St. John Bosco runs 1:24.15 to achieve meet and state all-time marks, the latter eclipsing 1999 standard of 1:24.35 by Long Beach Poly; Upland improves to No. 7 U.S. prep quartet with 57.10 effort in shuttle hurdles; JSerra girls repeat in 4x800, American Fork boys and Buchanan girls earn 4x1600 wins

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

ARCADIA, Calif. – One California state record, if not a legitimate challenge at the all-time national mark, was expected Friday from a group of hurdlers from Upland High during the “Burning Batons” session of the 54th Arcadia Invitational.

By the time Davis Davis-Lyric, Kai Graves-Blanks, DeQuan January and Delaney Crawford took the track for the invitational 4x110-meter shuttle hurdles relay at Arcadia High, the Highlanders were just trying to make sure they were still the top storyline from their own state.

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St. John Bosco also took its turn in the spotlight less than 20 minutes before Upland raced, producing a meet record and the California all-time mark by clocking 1 minute, 24.15 seconds in the boys invitational 4x200 relay.

Jaden Smith, Jaxon Harley, Rashon Luke and Jabari Bates eclipsed the 2015 meet record of 1:24.53 by Vista Murrieta High and took down the 1999 mark of 1:24.35 established by Long Beach Poly, producing the fastest time in California prep history and elevating to the No. 18 all-time high school program in the 4x200, with only Glenville High from Ohio and 16 groups from Texas in front of them.

Fresno Central ran 1:24.99 to place second, ascending to No. 3 in meet history and No. 5 all-time in California.

It marked the first time two California programs both ran sub-1:25 in the same race.

Upland was once again up for the challenge, lowering its own state record in the 4x110 shuttle hurdles set last year at Arcadia by clocking 57.10 to ascend to the No. 7 program in U.S. prep history, achieving the eighth-fastest performance.

Only East Orange High from New Jersey and Western Branch High from Virginia join Upland in producing a pair of marks in the top 12 all-time performances, after the Highlanders set the meet record last season by clocking 57.75.

American Fork High from Utah earned its second victory in the boys invitational 4x1,600-meter relay, with Chase Evans, Ben Jaster, Jayden Fitzgarrald and Nate Jaster prevailing in 17:21.16 to hold off Jesuit High from Oregon (17:26.31), Loyola of Los Angeles (17:26.38) and Central Catholic of Oregon (17:26.65).

The Cavemen had produced the national prep record by clocking 16:41.30 in 2017.

Buchanan earned its first victory in program history in the girls invitational 4x1,600 relay, with freshmen Elle Lomeli and Sierra Cornett joining juniors Grace Hutchison and Sydney Sundgren to clock a meet-record 19:56.08, the third-fastest all-time performance by a California prep quartet.

Lone Peak’s Addie Meldrum, Boston Bybee, Katie Bybee and Taylor Rohatinsky clocked a Utah state record 20:09.80 to finish second, achieving the No. 7 performance in meet history.

JSerra of California, which repeated as girls invitational 4x800 relay champions earlier in the afternoon, had a pair of teams in the 4x1,600 place third and fourth in 20:17.73 and 21:08.99.

Georgia Jeanneret, Anastasia Snodgrass, Sydney Paulson and Ashlee Gallegos clocked 9:06.45 to produce the No. 7 time in meet history and the 12th-fastest all-time performance in California, including an Orange County record. The Lions became the fifth girls team in meet history to secure back-to-back 4x800 victories.

Bellarmine Prep won its first boys invitational 4x800 relay since 2017, with Rick Yanashita, Tommy Snycerski, Tanish Chettiar and Ben Pinkel clocking 7:45.79 to rally past Long Beach Wilson (7:46.38).

The performance was just outside the all-time meet top 10 and Bellarmine’s 7:45.56 effort five years ago.

Westlake High from Georgia secured its first victory in the girls invitational 4x200 relay in 1:36.31, with Imari Johnson, Jasmine Harmon, Madyson Wilson and Colleen Branch achieving the fourth-fastest performance in meet history.

Long Beach Wilson, despite having only one returning athlete from last year’s victorious lineup, repeated in the girls invitational 800-meter sprint medley relay in 1:43.28, with Kaylin Edwards, Trinity Moseby, Aujane Luckey and Samarra Monroy achieving the No. 3 performance in meet history.

Cathedral ran the fourth-fastest time all-time mark in the meet by clocking 1:30.36 in the boys invitational 800 sprint medley relay, with freshmen Antonio Walton and Adonyss Currie joining seniors Ekene Onwaeze and William Mullins to help the Phantoms win the event for the first time since 2016.

Lees Summit West of Missouri prevailed in the girls invitational 1,600 sprint medley relay in 4:00.20, with Alivia Tolbert, Mikah Scott, Whitney Farrington and Makayla Clark earning the victory by producing the No. 7 effort in meet history.

South Torrance achieved its first boys invitational win in any relay at Arcadia, with Jesse Ojei, Yuto Tamada, Carter Tu and Lamarr Kirk edging Downey by a 3:31.91 to 3:31.94 margin in the invitational 1,600 sprint medley relay.

Las Vegas Centennial also enjoyed a memorable first for its program by winning the girls invitational 4x100 shuttle hurdles relay in 1:04.17.

Itziar Guillen, Triniti Guillory, Saniyah Miles and Zoey Bonds secured the victory for Centennial, which is expected to run the relay again April 16 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut.

Isabel Allori, a sophomore at Liberty Common in Colorado, won the girls seeded 3,200 meters in 10:28.10, an improvement of 40 seconds.

Katie Kopec of Whitney High in California was second in 10:30.72 and sophomore Nelah Roberts of Skyline High in Idaho took third in 10:32.37. California competitors Kaiya Brooks of Crystal Springs Uplands (10:32.59) and Ashlyn Leath of Clovis North (10:33.47) were fourth and fifth, as 22 athletes celebrated sub-11 efforts.

Hayley Burns of Bozeman High in Montana won the girls rated 3,200 in 10:43.38, with Shelby Jensen of Westlake High in Utah emerging victorious in her section and finishing second overall in 10:45.55, as 17 female competitors produced sub-11 performances.

Isaac Hedengren of Timpview High in Utah posted the fastest time among all three sections of the boys rated 3,200 in 9:04.26, just ahead of Noah Jodon of Desert Vista High in Arizona in 9:04.74.

Jared Steins of Servite in California won his section in 9:08.99 to secure sixth overall and Christian Groendyk of Fort Collins High in Colorado triumphed in his race in 9:12.11 to finish ninth overall.