pole vaulting her freshman year.
— Steve Galluzzo
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