Foothill League track and field stars left their mark at the vaunted Arcadia Invitational this past weekend, highlighted by Canyon High senior Lanai Grant setting a school record with her first-place finish in the 400-meter run.
Grant finished the seeded race in 54.12 seconds, breaking the previous school record held by 2004 Canyon alumnae and former Olympian Alysia Montaño (née Johnson).
“These girls, you know, they’ve heard the stories of Alysia, and obviously breaking that record is very special,” Canyon head coach George Velarde said in a phone interview.
The Arcadia Invitational, held at Arcadia High School for the 57th time, had seen 36 national records set prior to this past weekend’s event, and 203 Olympians have competed at it throughout its history.
Grant was also part of a couple of relay teams for Canyon that placed highly. The 4×100 team of Grant, Lyric Scott, Emoni Wright and Alaya Graves-Hogains finished sixth in the invitational race with a time of 46.5 seconds. That same team placed fifth in the 4×400 invitational with a time of 3:48.73.
The 4×400 time is now second in all of Division 2 in the CIF.
“The part that impresses me about those girls is, individually, they’re pretty good,” Velarde said, “but when they come together — you know, we constantly talk as a coaching staff to our athletes about when you care about one another, special things happen. And this group of girls, they genuinely care about each other, and it’s made the biggest difference in the world. They don’t want to let each other down.”
Scott was seventh in the 400-meter race that Grant won, while Graves-Hogains, a freshman, was eighth in the 400 invitational and Wright was 18th in the 100-meter open. Graves-Hogains and Scott are fourth and sixth in Division 2, respectively.
Canyon senior Jordehn Gammage, the reigning league, CIF and state champion in the 300-meter hurdles, placed second in that event with a season personal-record time of 37.93 seconds that ranks fourth in all of Division 2.
Velarde said his star Cowboy has the tools to repeat last year’s success, but there are still plenty of meets to come before he can try to do so.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here, and the kids know that. One race at a time, one meet at a time, and we just take it week by week, and we’ll see what happens. If Jordehn is able to be in that position again to peak, obviously that’ll be a dream come true.”
The Canyon boys’ 4×400 relay team of Jeremiah Easley, Myles McCrory, Gammage and Jermaree Whitener also performed well, finishing fifth with a time of 3:16.58.
Both the boys and girls from Canyon are seeking to make it three consecutive Foothill League championships on Thursday when the seven schools meet at College of the Canyons for what is the first-ever single-meet league team championship.
Valencia High coach Gavin Klinger said the meet should feel like a true championship after previous league titles were handed out following the compilation of scores from dual meets throughout the regular season.
“I think we’re hopeful that that buy-in is there throughout all the teams and we get something that’s exciting and fun to watch,” Klinger said in a phone interview.
After that, the individual league preliminaries are set for Friday, April 25, followed by the individual league championships on Thursday, May 1. Both of those meets are also set to be held at COC.
Here’s who else stood out from the Foothill League at the Arcadia Invitational:
Golden Valley
Senior Keira Donovan shined in both the invitational discus and invitational shot put, reaching 146 feet, 1 inch in the former to claim seventh and 39 feet, 2 inches in the latter to take 15th. She’s looking to defend her CIF title in the discus and return to the state meet.
Senior Nyah Fields placed third in the girls’ invitational long jump, hitting a personal-best 19 feet, 2 inches.
Senior Addae Ma’at took second in the invitational long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 6 inches, a new personal record. He also placed fourth in the invitational triple jump with a mark of 47 feet, 8.5 inches.
West Ranch
Sophomore Tamea Crear showed out in both the 200 and the 100, taking second in the former and 11th in the latter.
A transfer from the Stockton area after her father, two-time Olympian Mark Crear, moved back to Valencia, Crear said the experience of competing in the Foothill League and against some of the best athletes in the country at Arcadia has helped to push her to be the best she can be.
“It was good,” Crear said in a phone interview about her experience at Arcadia. “I was actually not expecting the times, really. And I’m glad I ran closest to my PRs.”
Avery Prestridge, another sophomore standout for West Ranch, finished 16th in the 300-meter hurdles, an event in which she placed third at the CIF meet last year. She is also looking to make her mark in the postseason in the high jump, in which she also took third at CIF last year, and the 100-meter hurdles.
“It felt great,” Prestridge said in a phone interview. “I set a new PR for myself, and I felt like I was coming up on a breakthrough race, and that was definitely it.”
Her father said the bar has been raised this year across the state for the 300-meter hurdles.
“Across the board, we’re seeing times that — her time currently is faster than she ran last year, but she is ranked lower in CIF,” coach Prestridge said. “So, that kind of shows you how much faster people are this year. So, it’s a really competitive year.”
Valencia
Boys’ relay teams were the standouts for Valencia at Arcadia.
The 4×100 team of Jeremy Oro, Symeon Wilkins, Bryton Cole and Caysen Bawdawi placed sixth with a time of 1:55.17.
Emilio Oviedo, Alex Basin, Cash Klinger and Rhett Klinger also stood out in the 4×800, placing 11th with a time of 8:04.55, setting the school record, despite the baton being dropped at the start of the race.
“A huge amount of credit goes out to Emilio, who was our starting runner,” said Valencia coach Gavin Klinger in a phone interview. “He just kept his composure and just kind of worked his way back up to the group to kind of keep the team in contention. And the other three guys just, you know, really didn’t get flustered and just kept doing the work and moving up through the fields.”
That same group set the school record in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:22.57 to claim second in its heat and the ninth-fastest time overall.
Saugus
Junior Annika Mark became just the 16th junior and the 26th Santa Clarita runner overall to eclipse the 5-minute mark in the 1600, joining her teammate, Lucia Pearson. Mark finished the 1-mile race in 5:01.46, claiming 19th.
Pearson finished 18th in the 3200 with a time of 10:53.22, just two seconds shy of her personal best in the event.
Sophomore Adrian Cantu competed in the 1-mile rising stars — an event for freshman and sophomore standouts to compete against each other — and placed seventh with a personal-best time of 4:17.63. His 1600-meter en-route time of 4:15.97 makes him the top sophomore and sixth-fastest in school history.
Hart
Senior Eli Ahten placed 19th in the boy’s 3200-meter open race with a time of 9:29.53.
Castaic
Senior Elijah Reid was 10th in the 100-meter open race, finishing in 10.78 seconds. He finished first in that event at the Foothill League kickoff meet to begin the 2025 campaign.
