Foster's Lopez, Silas' McCabe combine to set three invite records
RENTON - There's just something special about the track at Renton Memorial Stadium. Whether it's from hosting local meets or the Brooks PR Invite, this racing surface is always bringing the best out of athletes, especially in this year's Arnie Young Invite.
In a boy's field featuring some of the best sprinters and hurdlers across the state, the crowd was dazzled by record breaking performances from Silas' Jaylen McCabe and Foster's Lyricc Lopez.
McCabe began the day taking down a 21-year-old invite record in the 110-meter hurdles clocking an impressive 14.05 seconds, a time he himself was shell shocked by when crossing the finish line.
"That was crazy to me," McCabe said, who's previous best time was 14.62. "I didn't expect that at all, and I didn't even know if I could do it."
The Silas hurdle standout had struggled to get out from the blocks fast this season, but this race he was quick from the start, opening up the lead by nearly 10 meters. He then continued to get further away from his competition as the race went on and eventually taking the win by over two seconds.
"It was a really great start," McCabe said. "I've been working on my starts so I'm glad this one was good as it just showed right there. I was just so ecstatic when I saw the time and I'd never imagined I could come out here and just do that."
McCabe also won the 200 a few hours later in another personal best effort running 22.24. He then finished the day with a second place run in the 300 hurdle running 39.24, also a personal best.
The 100 highlighted the day featuring four athletes with times this season faster than 11 seconds. One of them was Foster's Lopez with the fastest entry time of 10.74.
A slow start from the get-go saw Lopez trailing behind Hazen's Miguel Rosario III for the first 20 meters, but then used his closing speed with under 15 meters to go inched out Rosario III at the line, crossing in an invite record time of 10.74.
"It wasn't really about focusing on times, but just win the race," Lopez said. "I know if I could win the race, I could bring a lot of people along to run fast. I'm just excited I won the race."
And Lopez did drag his competition along with him to personal or season best performances. He wasn't the only one to dip under the 25-year-old record time of 10.76 as Rosario III ran 10.75 to finish in second. Other sub-11 performances included Silas' McCabe (3rd, 10.87) and Federal Way's Isaiah Davis (4th, 10.91).
Later in the day, Lopez returned to race the 300 hurdles in hopes of chasing down Garfield's Mark Phillips' state record time of 36.57, a time that has stood as the best in Washington since 1986. Lopez fell a little short of that mark running 37.26 but bested Mt. Rainier's Aiden Basco's invite record of 38.83 from 2015.
"I'm very happy with that race," Lopez said. "I was able to fix my legs as I kept stuttering at practice on the second hurdle and I felt like I hit it right today. The headwind on this first 100 was kind of hard, so if I didn't have that I would have run a faster time, but I'm excited with what I got."
Gig Harbor's Jonathan Miles edged out teammate Will Newberg and Curtis' Maxim Serafimovici in the 1,600 running 4:29.19. Newberg ran 4:30.53, while Serafimovici ran 4:31.44.
Mead's Brycen Gardner used a negative split final lap to take the 800 title running a time of 2:01.93, besting Tahoma's Sam Clarke second place run of 2:02.53.
Nathan Hale's Ben Saelens won the 3,200 using a strong 800 towards the end to run a personal best time of 9:37.69 to hold off Roosevelt's Camden Jaureguy (9:37.89) by inches at the line.
Capital's Sean Jackson ran a personal best 50.51 to win the 400, beating out Gig Harbor's Ben Stevens time of 50.66.
Tahoma's Brooke Lyons had herself a day on the girl's side taking wins in the 100 and 200 races.
Starting with the 100, the junior standout crossed the finish line in a new season best time of 12.32, beating out Spanaway Lake's Hailey Perrine time of 12.89.
Then in the 200, Lyons won in 25.29, only a hundredth of a second off her personal best from earlier this season.
"I felt really good about the day," Lyons said. "It was my first invitational ever for high school actually since freshman year got cancelled and then sophomore year there were no invitationals. So, this was really cool coming out here and running well."
Curtis' Ava Simms won the 400 in a new personal best time of 58.97, winning by almost four seconds over Nathan Hale's Sofia Gomez's time of 62.09. Simms was also second in the 200 coming away with another personal best time of 25.93.
Capital's Hana Moll, the third best high school pole vaulter in the nation this season, cracked 15 seconds for the time first time in her career winning the 100 hurdles in a personal best time of 14.81. Enumclaw's Ellie DeGroot won the 300 hurdles in 46.65, a personal best for the senior.
Curtis' Eliza White went wire-to-wire with Tahoma's Sara Sanders and Faith Martinez in the 1,600 as the sophomore standout came away with a personal best time of 5:03.41 for the win.
"My PR before this was 5:17, so this was huge for me," White said. "It was just a matter of pushing through the pain, but in the end it was crazy as I wasn't planning to run in the five-0's today."
Sanders followed in second running a personal best 5:05.53, then Martinez in third, also running a personal best 5:09.54.
Tahoma's Julia Stuard and Theresa Barnhart went 1-2 in the 800 with Stuard taking the win in 2:22.90. Barnhart ran 2:23.82.
Gig Harbor's Kaley Fergus led from start to finish in the 3,200 winning in a time of 11:37.59. Tahoma's Kate Sanders made a late comeback to finish within two second of Fergus running 11:39.50.
For more results from the Arnie Young Invite, click here.
For more photos from the invite, click here.