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  • Capistrano Valley's Sydney Muller nears the finish line in the...

    Capistrano Valley's Sydney Muller nears the finish line in the 4x1600 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Trabuco Hills' Dominique Regaldo, right, passes the baton to Sabrina...

    Trabuco Hills' Dominique Regaldo, right, passes the baton to Sabrina Herrmann in the 4x1600 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Trabuco Hills' Sweena Mangal competes in the 4x1600 meter relay...

    Trabuco Hills' Sweena Mangal competes in the 4x1600 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Dana Hills' Justin Hunter rounds a corner during the 1600...

    Dana Hills' Justin Hunter rounds a corner during the 1600 meter sprint medley event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • El Toro's Trevor Oblouk competes in the 4x800 meter relay...

    El Toro's Trevor Oblouk competes in the 4x800 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Los Alamitos' Andrew Carty, left, competes in the 800 meter...

    Los Alamitos' Andrew Carty, left, competes in the 800 meter sprint medley event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Dana Hills' Mauro Marquina, right, passes the baton to Nick...

    Dana Hills' Mauro Marquina, right, passes the baton to Nick Van Vliet during the 1600 meter sprint medley at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Los Alamitos' Kristi Sells gets ready to run in the...

    Los Alamitos' Kristi Sells gets ready to run in the 800 meter sprint medley race at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • Trabuco Hills' Dominique Regaldo, left, and Capistrano Valley's Ashley Licata...

    Trabuco Hills' Dominique Regaldo, left, and Capistrano Valley's Ashley Licata round the first corner in the at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • El Toro's Alyssa Pook runs in the 4x1600 meter relay...

    El Toro's Alyssa Pook runs in the 4x1600 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

  • El Toro's Camila Turati, left, competes in the 4x1600 meter...

    El Toro's Camila Turati, left, competes in the 4x1600 meter relay event at the Arcadia Invitational Friday night.

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ARCADIA – April is always an important month in the track and field community. Big meets draw some of the state’s best athletes and produce some outstanding marks.

On Friday, the 47th annual Arcadia Invitational provided a steady mix of great athletes and records.

Los Alamitos acquitted itself well in the “Burnin’ Batons” relays session during the first day of events held at Arcadia High.

The Griffins earned a third-place finish in the girls 800-meter sprint medley invitational by running a 1:47.07. Long Beach Poly’s 1:45.60 was good enough for first place.

That performance came on the heels of the boys running a 1:34.02 in the same event. Serra of Gardena won the race handily with a time of 1:31.14 (second best all-time at Arcadia), while the Griffins finished fourth.

“They (the athletes) ran well today,” Los Alamitos coach Nathan Howard said. “We medaled in two events today. Sara Limp and Ashley Willingham have carried the team all year and continue to do so. And the boys are fighting, they’ve run well … they showed up to compete today.”

There were five county teams who participated in the girls 6,400-meter relay.

Great Oak of Temecula won and posted the second-best mark all-time at the meet with a 20:12.79, but Capistrano Valley won the battle between county schools.

A mark of 20:51.68 was good enough for fourth place for the Cougars. El Toro finished second-best among county schools, in sixth.

Capistrano Valley coach Ken Sayles was proud of the effort from Ashley Licata, Rebecca Deitch, Natalie Herberg and Sydney Muller.

“I’m really excited. There’s so many great things about it,” Sayles said. “We thought we had a good chance to run well tonight. Natalie has been injured, this is her first serious race back and she ran terrific.

“We had personal records from everybody. Just what you want when you come to Arcadia and want to put it out there and have everybody run their best. I’m ecstatic.”

In the “Emerging Elite” field events session, Dana Hills’ Halden Comoglio made a splash. His clearance of 15 feet was the winning mark in boys pole vault.

“It feels amazing, I was out for the first two months of the year with a wrist injury,” Comoglio said. “So coming back now is all mental, just bringing my confidence up because my confidence was pretty low in the beginning.”

With Friday’s victory, Comoglio moves into today’s day session of the pole vault, which features some of the county’s top vaulters, Mater Dei’s Riley Turner and Mission Viejo’s Jacob Adler.

Servite’s Jesse Shank finished third behind Comoglio with a clearance of 14-4.

Comoglio will go after the Dolphins’ school record of 15-1 in today’s session. The winner advances to the night session to face the likes of Orange Lutheran’s Carl Johansson, who is the state’s pole vault leader.

Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com