The Arcadia Invitational generally marks the beginning of the major Southern California high school track and field meets.
The Serra girls look poised for another breakout performance.
Serra will face off against Long Beach Poly and Eleanor Roosevelt of Maryland in what promises to be an exciting kickoff to the prestigious two-day event at Arcadia High.
The girls 300 hurdles race might be one of the more intriguing with Serra's Turquoise Thompson (the national leader in the 400 hurdles), defending state champion Kori Carter of Claremont and Long Beach Wilson senior Nyjah Cousar, the state leader at 43.25.
The UCLA-bound Thompson, pictured, missed last season in accordance with CIF transfer rules. She also will run in the 400, 4x200 and 1,600 relays. In the 4x200 relay, Serra ran 1:37.30 in the Texas Relays for the state's top mark. The field for tonight's 4x200 at Arcadia will include Wilson and Roosevelt.
"Turquoise is good. She's running well," said Serra coach Lori Smith-Thompson, who is also her mother. "She's adjusted very well and is running comfortable (after missing last season). Right now, it's all about getting her ready for the big meets."
Serra likes the idea of going up against powers like Roosevelt and Long Beach Poly.
Roosevelt is the national leader in the 400 and 1,600 relays. Long Beach Poly, always a powerhouse, had three national leading relay efforts at the Texas Relays in the distance medley, the 4x800-meter relay and the 1,600-meter sprint medley relay.
Roosevelt and Poly finished as the top two teams in the nation in the <WC>1,6<WC1>00 relay last season at 3:37.02 and 3:39.72.
Roosevelt defeated Poly in last year's Arcadia Invitational and in the Penn Relays. Roosevelt's mark of 3:37.02 moved the Raiders into seventh on the all-time list to become the only non-Long Beach school among the all-time top 10.
Last weekend, Roosevelt ran 3:41.40 for the nation's best mark in the Florida Relay while Poly clocked a season-best 3:43.85 in the Texas Relays for the No. 2 U.S. time paced by sophomore Akawkaw Ndiapgbor and senior Jasmine Joseph.
The Serra boys, the St. Mary's Academy girls, El Segundo hurdler and jumper Allison Reaser and Redondo distance phenoms Cody Schmidt, Simon Schmidt and Chloe Curtis are also expected to make appearances at Arcadia.
Today's competition begins at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, the meet starts at 9:30 a.m. with invitational events at 4 p.m.
Your article is dated 4/9/2009 the competitions for the day were the heptathlon and decathlon which was a USA Track and Field Sanctioned event apparently CIF does not include events that include javelin competitions. There are top highschool preps competing in multi events competing starting at 10:30 a.m. Thurs 4/9/2009 and continuing during the day on Friday 4/10/2009. Athletes have come from Arizona, Northern California and Southbay Schools.